AWOL Issue 29: Fall 2021 by AWOL Magazine

AWOL

FALL 2021

ISSUE 29

AU WORKERS FIGHT TO BE HEARD

W O R K E R S S AY T H E Y A R E F R U S T R AT E D W I T H S TA G N A N T PAY, F E W O P P O R T U N I T I E S F O R A D V A N C E M E N T A N D A N A D M I N I S T R AT I O N T H AT T R E AT S T H E M A S E X P E N D A B L E

IN THIS ISSUE:

HRL EMPLOYEES SPEAK OUT

UNDERSTAFFING AND DISORGANIZATION LED MANY HRL STUDENT STAFFERS TO VOICE FRUSTRATIONS DURING THE FIRST SEMESTER BACK ON CAMPUS SINCE THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC BEGAN

BELOW THE SURFACE: GREEK LIFE ON CAMPUS

SOCIAL FRATERNITIES AND SORORITIES PROMISED TO MAKE REFORMS THIS SEMESTER AF TER THE PUSH FOR ABOLITION LAST SUMMER, BUT SOME STUDENTS REMAIN SKEPTICAL

“I’M INCENSED:” PHOENIX RAY FIGHTS FOR ACCESS AFTER OVER A YEAR OF FULLY-REMOTE LEARNING, ONE WCL STUDENT STUGGLED FOR VIRTUAL ACCOMODATIONS AFTER A CATASTROPHIC ACCIDENT

AWOL Magazine

AWOL MAGAZINE

ISSUE 29 | FALL 2021

STAFF EDITORS–IN–CHIEF Grace Vitaglione Margaux Renee MANAGING EDITOR Katherine Long CREATIVE DIRECTOR Kavi Farr DESIGN ASSISTANT Sierra Cougot STAFF EDITORS Chloe K. Li Jessica Bates

L E T T E R

F RO M

T H E

E D I TO R S

Dear Readers, Being back together this semester was an incredible privilege. After months of remote reporting, being in community physically as an organization reminded us why we fell in love with AWOL. During spring 2021, we made the decision to halt production, prioritizing mental health over content in an online semester that seemed to drag on forever. For AWOL, our return to campus this fall meant rebuilding our staff from the ground up. Our new staff members, many of whom are underclassmen, quickly warmed up to reporting on campus beats. They were brave enough to report on sensitive and newsworthy topics, in the face of a still present pandemic. In this issue, we explore how the AU community returned to in-person learning. Anika Iqbal wrote about allegations of mold in residence halls that sat empty for over a year. Kayla Benjamin and Meredith Shimer covered the working conditions of Housing and Residence Life staff living and working in those same halls. Further reporting on campus life, Margaux Renee followed up on AWOL’s ongoing coverage of ASAC, detailing one student’s experience with trying to secure academic accommodations. In our cover story, Audrey Hill reported on contract negotiations between the adjunct faculty union and the university. While living on a college campus can sometimes feel like living in a bubble, we hope our coverage in this issue shows how AU exists within a network of larger communities. AU is made up of student workers, adjunct professors and activists, and we find ourselves in dialogue with the same larger forces shaping the world today. This issue is brimming with stories specific to our school, speaking to the energy our team had returning to campus. While AWOL continues to hold authority to account through investigative journalism, we also want this issue to serve as a love letter to our community, and a call to action. We hope you find beauty in our photo essays and meaning in our storytelling. We would like to thank our staff, our executive board and our community, for being generous and vulnerable with us. Sincerely, Grace Vitaglione & Margaux Renee

@AWOLAU

CONTENTS 01

PROFILE: TYLER BARRAS

AU RESPONDS TO MOLD COMPLAINTS

PHOTO ESSAY: SPOOKY SCENES AT AU

AU WORKERS FIGHT TO BE HEARD

PHOTO ESSAY: CHAOTIC MYSTERY

HRL EMPLOYEES SPEAK OUT

BELOW THE SURFACE: GREEK LIFE ON CAMPUS

“I’M INCENSED:” PHOENIX RAY FIGHTS FOR ACCESS

RIPPED FROM THE WALL

Chloe K. Li

Anika Iqbal

Matheus Kogi Fugita Abrahao

Audrey Hill and Grace Vitaglione

Kavi Farr

Kayla Benjamin and Meredith Shimer

Grace Vitaglione, Kathryn Gilroy and Katherine Long

Margaux Renee

Grace Vitaglione, Audrey Hill, Anika Iqbal, Matheus Kogi Fugita Abrahao, Helena Milburn

LISTEN TO OUR PODCASTS:

THE HUM

Bonnie Bishop, Grace Hagerman, Helena Milburn, Neal Franklin, and Shane Ryden THE HUM

RIPPED FROM THE WALL

AWOL Magazine

PROFILE: TYLER BARAS Written by Chloe K. Li

A man places lego minifigures precisely on a moving structure with a wheel that continuously spins as dramatic music plays over the images. A banner transitions into the video stating “Serious Work.” Tyler Baras, or known online as Farmer Tyler, uses legos in this Instagram video to recreate his everyday job, working in developing hydroponic and aquaponic technology for urban farms. Photo courtesy of Tyler Baras from @farmerTyler on Instagram. His resume brings him all around the country from Florida to Colorado,

go and ask kind of goofy questions when you first meet him, so you’re sort of like, oh, I can just talk to this guy,” said Coby Gould, one of Baras’ longest friends in the industry and his boss in Colorado, in a phone interview. “Sometimes, you don’t feel like you’re talking to an expert.” Chris Higgins, general manager at Hort Americas and Baras’ former boss, says some of his fondest memories include Baras setting up hammocks in their greenhouse and Roy, Baras’ hyperactive dog running through the greenhouse. “That was probably some food safety

One large issue in Dallas, Texas where Higgins and Baras worked, was the dry and hot summers which made it difficult to grow anything. “Tyler is one of the few people that I’ve seen grow a good hydroponic crop all the way through a Texas summer,” Higgins said. “Just saying that about a grower, that’s a huge compliment.” During their brainstorm sessions, the two were able to figure out the use of nano-bubble technology as an alternative to electrically powering a water chiller, which would reduce costs for the individual. Yet, Higgins was adamant in stating that this was only an alternative because there was a brain like Baras who was able to understand complex water engineering. “Nano bubble technology isn’t as easy as just saying buy a nano-bubbler, it fixes all your problems. It becomes a very complex irrigation conversation and really a water engineering plumbing problem,” Higgins said.

doing both academic research and actual farming both traditionally and in new ways like urban vertical farming. But his expertise and experience is not all there is to him. “While he’s very smart. You don’t get that sense around him. Like, he’ll just

violation now that I think about it,” Higgins said laughing in a phone interview.

Yet, Baras’ ability to understand complex ideas rarely shows up in the form of arrogance, according to his current co-founder of Area 2 Farms, Oren Falkowitz.

But, despite his often goofy persona, Higgins remembers Baras as someone who would be able to fix industry problems within one brainstorming session.

