Vol-120-Iss-13

Monday, December 4, 2023 I Vol. 120 Iss. 13

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INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER • SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

What’s inside Opinions

The editorial board argues that every student should know officials care about their safety.

Page 6

Culture

GW alum discusses her surprise ouster from “Survivor.”

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SA to create councils for Jewish and Muslim student advocacy, pending senate approval HANNAH MARR

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

The Student Association Senate will vote on an executive order that will create two special councils to advocate for Jewish and Muslim students if approved during a senate meeting Monday.

The Justice at GW Initiative executive order will create the Council of Jewish Student Experience and the Council of Muslim Student Experience because the University “has room to grow” in terms of providing Jewish and

Muslim students support. The order — which was created by SA President Arielle Geismar, SA Vice President Demetrius Apostolis and SA Sen. Ethan Fitzgerald (CCAS-U) — states that each council will consist of 10 to 18 members and will meet with administrators including University President Ellen Granberg, Dean of Students Colette Coleman and a leader from the Multicultural Student Services Center to ensure all students feel “safe and heard” on campus.

Geismar said GW has become

an “international lightning rod” as third-party groups have interfered in campus life, putting the University “in crisis.” She pointed to the truck that arrived to campus last week displaying the names and faces of students involved in a pro-Palestinian coalition.

She said she has heard from students that they felt the councils will be beneficial and it is “beyond time” to elevate student voices and give them “direct access” to University administrators, who support the councils’

creation. Geismar said she has heard anecdotes from Jewish, Muslim, Arab and Israeli students who said they feel unsafe on campus following “numerous incidents.”

Pro-Palestinian protesters attempt to shield the names and faces of students flashing onto a billboard truck parked outside of the Elliott School. The Hatchet has blurred the name of the student projected onto the truck to preserve the individual’s privacy.

MANAGING EDITOR

SANDRA KORETZ SPORTS EDITOR

At American sports games, it’s a fixture.

The PA announcer’s request to rise and remove hats, the shuffling and murmuring as the crowd collectively complies, facing the nearest flag, hands over hearts as the national anthem crackles over the speaker system.

GW volleyball games are no exception. But on the Revolutionaries’ sideline, while the rest of

the gym shuffles, murmurs, turns and settles as the national anthem plays, two players take a stand by kneeling.

Holding hands with their standing teammates, sophomore middle blocker Sydney Stewart and sophomore libero Amina Robinson have knelt during the national anthem since they began playing at GW as freshmen.

While kneeling as a form of protest has become a less common occurrence since Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the anthem at NFL games in 2016 to demonstrate against racial injustice and police brutality

against Black Americans, Robinson and Stewart said they kneel to keep issues they care about — like police brutality against people of color, immigration laws and women’s rights — ingrained in the American zeitgeist.

“These issues haven’t been resolved,” Stewart said. “And people are only aware of it when it’s on social media, when it’s put in front of their face, when it’s on their Instagram feed. And I want people to be aware of it at any moment, at a volleyball game when they’re coming to watch their kids. I want people to see it.”

Stewart said her inclination

Faculty confront AI misuse amid reported rise in cheating FIONA RILEY

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

toward activism began as a teenager, when a police officer shot and killed 16-year-old Ma’Khia Bryant — a girl her age — in Columbus, Ohio, in April 2021.

“That’s really when I knew that I needed to be more involved in social issues and making myself heard and known as a Black woman,” Stewart said. “Because a lot of the time, we have to scream to be heard.”

For Robinson, kneeling serves as a means for her to advocate and raise awareness for social issues she feels passionately about.

See PLAYERS Page 8

See FACULTY Page 3

See GEISMAR Page 4

Volleyball duo talks kneeling for anthem, activism in college athletics JADEN DIMAURO

Freshmen are thriving under men’s basketball Head Coach Chris Caputo.

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Amid a recent rise in reports of student academic integrity violations, faculty said they are adjusting their course structures and testing policies to prevent and confirm suspected cases of cheating linked to artificial intelligence tools.