“There are some who want to push the yields of a given crop right and they’re only focused on the science,” Falkowitz said in a phone interview. “But his sort of practicality is that

the plants need to get to somebody. They don’t just sit on the shelf. They need to get to somebody because somebody needs to eat them.” Baras’ drive for urban agriculture comes from his desire to connect regular people with the possibilities of the produce they eat. “It’s kind of like going to your butcher. You go to your butcher and you say you want this cut of meat. And we want to build something similar for you,” Baras said in a video call. “So you can go to the store and talk to your farmer like ‘I’m making this stuffing.’ ‘Oh have you tried orange thyme instead of regular thyme.’ Just giving these opportunities of conversations between the farmer and the consumer.” For Baras, the community between farmers and consumers matters to work against large companies taking over the agricultural industry.

remember Tyler seeing these kids who were so excited because we had this pinata,” Gould said in a phone interview. “He just climbed up in the rafters, holding the pinata as these kids screamed and laughed. That’s just his personality, very friendly, goofy.” Falkowitz said that aspect of Baras is really what led him to ask Tyler to join his team at Area 2 Farms. “The thing that sort of struck me about him is his understanding of the purpose of all this work that he does is to help people,” Falkowitz said.

there’s a world in which people are paying a fair price for produce. And you know, they’re getting quality, and they’re getting something that’s like real, they’re getting that connection with the farmer.” ––– Chloe K. Li (she/they) is a senior studying journalism and transcultural literature.

Currently, Falkowitz and Baras are working together to grow Area 2 Farms in the District of Columbia. Their idea is to use this warehouse space to bring food directly to the communities most in need of food security. They plan to use a farming system

This stems from Baras’ roots in the agricultural world where he started as a traditional farmer who brought produce to farmers’ markets. Baras remembers the intense labor that he did on the farm picking tomatoes and the one day he would bring the fruits of his labor to the market to sell to the community. “When I was in Florida, what was most fulfilling to me was that day at the farmers market. It made me so much happier to do the five days of really hard work on the farm picking tomatoes.” This emphasis on the community around wherever he farms did not stop in Florida though. Gould reflected on a memory of a block party they held together as a way to distribute produce to the Latinx community near their greenhouse in Denver, Colorado. “It was about to rain. And I just

that Baras designed and patented that will maximize the amount of produce they can grow in their small plot of land through vertical farming. Area 2 Farms currently is building their Board of Advisors, which are made up of farmers from all across the country with whom Baras connected. “Our approach is, you know, if we’re doing urban farming, it should be really because we want to build the connection between the farmer and the community,” Baras said. “I think

AWOL Magazine

AU RESPONDS TO M Students in McDowell Hall are reporting findings of mold in their dorm rooms, causing some residents to evacuate the building.

Written by Anika Iqbal Art by Sierra Cougot

Two McDowell Hall residents cited in this story have chosen to remain anonymous. Their names have been shared with the writer and editors of this story to ensure their validity, Students currently living in McDowell Hall, one of American University’s on-campus housing units, are filing reports of mold in their dorm rooms. The hall, which houses approximately 370 students, has been the focus of maintenance complaints from people worried that the mold is detrimental to their health. The talk

‘Mold is not a new issue for colleges’ has characterized life in McDowell, causing some residents to demand evacuation from the building. “This is so frustrating,” said Grace Gao, a sophomore living in McDowell. Gao repeatedly resorted to sleeping in her floor’s lounge to escape the humidity and musty smell caused by the rot. Gao is not the only one frustrated by the health and safety concern—in fact, it’s becoming a shared experience among many of the building’s residents.

Mounting Complaints Taylor-Jeffery Doone, a sophomore living on the third floor of McDowell, went door-to-door in mid-September collecting evidence of mold. His passion for investigating McDowell’s shortcomings arose from a close familiarity with the symptoms of mold toxicity. “As a kid, I lived in a trailer from ’86, and it was infested with mold,” said Doone. “Every time I got an infection—say a common cold or the flu—I would develop bronchitis.” After transitioning into better living conditions, Doone said he lived healthily without bronchitis for over six years—until he moved into McDowell. After contracting a cold in the first few weeks of his residency, Doone was diagnosed with bronchitis again and was prescribed steroids for his inflammation. He said the bronchitis is “certainly because of the mold.” In an email sent by Housing & Residence Life on Oct. 6, the school reported that there has been no evidence of mold in McDowell Hall, “by both visual and suspected location air quality inspections.” When asked for comment, HRL directed AWOL to the university communications team, who provided a statement repeating that inspections done by “a third-party industrial

hygienist team” found no mold. The communications advised students to reach out to 2Fix with concerns. A survey conducted by AWOL showed that less than half of the students with mold concerns filed reports to 2Fix, but 90% of those who reached out to the response center indicated that they were unhappy with the help they received. The survey interviewed 40 students living in 8 halls on campus from Sept. 28 to Oct. 2. In one instance which sparked Doone’s frustration with the university, 2Fix reportedly removed a rotting third floor baseboard from the hallway wall, leaving the moldy timber exposed to open air for two days and allowing spores to spread. According to him, after the two days had passed, “they just flipped it over and put it back.” He added that “you can see the pry marks from where they took it off ” and the old nail holes remain visible.

Distrust and Frustration Among “Moldowell” Residents Mold and mildew are not just AU-specific issues. It’s a crosscampus concern for many of the larger colleges in Washington, D.C, including Georgetown University and George Washington University. AWOL conducted the same mold

MOLD COMPLAINTS

survey on students at GW, finding that 64% of students who contacted their maintenance staff with mold concerns were satisfied with the solutions provided, compared to only 10% of AU students who could say the same about 2Fix. “Mold is not a new issue for colleges,” says Nancy Ching, a sophomore Honors Program resident in McDowell. “Schools deal with it in different ways, and the fact is that American wants to pretend it’s not there instead of doing anything.” Ching, Doone, Gao and other students interviewed about the mold voiced frustration with the university administration’s apathy, saying they felt hopeless. In an attempt to draw attention to the significant amount of mold in the building, Doone started an Instagram page named @ moldowell, which features various images of fungus in the residence. After being told repeatedly by the Residence Hall Association that McDowell lacks sufficient evidence of mold to launch an investigation, Doone felt that the school administration is “actively ignoring issues that concern student health.” “The university is lying to us,” said Doone.

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Accusations of Financial Discrimination These issues are not exclusive to McDowell, although a majority of current mold complaints originated in the hall. AWOL’s survey collected reports of mold in at least seven of AU’s residential halls. More than three-quarters of these reports come from the lowest-priced buildings on campus. AU’s website says that McDowell’s academic-year rate for a double-unit dorm room is roughly $10,000. Meanwhile, residents in Centennial Hall pay nearly $2,000 more for the same living arrangement. AWOL’s student survey collected no reports of mold in Centennial. Many students who sought out affordable on-campus housing this semester now worry the decision is expending their health. Residents in McDowell worry that the mold may be irritating their throats, noses and eyes. Out of the surveyed students who agreed that the situation is impacting their respiratory systems, 47% reported developing a dry cough. Thirty-eight percent of students reported sore throats that worsened after one night. For others, their illnesses included congestion and wet cough. AU policy places financial strain on students who seek to maintain their health. According to the university’s website, students who wish to leave on-campus housing must pay a fee of $1000 or more. McDowell houses students in the second-year Honors Program and Community-Based Research Scholars, many of whom depend on scholarships to finance their education. “They’re effectively holding people hostage,” says one McDowell resident

who requested anonymity. “They won’t pay to fix it, and we can’t pay to get out. They have no financial incentive to help us, so they won’t.”

The Curious Case of Room 4XX In the case of two residents on the fourth floor of McDowell (who chose to remain anonymous), both 2Fix and HRL neglected to resolve a mold complaint that the two roommates have been struggling with since week one of the 2021-2022 school year. 2Fix and HRL repeatedly pushed the problem between each entity, the two said. The roommates contacted 2Fix on Aug. 31 about a smell emanating from one roommate’s cabinet. But repeated requests over the next few days to take care of the issue went unanswered by 2Fix and HRL. 2Fix was supposed to conduct a mold test on the room Sept. 7, but the residents couldn’t find any record of the test being done. A test was finally done a week later. “It came back negative, but when we moved back, the smell was the same. It’s really bad—you notice it the second you walk in,” said the McDowell resident. Jeffre Powell, mold remediator for A Veteran’s Environmental Tech Services Inc., told AWOL “if you can smell mold, you know it exists. You know it’s active—it’s eating.” The residents said the whole process was “insanely stressful.” “It’s really sad because [McDowell] is some of the only really affordable housing on campus,” said one of the roommates. “So the fact that it’s impacting the low-income students that go here, I think, speaks volumes to what demographic of students AU actually cares about.”

A Familiar Sense of Urgency Spreads For students from low-income areas, executive apathy regarding wellbeing in their communities has been a constant worry since the start of the pandemic. “We need to prevent people from getting hospitalized by this,” said Doone. “What if I get [COVID-19]?” Added onto pre-existing respiratory inflammation, the well-known risks of contracting the virus leave the vaccinated student population vulnerable to break-through cases. The importance of addressing this issue was highlighted by the University of Maryland’s 2018 outbreak of Adenovirus—a disease caused by mold—which resulted in the death of UMD student Olivia Paregol. According to a 2018 article from ABC News, mold toxicity has been an ongoing concern at AU for over two and a half years. The article features images of rotting wood and tile from Letts Hall, a firstyear residency, and cited student concerns of flu-like symptoms. The university faced a similar problem in the Battelle-Tompkins building in summer 2019, where mold was reported to have grown in the heat and absence of professors.

Taking Matters into Their Own Hands The longevity of the mold issue is cultivating a sense of urgency among McDowell residents, many of whom agree that it may be time to bring in an outside authority. “I honestly think now is the time,” says Doone. In a recorded interview Doone conducted with the Director of

Housing, Ryan Cohenour, the director told a group of McDowell residents that the school requires a “tangible document and more evidence” to move forward.

‘The university is lying to us’

Nelson Martinez, another certified mold assessor listed by the DOEE, said of the situation in McDowell: “That is considered mold growth…A smell is proof of active growth.” Martinez went on to explain that, according to Washington law, residents engaged in a landlordtenant style agreement can pursue reimbursement of their housing agreement if a mold complaint is left unanswered or unrepaired after seven days. “You can start a legal process,” said Martinez. While AU and 2Fix continue to fail at providing an adequate response to the mold, the legal route appears more legitimate to McDowell residents.

Photo courtesy of @moldowell on Instagram

“Just because some of our peers aren’t sick now doesn’t mean they won’t be later,” remarks Doone. “I just want to do something.” Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that HRL did not respond to requests for comment from AWOL. HRL directed AWOL to the university communications team, who provided AWOL with information about the university’s response to reports of mold in McDowell Hall. ––– Anika Iqbal (she/they) is a 2nd year studying journalism and Spanish.

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SPOOKY SCENES AT AMERICAN UNIVERSITY A Photo Essay Matheus Kogi Fugita Abrahao

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AU WORKERS FIGHT TO BE HEARD Workers say they are frustrated with stagnant pay, few opportunities for advancement and an administration that treats them as expendable. Written by Audrey Hill and Grace Vitaglione Art by Maddie Ceasar

Note: To avoid confusion, an author of this article is Audrey Hill. A source used in the article is named Aubrey Hill. Zein El-Amine, an adjunct in the College of Arts and Sciences at American University, says the campus community is like no other. “I love AU most of all,” El-Amine said. “The students at AU are amazing and I feel at home there.” But being an adjunct professor at AU, he said, just isn’t sustainable. “I can’t live in Washington, D.C. on those wages,” El-Amine said. “So actually, I’m going to have to leave.”

‘I’m 40 years old. I’m tired. I don’t want to work multiple jobs anymore.’ El-Amine is one of the lead negotiators in the adjunct union at AU, which is part of the Service Employee International Union Local 500, the Washington, D.C. and

Maryland division that’s affiliated with the larger SEIU, a union with over 2 million members nationally. In protests organized by the SEIU Local 500 throughout early October and November, AU faculty and staff voiced their frustration at inadequate salaries, stagnant raises, few opportunities for advancement and an administration they said has been unreceptive to union concerns. “It’s very hard to climb up the ladder,” said Geneva Walker, who works at the AU Washington College of Law Library staff and is an AU staff union member. “No matter how much work you get, you’re not acknowledged.” Those protests were part of a larger process between union organizers and the university administration: a series of negotiations called collective bargaining that settle disputes over wages and labor conditions. The process is supposed to end in compromise, but historically, the structural power that employers have over workers has often led to an uneven playing field. SEIU Local 500 has three subsections on AU’s campus: adjuncts,

graduate student workers and staff, all of which are part of the larger AU unit. While they are part of the same union, the bargaining process for each of the three units is in different stages, as each involves different considerations and the groups voted to certify at separate times. The academic affairs unit was the latest to join, voting to certify in October of 2020. The adjuncts began negotiating this past spring. While protests are often organized by unions to garner public sympathy during this process, Mark Gisler, a lawyer with the law firm Peer, Gan & Gisler who handles these types of cases for unions, said it’s possible to have “low drama” negotiations where unions don’t feel the need to protest.

that they can rely on for their main source of income, while teaching classes on the side. But many others say the lack of full time positions available mean they are forced to find other work.

compensation.”

Wading into negotiations

Lesto said that because she taught three classes this semester, the university won’t let her teach next semester. The university maintains this policy because teaching any more classes, “would require a transition to full time faculty status,” Bennett said.

The university’s goal in these negotiations is a contract that will align with “strategic and budgetary priorities, advance our commitment to our students, treat all employees fairly and equitably, maintain our competitiveness in the higher education marketplace, and contribute to our mission,” Bennett wrote in an emailed statement.

That full-time status, however, is exactly what Lesto wants. As of now, Lesto said, the class limit means that she, like many of her peers, was forced to find additional work.

To reach that goal, Bennett said the university is considering how different proposals would affect factors involving operational, budgetary and equity concerns as

Protesting often happens more in newer management-union relationships, he said, and when employers are more reluctant to engage in bargaining. The situation facing adjunct faculty at AU is indicative of a larger trend within higher education, as universities become increasingly reliant on non-tenured faculty to teach classes. This is tied to another issue: there are more students getting PhDs than there are tenure track positions available. At AU, some adjuncts describe a “revolving door” of part-time educators that has fostered a toxic internal culture. Erica Lesto, an adjunct professor in the sociology department and a union member, said it feels as though the administration sees her and her peers as expendable. “This is how we all feel,” Lesto said. “But no one’s gonna speak out about it because we’re afraid we’re going to get fired.” Some adjuncts have full-time jobs

Matheus Kogi Fugita Abrahao “I’m 40 years old.” Lesto said. “I’m tired. I don’t want to work multiple jobs anymore.” El-Amine said that because his pay is so little, he also had to teach classes at two other colleges in the area. George Washington University paid him $2,000 more than AU for teaching a three credit course. Matthew Bennett, AU’s chief communications officer, said in an email that AU offers “competitive

well as legal requirements. AWOL tried to reach members of the administration’s bargaining committee, but they referred questions to Bennett. Gisler said determining whether parties in negotiations are acting in good faith depends on the proposals being submitted and the progress made on them, as well as the frequency of meetings between the

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two sides. But union organizers on campus say the university has quietly attempted to undermine staff and faculty unions as they engage in contract negotiations, all the while keeping up a progressive facade. “Every time they come to the table, they are not prepared,” said Walker. Aubrey Hill, a systems administrator in AU’s career center, a member and negotiator at the adjunct union, said the administration sends their proposals to organizers “five minutes” before meetings. Yet she said organizers have sent the

hired Louis Cannon as their lead negotiator, a lawyer who has a record of victories over union demands in negotiations with management. Cannon is a labor and employment attorney in the Washington office of the law firm Baker Hostetler. “The grads and adjuncts have been making steady progress on wages over the past few years with their contracts,” Hill said. “And all of a sudden, [AU officials] hire Louis Cannon, and they’re like, ‘we’re offering you nothing. We’re offering you .6% of a raise.’” The university said that it maintains productive relationships with

‘They’re willing to consider investments in almost anything but people.’

administration “like 20 proposals, weeks to even months ahead of time that they just ignore.” “Written proposals are shared back and forth by both parties and then discussed in the subsequent bargaining session...there is no set schedule for exchanging proposals,” said Bennett. “When the union has requested a meeting, the university has agreed.” Gisler said that contract negotiations can take anywhere from hours to years. While Bennett said in his statement that the length of the current negotiations with the university are normal, organizers see the administration as dragging its feet, which they argue is a part of a larger tactic designed to make staff lose faith in unionizing.

organizers on campus. “Employers often choose to be represented by counsel with experience in these types of legal and regulatory matters,” Bennett said, “just as staff can choose to be represented by a union with experience.”