Professors said they’ve altered their assessment structures to reduce cheating with AI and identify students misusing the technology but are struggling to develop and enforce individual policies without receiving further support from the University. Christy Anthony, the director of the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities, said the office this fall has seen an increase in cases of cheating, the category of academic integrity violations that typically involve the misuse of AI. The Office of the Provost released a set of guidelines for AI use in April that by default banned the use of AI on work submitted to professors for “evaluation” and requested that faculty explicitly outline their own AI use policies in syllabi if they preferred to uphold different AI rules.

Cheating includes the use of unauthorized materials during an academic exercise, while plagiarism is defined as the misrepresentation of ideas as one’s own, per the Code of Academic Integrity. Anthony said the increase accounts for several instances of cheating that each involved a “large number” of students in the same class but that not all violations included reports of AI use.

“This fall, the first since generative artificial intelligence was broadly available at little to no cost, Student Rights & Responsibilities has seen an increase in cases under ‘cheating’ without seeing a similar increase across other categories of academic integrity violations such as plagiarism,” Anthony said in an email.

Anthony declined to comment on the number of academic integrity violations reported this fall compared to previous years and if faculty have expressed recent concerns to the office about online test-taking and AI misuse. She said the office shared information with faculty about preventing academic integrity violations and using AI in the classroom and that they will continue to provide support when needed.

With reports of academic dishonesty on the rise in their courses, faculty said they are modifying their testing structures and working to identify signs of AI misuse in coursework.

Professors said despite the provost’s guidelines, GW’s measures to confirm academic integrity violations and develop individual use policies remain vague.

Ronald Bird, an adjunct professor of economics, said he has increased the number of questions on his tests because students who rely on looking up answers using ChatGPT score highly on the first few questions but don’t have time to finish.

ANNALIESE PERSAUD | PHOTOGRAPHER

Amina Robinson kneels during the playing of the national anthem.

Sports

Admissions to measure ‘grit’ after Supreme Court ruling

Title IX Office reports 6 percent increase in complaints: data

JACKSON RICKERT

RORY QUEALY

STAFF WRITER

LAUREN SIMON REPORTER

Admissions officers should emphasize an applicant’s “resilience” to boost admitted students’ diversity this admissions cycle after the Supreme Court banned affirmative action, according to new guidelines released by the Office of the Provost last month.

The guidelines state that the University aims to use the resilience rating — which determines how an applicant has overcome adversity — in the place of affirmative action, or the consideration of race, in college admissions. Experts in college admissions say the “grit” rating is unlikely to significantly diversify admitted student classes at universities in the way affirmative action would, but it is a step in the right direction.

The release also outlined additional strategies GW admissions officers should pursue to increase diversity on campus, including creating essay questions that allow students to share more about their identity in addition to prospective student interviews, which the admissions office does not currently

offer. The policy also directs admissions officers to expand targeted recruitment and “pathways programs” to “underserved” communities.

Other goals in the release include maintaining GW’s test-optional policy, improving first-generation college student retention, which is currently at 91.9 percent for the class of 2026, and creating inclusive admissions selection committees.

“This operational guidance is provided to ensure that GW’s admissions processes continue to advance our values of diversity and inclusion while remaining in compliance with federal law,” the guidelines state.

In a joint email to the GW community in June, former University President Mark Wrighton and University President Ellen Granberg said they were “deeply disappointed” in the termination of race-based college admissions because it will hinder officials’ ability to build a diverse student body. President Joe Biden called for universities to develop new admissions standards that take into account the adversity students have faced in response to the Supreme Court’s ban on racebased admissions.

See ADMISSIONS Page 4

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

The Title IX Office reported a 6 percent increase in the number of new complaints of sexual harassment, sexual assault, domestic and dating violence, and stalking filed at GW in the 2022-23 academic year, according to the office’s second annual report released last month.