Going forward Organizers said they are energized by the current wave of post-pandemic union activity. David Jacobs, an adjunct in the management department and one of the adjunct union’s main negotiators, said the union is pushing the university to reimagine what it means to be an adjunct.

In 2020, WAMU organizers said they had similar issues with AU in their interactions.

“We have, among other things, asked for the development of a new status of salaried part time faculty, who would have more opportunities to teach and more income,” Jacobs said.

Organizers also say that negotiations began to stall when the university

Not only would creating such a position give adjuncts more centrality

to a particular institution, Jacobs said, but providing such stability would benefit students. So far, Jacobs said, the university has not responded to this proposal. He attributes this to a reluctance to look past the short term costs of investments that he said would benefit the university in the long term. “It’s a failure of imagination a little bit, and a focus on immediate cost,” Jacobs said. “They’re willing to consider investments in almost anything but people.” Jacobs hopes that moving forward, the university will be more receptive to more transformative solutions. “Universities are always trying to be different from the rest and to stand out in some fashion,” Jabobs said. “What would be nice would be if American University chose to stand out in the way that they treated their employees.” Ultimately, he said, “They can do better.”

––– Audrey Hill (she/her) is a 2nd year studying journalism and CLEG. Grace Vitaglione (she/her) is a senior studying journalism and creative writing.

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CHAOTIC MYSTERY A Photo Essay Kavi Farr

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HRL EMPLOYEES SPEAK OUT Understaffing and disorganization led many HRL student staffers to voice frustrations during the first semester back on campus since the coronavirus pandemic began. Written by Kayla Benjamin and Meredith Shimer Art by Sierra Cougot

Most names of student employees in this story were changed to protect the identity of sources whose job security may be threatened. Their identities were confirmed with the editors of this story to ensure their validity. Desk receptionists and resident assistants at American University submitted two separate petitions to university administration during the fall semester, citing unclear and inadequate COVID-19 protocols, safety concerns for DRs on night shifts and a general lack of communication from supervisors. “It’s hard because we have no place to air these grievances, because they aren’t answering to emails, and we don’t have meetings, so we’re kinda doing this: screaming into the void,” said Sally*, a desk receptionist. “We all complain to each other about it, but we don’t have the authority to get anything done.” On Sept. 28, HRL Assistant Director Dana Larsen sent an email to all DRs saying that they were not permitted to speak to media, including campus outlets. RAs received a similar message. This kind of censorship provided further proof that RAs need more worker protections, said a new RA named Jacob*. Workplace concerns among student staff in HRL are nothing new, and Jacob said some RAs have advocated for unionization in previous years and were shut down by AU administration.

“When they’re kind of suppressing the ability of the RAs to talk to the press,” said Jacob. “Then I feel like it further legitimizes the argument that we should unionize. So we could have a platform to speak through without fearing individual repercussions for it.” In early September 2021, 227 students, including at least 43 RAs, signed a letter requesting mandatory biweekly COVID-19 testing, greater transparency about cases and a streamlined reporting system to document incidents of mask noncompliance. “We deserve transparency about COVID-19 infections on our campus,” stated the petition, written by two RAs. “We are putting our lives at risk for this University and our fellow students, and it is time for the University to play a greater role in keeping us and the overall AU community safe.” Jacob’s support for the petition was tied to firsthand experience: he had a resident test positive for COVID-19 on his floor. Since the incident happened before AU had started publishing case numbers on its COVID-19 dashboard, he said he felt left “in the dark” about whether the virus was spreading on his floor or in his building. “We didn’t know about the number of cases other than the ones that I saw on my floor, and I just assumed that it was snowballing around the dorms,” he said. “And I couldn’t make my

residents get tested.”

scheduled shift.

The COVID-19 dashboard, where the university reports community members’ positive cases, went live shortly after RAs submitted the petition. Jacob said that the dashboard does address some of his concerns, but because it doesn’t indicate whether positive cases are on-campus residents, he said it does not go far enough.

“I did not want to go to work because I didn’t want to potentially expose people if I was positive,” she said. “And I was told that I would not get an exemption for that and that I had to find someone else to cover my shift if I couldn’t come in.”

Director of Residence Life Lisa Freeman also met with one of the petition’s writers to discuss their concerns. Freeman declined to comment beyond directing inquiries to Assistant Vice President for Community & Internal Communication Elizabeth Deal. “The dedicated student workers in Housing and Residential Life ensure for 24/7 desk coverage for on campus housing and we greatly appreciate their service and contributions to our community,” Deal wrote in an email. “DRs should continue to reach out to their supervisors directly if they are seeing unresolved issues. Not all issues can be solved overnight and require extensive consultation and collaboration with campus partners and stakeholders.” Several HRL student employees described ongoing concerns about COVID-19 safety that they did not feel supervisors and administrators had addressed. “I was in direct contact for like an extended period of time with someone who tested positive for COVID-19,” Alexis*, a desk receptionist, said. Based on Washington’s official guidance, the university advises vaccinated people to get tested three to five days after exposure and to continue daily activities while monitoring for symptoms in the meantime. Alexis was exposed the day before a

In the event that a desk receptionist does contract COVID-19, DR Marissa* said she is unclear what support Housing and Residence Life will provide. At a training session devoted to answering DRs’ questions, Marissa said she was not satisfied with the administration’s answers about what would happen if they got COVID-19 on the job. “They basically just screwed around our question,” said Marissa.“ Dana, one of the housing Residence Life staff, she alluded to basically, we’re not going to be compensated for the most part. And then she was saying that it’s pretty much kind of impossible to trace to the specific area where you got COVID-19.” Contact tracing in dorms remains difficult in part because of a technological issue with Swipe & Show, a program intended to track who entered the dorms and differentiate building residents from visitors. During the spring Mid Semester Residential Experience, when someone swiped their AU ID to

enter a dorm, a program showed the receptionist on duty a color-coded response on their screen indicating if the AU community member lived in the dorm or not, she said. Technically, if someone does not live in the dorm, they are supposed to sign in as a guest so that if there is a COVID-19 case, the university would know who was in the building. “There’s some issues with implementing it,” DR Alexis said. “They’re trying to get it back, but like without it, the security measures just aren’t really working.” The university is working to address the technological issues experienced during the pilot program rolled out during the spring mini-mester in

order to implement Swipe & Show across campus, Deal said in an email. Some issues are localized to specific desks. One DR who works in Constitution Hall said that during almost every daytime shift, she has students wander in looking for the COVID-19 testing facility. “You have people who could potentially be COVID positive coming in and asking where COVID

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testing is,” she said. “I just wish that AU would very, very clearly — like in all caps, italicize, underline, in whatever directions they’re giving people to go to Constitution Hall to get tested — make it clear that it is not [in] the residential part.” Several DRs mentioned a common problem: they have run out of extra masks at their desks. “We ran out of masks the week of move-in, and there have yet to be replacement masks, and I don’t understand why because we also have a shift log that we have to follow,” Sally said. “Any concerns or things that happen…we’re supposed to put in our shift log. We’ve all emailed about getting more masks at the front desk. They’re not reading them.”

For Jacob, the COVID-19 safety concerns began early on, with the mandatory in-person training session in August that included both RAs and DRs. While DRs are paid by the hour, RAs do not get additional stipend money for the two weeks of mandatory training, which took place partly online and partly in person this year. “It was some of the most unproductive hours of my life,” he said. “There were 100 of us stuck in Kerwin for a whole week, no mandatory testing before anyone got there…they’re the ones directing their response, basically, and ensuring the safety of others and you know from day one, the rules are broken.”

Safety beyond COVID-19

‘They didn’t have enough DRs. They still don’t.’ The housing and residence life administration office did respond to DRs’ repeated requests for more masks. “We got an email saying that masks are expensive, and whenever we give one out, we need to track who we’re doing it to, to track their AUID number and everything,” Marissa said. “Which really sucks because imagine someone’s trying to get a mask and leave. And you have to tell them ‘stop, I need your AUID number.’” Even aside from the missing masks, DRs expressed concerns about being able to reach supervisors for general problems. “I have sent, I think, two emails to my supervisor,” Marissa said. “And I haven’t gotten a response for either of them, actually.”

Like RAs earlier in the semester, DRs sent an open letter to administration Oct. 11 to express concerns that have been left unaddressed. One issue discussed in the petition centered on safety concerns during night shifts, particularly for DRs who live off campus and are women. “Walking 15 minutes at 3pm — it’s very different than walking 15 minutes at two o’clock in the morning,” Sally said. “Especially if you’re alone, especially if you identify as female.” She also mentioned that Cassell’s front doors occasionally open on their own, remaining open for minutes on end. 2Fix addressed the issue, but the repair didn’t last and the problem started up again not long afterward. “We have to work those middle of the night shifts as a female, like sitting at

the door, and it just randomly opens,” Sally said. “Knowing that anyone can walk in and there’s nothing I can do about it — that’s really scary.” The petition also touched on high rates of “strandings,” where a receptionist is stuck at the desk when their replacement does not arrive, and protested the elimination of wage increases for overnight and holiday hours. During the semesters when campus housing operations were limited due to COVID-19, DRs received $18 per hour for overnight and holiday shifts compared to their base pay of $15.20 per hour. Now, DRs are required to work at least one holiday break and four night shift hours every week and receive no additional wages. In an op-ed published in the Eagle Oct. 18, DR Emily Brignand said HRL had yet to assign DRs the breaks they were required to work, making it impossible to schedule travel for Thanksgiving (most DRs received information about Thanksgiving break assignments by Oct. 21 this year). Other DRs echoed a different concern Brignand raised in her op-ed: an unfair and inefficient scheduling system. At the end of training, all DRs were instructed to log onto SubItUp, a workforce management platform, and sign up simultaneously for shifts for the semester. Unfortunately, the system only allowed users to sign up for one hour at a time, making it difficult to get multiple hours in a row while other people were also logged on and signing up for hours. If one DR wanted to work from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., for example, they would need to select a 5:00-6:00 slot, a 6:00-7:00 slot and a 7:00-8:00 slot separately. “But the issue is everyone is doing

this at the same time,” Sally said. “So if you could get five to six, then by the time that is done loading, someone has already taken six to seven, and then you have seven to eight.” Sally said she has worked with other DRs to swap hours in order to get a more consistent schedule but wished there was a system for getting shifts input correctly the first time around. The Oct. 11 open letter received 37 signatures, including more than 30 DRs and 2 RAs, before DRs sent it to Freeman and Larsen. Senior Gavin Meyer, a DR who drafted the petition, said he was not optimistic it would provoke any significant change because of the lack of response by HRL to the RAs’ petition.

enough DRs. They still don’t.” The university has also struggled to hold onto Community Directors, who directly supervise RAs. Two out of 11 CDs have quit since the beginning of the semester, and the university has yet to fill the positions.

helping his freshman residents “feel more comfortable in their college experience.” Still, he has noticed that supervisory staff is stretched thin. “They have to pick and choose, sometimes, which concerns to address and which ones not to,” he said.

Jacob said his CD, who had been in charge of three different residence halls to begin with, was one of the ones who quit.

–––

“I haven’t had a community director, and they’ve just kind of been reassigning us [to new CDs],” he said.

Meredith Shimer (she/her) is a sophomore studying journalism and justice/law.

Kayla Benjamin (she/her) is a senior studying journalism and political science.

Nicholas*, another RA who signed the petition for mandatory testing, said he’s had a positive, if stressful, experience in the job and enjoys

“I really hate to say it, but if they disregarded something so essential to the security of this campus as just more testing, then who’s to say that they’re not going to continue to treat their employees unfairly?” Meyer said. Both RAs and DRs say they’ve experienced problems that stem from understaffing throughout HRL. Deal said the university is working on hiring more DRs but did not specify how many. In her op-ed, Brignand wrote that poor communication and unreasonable expectations for night shifts and holiday work have contributed to retention problems among DR staff. She described having been left stranded at her desk four separate times this semester. Even before the fall semester started, the university had to take special measures in an effort to fill the ranks. “I was actually an emergency hire,” Meyer said. He became a DR in August of this year. “They didn’t have

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BELOW THE SURFACE: STUDENTS ON SORORITIES AND FRATERNITIES RETURNING TO CAMPUS Social fraternities and sororities promised to make reforms this semester after the push for abolition last summer, but some students remain skeptical Written by Grace Vitaglione, Kathryn Gilroy, and Katherine Long Art by Kavi Farr

Content warning: This article mentions topics such as sexual assault and sexual misconduct. When Nora Blasi was roofied at a Sigma Alpha Mu frat party in November of her freshman year, her perception of the fraternity changed drastically. She had thought they were “the good guys.” “But there are no good guys,” she said. A lot of her male friends kept hanging out with the members of that fraternity after the incident, which Blasi said was troubling. Despite the trauma of her experience, she considered herself one of the “luckier” ones. “Everyone’s been groped at a frat, everyone’s been made uncomfortable by someone at a frat,” she said. “No one is safe from the sexual abuse that goes on.” In summer 2020, anonymous submissions to the Instagram accounts @exposingauabusers and @blackatamericanuniversity exposed allegations of sexual assault and racism in AU fraternities and sororities. A coalition calling to abolish social Greek life at AU garnered 1,381 signatures on its petition.

The AU chapters of the sororities Alpha Xi Delta and Phi Sigma Sigma and the fraternity Delta Tau Delta went inactive after all the members disaffiliated. As of Nov. 3, AWOL recorded the number of sexual assault and sexual misconduct allegations on the @ exposingauabusers account for the three organizations mentioned most. There were posts that the accounts deleted on request of the submitters. There were 10 allegations of sexual assault against different members of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, eight against the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, and eight against the Delta Chi fraternity (which is listed as inactive on the Engage website). Pi Kappa Alpha did not respond to requests for comment. Sigma Phi Epsilon declined to comment. AWOL also recorded the three most mentioned fraternities and/or sororities on the @ blackatamericanuniversity page. There were four allegations of racism against the sorority Alpha Chi Omega, four allegations of racism and five allegations of sexual assault against the fraternity Delta Chi and two allegations of racism against the sororities Phi Sigma Sigma and Alpha Xi Delta each (both are now

inactive). Now that students are back on campus for the fall semester, some say social fraternities and sororities have returned to normal--without making any of the promised changes from last summer. “I think watching Greek life return to normal has been kind of sad,” said Sydney Whitcombe, a senior who disaffiliated from the sorority Phi Mu in fall 2020. “Internally, I know some committees within each sorority have been made...but if you’re just gonna create an extra diversity and equity committee and call it a day, I think that’s super weird.”