The report states that the Title IX Office received 405 new reports of sexual harassment, sexual assault, stalking, dating violence, domestic violence and retaliation in the Title IX process between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023, compared to 380 the previous year. Asha Reynolds, the Title IX Office’s director and coordinator, said the increase in reports does not necessarily reflect an increase in incidents but could indicate more awareness of campus resources and engagement with the Title IX Office’s supportive measures, like academic accommodations or a mutual no-contact order between two individuals.

The Title IX Office’s annual reports expand on GW’s An-

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nual Security and Fire Safety Report, which discloses the locations of crimes, semester breakdowns and who reports an incident. The Title IX report’s data on sexual assault, domestic and dating violence and stalking differs from the annual security report’s data, which has separate incident reporting criteria for the GW Police Department under federal law.

“This report highlights the need to continue to expand upon sexual harassment pre-

vention and education efforts,” Reynolds said in an email.

Of the 405 reports filed last academic year, 270 were cases of sexual harassment, 104 were sexual assault, 68 were stalking and 27 were dating violence.

Eleven were domestic violence, two were retaliation in the Title IX process and 12 were requesting support for pregnancy and related conditions, according to the report.

See RESPONDENTS Page 5

NEWS

December 4, 2023 • Page 2

News

THE GW HATCHET

THIS WEEK’S

EVENTS

GEORGE TALKS BUSINESS

Tuesday, Dec. 5 | 6 p.m. | Textile Museum Attend a conversation about tourism, hospitality and event management with industry leaders.

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY Dec. 5, 1983

LEADERSHIP AND CHALLENGES: A CONVERSATION ON GENDER EQUALITY WITH HANA BRIXI

Wednesday, Dec. 6 | 12:30 p.m. | Elliott School of International Affairs Join World Bank Global Gender Director Hana Brixi for a discussion about the global effort to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment.

More than 600 students attended four showings of the pornographic film “I Like to Watch,” sponsored

by Program Board. The film was met with protests from nine religious and feminist student groups.

NUMBER OF FACTORIES PRODUCING GW-BRANDED APPAREL BY REGISTERED COUNTRY AN NGO | GRAPHICS EDITOR

Factories producing GW clothing improve working conditions, per report ERIKA FILTER NEWS EDITOR

Most factories producing GWbranded apparel investigated for workers’ rights concerns have improved their labor policies as universities work to ensure brandedapparel workers are treated fairly by employers.

GW is one of 146 colleges and institutions that reports data on the factories that produce their apparel to the Worker Rights Consortium, an organization that investigates labor rights. The WRC has investigated at least 14 factories since 2002 that produce GW-branded apparel like jackets, hats and shirts and discovered cases of wage theft, unpaid severance, the firing of union leaders and mandatory prayers for workers.

The Worker Rights Consortium investigated more than a dozen factories GW listed on its most recent quarterly report, released Oct. 1, with factories where investigations previously found wrongdoing improving their workplace conditions.

Nine investigations found violations relating to wage theft, unpaid severance, injury compensation or benefits, and eight investigations found unfair labor practices related to unionization efforts in factories like the retaliatory firing of workers trying to organize. Four investigations found health and safety issues and two found gender discrimination.

GW allows more than 90 licensees to source factories producing their branded apparel. GW’s October report included a list of the more than 2,000 factories around the world its licensees use to create GW-branded apparel.

University spokesperson Julia Metjian said the University joined the WRC in 2008 following student efforts to raise awareness about worker safety in the garment industry. She said GW began requiring its licensees that use factories in

Bangladesh to produce GW-branded apparel sign the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh in 2014.

“The University’s goal is to ensure that apparel bearing GW’s marks be manufactured in a socially and ethically responsible manner,” Metjian said in an email.

Nine of GW’s 12 peer schools are WRC affiliates. Two of GW’s peer schools — the universities of Southern California and Rochester — are not affiliated with the WRC. Tufts University was unavailable for the Oct. 1 period.

Jessica Champagne, the WRC’s deputy director for field operations and strategy, said universities can leverage their contracts with licensees to advocate for labor-rights standards more than individual consumers, who have less connection to the source of the apparel they purchase.