‘An inherently exclusionary practice’ Some students contend that even if social fraternities and sororities have made changes, reform isn’t enough. Whitcombe said as long as these organizations exist, the members will “find any reason to defend it” because people like being part of something exclusive. “I don’t think a lot of people want to let go of that,” she said. “I think they love the connections that it will bring them after college.” Whitcombe also recalled feeling tokenized for her sexuality in the recruitment process. A sorority recruitment member told her they needed more diversity in their sorority, so Whitcombe being gay was good. “Basically, you’re a shoe-in because

we need diversity,” Whitecomb said. “And I was like, this is awkward.”

impacts people’s college experiences,” Barnes said.

Sophie Macaluso, a junior who disaffiliated from Delta Gamma, said that even before the anonymous accounts came out on Instagram, it was frustrating for her to see sororities still affiliate with fraternities who had been accused of multiple sexual assault incidents.

Maddie Danberger, a former member of Alpha Xi Delta, said that the events of summer 2020 revealed that being involved with a sorority or fraternity isn’t necessary to have a social circle.

“Even before the account, I knew of members in my sorority who were hanging out with people who were kind of known for being fishy or even just like fraternities in general that were known for being predatory,” she said. Alexa Barnes, who graduated from AU in December 2020, was involved in the Abolish Interfraternity and Panhellenic organizations movement at AU in summer 2020. She said abolition is necessary because of the minimal oversight the AU administration has over fraternities and sororities. “As long as there’s no official oversight or acknowledgement that these problems are happening within the campus community, but off campus, American’s not going to adopt change,” Barnes said. “And it’s just an inherently exclusionary practice...we don’t need that on our campus.” Although members may receive professional and social benefits, Barnes said those positives aren’t enough. “That is never going to outweigh the fact that people are so violated in those spaces and that it detrimentally

“It was proven that Greek life is unnecessary, as fun as it can be,” Danberger said. “So in my mind, it doesn’t make much sense to really try to revive it.” Even if AU did start banning fraternities and sororities, Blasi said underground organizations would just pop up in its place. Instead, she said abolition should happen on an individual level: convincing people to disaffiliate from “a broken system” that can’t be reformed. “Everyone has a right to have a community and have friends,” she said. “But you don’t have a right to do that in a way that actively harms other people.”

Following up on promises of change The AU Interfraternity Council released a long-term reform plan on April 26, which covered changes in leadership responsibilities, the creation of diversity, equity and inclusion committees, sexual violence prevention, recruitment, programming and others. Under this plan, IFC plans to distribute financial support awards of $250 each to four chapters with

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new members who cannot afford the dues and facilitate a series of regular trainings with campus organizations like the Office of Equity and Title IX and the Center for Diversity and Inclusion on sexual misconduct, bystander intervention and implicit bias in recruitment. The IFC also began a partnership with the AU police department in August to begin risk management training, and a partnership with the Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution Services, which will help handle “more serious cases” of chapters violating IFC guidelines. Before each party or social function, chapters are now supposed to prebrief about bystander intervention and post the risk manager’s name and contact information at the entrance of the building. Danberger has attended multiple fraternity parties following this change and did not see anything regarding risk management information, she said. Chapters must also create bylaws on handling sexual assault allegations and risk management. The judicial board will follow an accountability policy to keep chapters responsible for following new policies, and violations can be reported on their new website, which has yet to be published. Sam Conroy, interim president of IFC and a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, directed questions about changes to the reform plan. As part of a statement over email, he said: “Greek life provides a community for hundreds of students on campus and I personally believe to be one of the best aspects of college.” He also directed questions about responding to sexual allegations against fraternities to the Office of Equity and Title IX.

Julianna Kubik, president of AU’s Panhellenic Council, said sororities at AU have taken steps to “focus inward” since summer 2020, such as facilitating a risk reduction workshop on implicit bias in recruitment. “We weren’t public about the changes we were making,” she said. “We were gonna do what we got to do and what feels right and what we feel like we need to do, without announcing it to the world because that just doesn’t matter as much.” Kubik said one change she is focused on is trying to make recruitment accessible for disabled students. She also said sororities are changing potential new member presentations, which include pictures and general information of girls hoping to join that the members look at prior to recruitment. Now, pictures aren’t included, and less information is required on the presentations. Another change in the recruitment process involved focusing more on the potential new member’s values and learning about who they are as a person, rather than worrying too much about things like the five B’s, or five topics sorority members can’t talk about with potential members during recruitment. These include: Baes (people you’re dating), Bongs/Booze, Biden (politics), Bible (religion) and Bitches (don’t badmouth other people).

This also makes it difficult to enforce any new policies. If a chapter is violating some form of conduct, the process of reviewing their case would normally fall to the judicial board. But that board has been inactive for a couple years. The Panhellenic Council tends to have around five of the seven spots filled on a normal year, said Kubik. Most of the enforcement measures now must happen within each sorority, as each chapter has their own internal judicial board run by someone in the risk or standards position. Elizabeth Deal, Assistant Vice President of Community and Internal Communications at the Office of Communications and Marketing, spoke in an emailed statement about the standards these organizations must meet. “Our fraternities and sororities are held to the same University policies and expectations as all student organizations, while also meeting the required policies set by their national organization,” she said. Deal advised members who feel like they need extra support or want to report violations of guidelines to talk to the Title IX office.

The next generation

“We’ve really taken a step back and said this isn’t something we need to avoid,” Kubik said. “Politics is a really big part of a lot of chapter’s identities, and so is religion and general social things that play a big part in who a person is.”

Danberger disaffiliated from Alpha Xi Delta in July 2020, when the sorority disbanded. Now that new students are going through the rush process, Danberger said that she doesn’t believe they understand the events of summer 2020.

But Kubik said it’s been hard to make many changes because of how understaffed the Panhellenic Council is. Only two of the seven spots are filled this year.

“I don’t know if [the sororities] are educating them, but if they were educating them, I would have a lot more respect for the organizations just because it seems like they’ve sort

of tried to push past it and move on,” Danberger said. In order to create some kind of change, it is up to new members to create a culture that is not replicating previous problems, Danberger said. Kubik said what happened in fraternities and sororities during summer 2020 isn’t talked about during recruitment because chapters want to present their best self, and discussing what happened would take away the time to get to know a potential new member. But if it’s brought up by a potential new member, she said the sorority member will discuss it with them. Blasi said underclassmen should be told about the allegations against these organizations because changing sorority and fraternity life at AU will require a culture shift. For that to happen, she said people need to have tough conversations with their friends about disaffiliating and to organize more than just posting infographics. “Obviously it’s not the most important thing going on in the entire world right now but it is something on our campus,” she said. “It’s something that we do have the power and ability to change.”

ι ε σ ή γ ρ κατα την ή κ ι ν η λ λ ε ζωή

––– Grace Vitaglione(she/her) is a senior studying journalism and creative writing. Kathryn Gilroy (she/her) is a sophomore studying broadcast journalism and legal studies. Katherine Long (she/her) is a senior studying journalism and international relations.

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“I’M INCENSED:” PHOENIX RAY FIGHTS FOR ACCESS After over a year of fully-remote learning, one WCL student struggled for virtual accommodations after a catastrophic accident. Written by Margaux Renee Art by Maddie Ceasar

When Phoenix Ray was in a horseback riding accident Oct. 2, it was not her first. It was not even her first horse-related trip to the hospital. Having grown up in rural Appalachia, Ray was experienced in rescuing and training horses. She said she considers herself something of a hard-ass.

AU’s Academic Support and Access Center, ASAC, she said.

“The first thing I did after my accident was reset my own finger,” Ray said.

“It felt like people didn’t believe me”

But this particular accident was different. Ray was badly injured, and after being admitted to the ER, was diagnosed with a broken vertebra, two herniated discs, a broken hand and a broken pelvis. Ray, a second-year student at Washington College of Law, suddenly became disabled--she would not be able to lift anything, bike or go up stairs for 12 weeks. Even further, her dominant hand would be in a cast for at least the next six weeks. “I’m very mentally and physically tough,” Ray said. “I rescue and train horses, I’ve been kicked and bitten and thrown in the mud more times than I can count in my life.” But for Ray, the physical pain of her accident would come to seem more manageable in comparison to the challenge she would face seeking academic accommodations through

“This process has put me through the wringer more than anything else has in the last few years,” Ray said. “[I’ve] gone to such deep places emotionally that I haven’t been to in years.”

The Monday after her weekend accident, Ray emailed Lucinda Gardner, WCL’s assistant Director of Student Affairs and David Jaffe, the Associate Dean of Student Affairs. She explained her accident and was told to reply with documentation--a photo of a doctor’s note would suffice. After some back and forth, Gardner informed Ray by email Oct. 6 that “all professors have approved [her] request.” “After I broke my back, I was pretty optimistic about my ability to get through it,” Ray said. She was under the impression that her requests had been approved internally through WCL and that she would be able to keep up with her classes

through recorded lectures. The following day, however, Ray was informed by WCL’s ADA coordinator, Kelly Mayer, that she should instead seek accommodations through ASAC. In a subsequent email, Jaffe clarified that lecture recordings were being provided to her as a short-term “courtesy,” not as a formal accommodation suitable for a long-term absence. So, she reached out to ASAC to begin the formal accommodations process. But the more Ray began to correspond with ASAC and the university administration, the more concerned she grew. “That’s when it really started to get to me,” Ray said. After more back and forth, Jaffe informed Ray via email Oct. 26 it is “unreasonable to request remote learning for the remainder of the semester.” Understanding this statement to mean that she would fail her classes if she did not attend physically, the next day, Ray returned to WCL’s campus against her will and against her doctor’s recommendation. “it felt like I was being gaslighted, it felt like people didn’t believe me,” Ray said. Ray decided to take her story to Twitter, publicly posting communications from WCL and ASAC and explaining that she was attending in-person class involuntarily. Her Twitter thread was shared widely, many of the replies offering support or sharing similar experiences. “There are not enough feeling words” For Katherine Greenstein, a sophomore and President of AU’s Disabled Student Union, ASAC’s process for requesting and being granted academic accommodations is “adversarial.” “Literally every step of it sucks. There’s no better way to put it,”

Greenstein said, citing intense levels of documentation, testing and diagnosis. In some cases, students such as Greenstein have reported being asked to periodically reaffirm the status of non-temporary disabilities, to make sure it’s “still true.” According to Greenstein and other DSU activists, ASAC’s initial benchmark for diagnosis is an issue in itself. “The idea that you have to have a diagnosis to be disabled is inaccurate,” Greenstein said. “Quite frankly, it goes against what our community believes in--if disability resonates with you, if something about our community makes sense and applies to your life, you’re in it, you’re with us, welcome to the community.” In response to Ray’s story, Greenstein explained that they felt upset, but not surprised. “I’m pissed. There are not enough feeling words to describe just how livid I am at this system,” Greenstein said, referring not only to ASAC’s process but to the inherent ableism baked into higher education overall. AJ Link is the President of the National Disabled Law Students Association and a graduate of George Washington University’s Law School. He explained there is a perception that students who do not truly require accommodations are seeking them as a means of cheating. “A lot of folks who ask for accommodations are, quite frankly, just average students looking to maintain their average, and not have to fail out or have to take extra steps and break their bodies and break their minds to get [a] C-minus,” Link said.

Greenstein believes that ASAC’s accommodations process is “so stringent” because the office “does not want to accommodate people.” They believe that this is because the university operates as a business and that accommodating too many people is costly and logistically difficult. In an email, AU’s Chief Communications Officer, Matthew Bennett, told AWOL that the “accomodations process is collaborative with students” and outlined a process consistent with the ones described by Ray and Greenstein. “The university regularly evaluates the operations of all our offices and works to ensure we are delivering high-quality services to our students. We solicit feedback and take appropriate steps based on input received and the out-

comes of our work,” Bennett said. “That’s Bullshit” As Ray continued in her effort to secure accommodations, she was met with a maze of bureaucracy and the constant volleying of responsibility between WCL and ASAC. In an email sent to Ray Oct. 18, Dean Jaffe wrote that WCL is “obligated by ABA [American Bar Association] standards to ensure that students attend class regularly; extensive absences (more than 2 weeks) are usually met with a request to take a leave of absence until the student is able to return.” According to Link, this email is what makes the handling of Ray’s case

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particularly “egregious.” The current standard of the ABA gives more freedom to law schools to establish and enforce institution-specific attendance policies. “[AU] tried to hide behind the ABA,” Link said. “They said that they can’t do it because of the ABA. That’s just a bold-faced lie, the ABA does not prevent that.” Link acknowledged the possibility that WCL and Jaffe were misinformed, and that the implications of this email were unintentional. “But, the fact is that a member of the administration gave a patently false statement to a student who needed help. They used that patently false reply to prevent the student from getting the help they needed,” Link said. After the pandemic intensified in March 2020, AU moved to a fully online learning modality across all of its colleges, including WCL. Because WCL relies on the ABA for its accreditation, the start of the pandemic spurred debate on the interpretation of its policies in the context of online learning. In a Twitter thread March 3, 2020, Jaffe cited the current standard of the ABA as the policy basis for online learning during the pandemic, interpreting the clause to mean that attendance policies were left to the discretion of institutions. While the context at play here is that of a public health crisis, Ray took issue with the implications of this Twitter exchange. “Citing the exact section of the ABA that [ Jaffe] used to deny me access... in this tweet in March 2020, he was using it to say that remote learning is actually acceptable by ABA standards,” Ray said. Ray has come to believe that the uni-

versity’s interpretation of standards when it comes to granting accommodations depends on who is asking, citing examples of professors who changed their course modalities in the event of their personal or medical emergencies. “The standard completely depends on who is going to benefit,” Ray said. “I’ve gotten very cynical.” While the university is not legally able to comment on the individual cases of students like Ray, WCL responded to AWOL in an email statement. “Although we cannot comment on any individual student’s situation, we work with every student to make a WCL education as accessible as possible, consistent with our commitment to a pedagogically-sound classroom experience,” the statement read. “When an emergency situation arises, WCL staff and faculty work with the student to determine an appropriate approach to address their short-term academic needs while the University evaluates longer-term options.” According to an emailed statement from Matt Bennett, chief communications officer at AU, the phrase “pedagogically-sound” means that “the classroom experience and the learning opportunities meet the standards required for our accreditation and for students to receive credit for the class, the learning environment is positive and productive for everyone, and the instruction meets the professional standards for faculty.” “More simply,” Bennett continued, “it means the faculty can effectively instruct on the material and the students can effectively engage and learn.” Having worked closely with law students over the course of the pandemic, Link disagrees with the university’s

perspective on pedagogy. “So, I think that’s bullshit,” Link said. “Law schools have been virtual or remote for 18 months and it’s shown that it does not affect the ‘pedagogy,’ it does not affect the ability of professors to deliver material.” “I’m Incensed” It was not until Nov. 10--39 days after her injury--that Ray’s request for attendance flexibility and remote learning was approved. “It felt totally surreal,” Ray said. “Coming out of COVID, being told repeatedly that remote learning, even on a temporary basis, was an unreasonable accommodation for someone with a broken back.” She added, “It felt like I was having a conversation in the Twilight Zone for some of this.” Greenstein saw the relationship between disability, COVID-19 and access clearly. “First of all, COVID is a disabling condition,” they said, citing those who suffer from prolonged symptoms of the disease, often called COVID long-haulers Greenstein explained that the disabled community, namely immuno-compromised people, were hit incredibly hard by the pandemic, and popular discourse often referred to the lives of disabled and elederly communities as disposable. Still, Greenstein believes the pandemic reformulated how access is understood, particularly access to education. “Disabled folk have been asking for online access to things for pretty much as long as the internet has been around,” Greenstein said. They said that the answer was always

no, because the infrastructure didn’t exist. Now that the infrastructure does exist and has been proven to work, Greenstein believes that denying its use is “willfully neglecting the disabled community.” Link offered two explanations for the systemic denial of academic accommodations at many institutions. “The short answer is just ableism. Plain and simple, but, a more nuanced answer is, there are a lot of non-disabled folks in these offices making decisions where they are in a position where they don’t want the school to be held liable from a legal perspective,” Link said. “So, what they’re doing is trying to cover the school’s ass instead of giving students the opportunity to be the best as possible.” Ray hopes that things will change for students like her in the future. “I’ve been disabled for like five minutes and I’ve been totally radicalized -- I sympathize so much [with] other students who have had to go through an even more prolonged version of this process,” Ray said. “I’m incensed.” ––– Margaux Renee (she/they) is a junior studying international relations and Arabic.

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RIPPED FROM THE WALL The Lost City: A History of Displacement and Exclusion in the American University Region Produced by Anika Iqbal, Audrey Hill, Grace Vitaglione, Helena Milburn, Matheus Kogi Fugita Abrahao

To listen to the full version of this story, keep an eye out for the episode anywhere you get your podcasts. This semester, Ripped from the Wall dove into the story of Reno, the lost city that Fort Reno Park and Alice Deal Middle School in Tenleytown were built on in the late 1900s. The story of what happened to this primarily Black community is one that embodies the hidden violences of Washington’s development. Neil Flanagan, a scholar on Ward 3’s history, said Reno began as a former slave plantation that was sold off in parts until it became a small farming community. Black farmers formed a community in the area. A small group of wealthy African Americans moved there later on, bringing connections and more legal power. But as white suburbs rose up around Reno, the people moving there wanted neighborhoods without Black people. A group of white landowners convened in February 1924 and decided to clear Reno. They were backed by the Chevy Chase Land Company, a major landowner and patron of Frederick Law Olmstead, Jr., the architect who designed American University’s campus. A prominent African American lawyer named James Neil fought back. “He’s able to successfully expose what a farce these plans are,” said Flanagan.

Neil started to lose when the same group of landowners were able to get small projects approved for funding, and stipulated that those projects had to be built in Reno. From there, the community was slowly cleared as developers bought up land. Flanagan said that while it’s important to know about the racist actions taken against Reno, the specific violence is not the point. “It’s really important to understand not just that but what was lost and the complexity of that community,” he said. James Fisher spoke October 23 at a rally for affordable housing, where he told the story of how his family’s land was taken. Fisher’s grandfather is Captain George Pointer, the last superintendent of the Potomac Canal Company at Great Falls. Pointer was born into slavery and bought his own freedom when he was 18. Pointer bought land in Northwest Washington that remained in his family for decades. But as white families moved to the area, developers started to create white only neighborhoods. The federal government used eminent domain to buy Pointer’s land in the 1920s to build a school for white children. “The taking of that land destroyed my family,” said Pointer.

Fisher campaigned for the renaming of the park where his ancestor’s land used to be: it’s now Lafayette Pointer Park instead of Lafayette Park. But the remains of the cottage where Pointer lived were destroyed, because the area was a popular spot for canoeing. The systematic displacement of Black communities in Washington has deep psychological effects, said Professor Charles Jermaine Jones, who teaches English at AU. He also said these mental effects are tied to legacies of slavery. ”There’s a mindset of not belonging.” Jones said. “And gentrification is a reminder of that not belonging.” Some Washington residents today are fighting for housing justice. At the rally where Fisher spoke, students from Woodrow Wilson High School campaigned for affordable housing in Ward 3. “We need to raise awareness about Reno,” said Salif Bumbaugh, a senior at the school. “It’s a large neighborhood that was dismantled and residents have no idea.”

THE HUM Episode 6: Hard Goodbyes

Produced by Bonnie Bishop, Grace Hagerman, Helena Milburn, Neal Franklin, Shane Ryden Art by Sierra Cougot and LIllie Bertrand

Welcome to the Hum, a storytelling Sami Pye (she/her/hers): podcast dedicated to bringing untold stories to your ears. Sami is a senior studying photography and studio art. Her hardest goodbye For our sixth episode, we bring you was to a former professor of hers from stories about the hardest goodbyes of AU who was extremely influential four AU students. During interviews in shaping Sami’s college journey. lit by spooky reappropriated Sami talks about how this professor Halloween decorations, we uncovered pushed her out of her comfort zone airport goodbyes, last dances and to become the independent person betrayals. she was always capable of being.

Tommy Unger (he/him/his): Tommy is a sophomore and is a CLEG major. His hardest goodbye was to his girlfriend after a surprising change of heart. He details his growth afterwards and his experience of revisiting the relationship later on.

Grace Vitaglione (she/her/hers): Grace is a senior majoring in journalism and minoring in creative writing. Her hardest goodbye was to her boyfriend who was forced to return to South Korea when his U.S. visa application was denied. Grace discusses their final days together in the U.S. and what it’s like being in a long distance relationship.

Vikram Lakshmanan (he/him/ his): Vikram is a junior majoring in International Studies with a concentration in environmental sustainability, global health, and development. Vikram shares his final moments with his dance teacher of over 10 years and reminisces on their fondest memories.

If you think that you have a story worth telling, please share it with us at awolpodcast@gmail.com. We look forward to learning from you. Sincerely, The Hum Podcast Team

AWOL Magazine

Copyright © 2021 AWOL Magazine All Rights Reserved. Published in the United States of America American University 4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington, DC 20016 www.awolau.org Cover and layout design by Kavi Farr Type set in Garamond Premier Pro & Neue Haas Unica W1G ___________________________________________ AWOL aims to continue pushing both ourselves and American University to be more critical of issues that deserve to be understood with nuance; to work subversively when dismantling barriers that suppress certain voices; to love irrepressibly when it comes to serving our community. We ignite campus discussions on social, cultural and political issues. We want to make our campus more inquiring, egalitarian and socially engaged. Our stories have an angle, which is different from having an agenda. Our reporting is impartial and fair, but our analysis is critical and argumentative. We were independently founded by American University students in 2008. While we are still student-run, today we are housed under AU’s Student Media Board. AWOL is a member of the Associated Collegiate Press and Generation Progress Voices Network. This publication has won awards at the National College Media Convention, and its writers have won awards from the Society for Professional Journalists and the College Media Association. ___________________________________________ General Email: awolau@gmail.com Podcasting Directors: awolpodcast@gmail.com

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