“Universities can really have an impact that is much bigger than any individual consumer,” Cham-

pagne said. “So it actually means that we’ve been able to see a lot of improvement in many factories that produce for the collegiate market and also have an impact on expectations in the broader apparel sector.”

Champagne said in many cases, student activism pushed universities to pay attention to the labor producing their branded apparel. She said the WRC grew out of student concern for workers in the textile industry in the late 1990s.

“People feel very emotionally connected to the logos, to the universities, to the clothes that they wear to sports games,” Champagne said. “And so students began raising these questions with their universities.”

GW reports that about 70 percent of the factories it partners with are based in the United States. But while some garment production occurs in the U.S., these reports may instead list the American headquarters of a factory located overseas, Champagne said. It is un-

clear where all factories are actually located.

GW disclosed that it sources branded apparel from 220 factories in China, 82 factories in Vietnam, 39 in Canada and 35 in Pakistan in its most recent quarterly disclosure.

GW also lists factories in South America, Africa and Europe.

Champagne said by affiliating with the WRC, universities ensure the groups that create their branded products live up to “certain basic labor standards” by disclosing the factories they source and providing information for WRC investigations. Since 2009, the WRC has recovered more than $106 million in total back pay for more than 470,000 workers, with 60 percent of funds coming from cases that involve collegiate apparel across the WRC’s 146 affiliate institutions, she said.

“A basic strong first step is to affiliate to WRC,” Champagne said.

One of the factories GW disclosed in its October report is Shahi Exports Unit 8, an Indian

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factory producing clothing for the clothing brand Columbia that GW partners with. GW sells Columbiabrand jackets produced in India at the Campus Store in the basement of the University Student Center, which is expected to relocate to 2100 Pennsylvania Ave. by the end of fall 2023, Metjian said.

WRC investigated Shahi Exports Unit 8 from 2018 to 2022 and found “the worst wage theft” the consortium has documented in the global garment industry after factory owners refused to pay workers the newly increased legal minimum wage in April 2020. Shahi Exports, the factory’s umbrella company and India’s largest garment manufacturer, announced that it would begin paying its 80,000 employees in Karnataka the correct minimum wage in February 2022 following a lawsuit filed by the Garment and Textile Workers’ Union, per the WRC’s investigation summary.

Workers testified that Uni Gears Ltd., which GW disclosed in its most recent quarterly report as a factory producing its branded apparel, began forcing workers to resign in May 2020 under threat of violence to minimize their obligation to pay severance. Eight of GW’s peer schools also listed Uni Gears Ltd. in their quarterly factory disclosures.

The WRC also found in an investigation spanning January to April of 2018 that League Central America, a factory in El Salvador for League Collegiate Wear producing GW-branded T-shirts, required workers to stay at the factory for an extra, unpaid halfhour to take mandatory English classes and perform daily prayers.

League committed to addressing the WRC’s concerns in December 2018, providing a remediation plan to establish compliance with Salvadoran law and university codes of conduct.

Students testify for proposed DC Council bill supporting sexual assault survivors ELLA MITCHELL REPORTER

NICOLE AKUMATEY REPORTER

Students testified Thursday in support of a bill calling for supportive measures for sexual assault survivors brought to the D.C. Council last summer.

Senior Mathena Jencka proposed the Institution of Higher Education Sexual Misconduct Reporting and Resource Accessibility Act of 2023, which At-Large Councilmember Christina Henderson introduced to the D.C. Council in July. The bill will require universities in the District to keep confidential resource advisers on staff to connect survivors to resources and help them navigate their institution and law enforcement.

Jencka, the co-president of Students Against Sexual Assault and the co-state director of the D.C. chapter of the Every Voice Coalition, a group advocating for leg-

islation addressing sexual violence, said the sexual assault policy allows survivors to dictate the path toward their healing. Jencka said the bill’s provisions — including an amnesty policy for those reporting sexual assault that forgives conduct violations that don’t pose safety risks, trauma-informed resource advisors, annual training to personnel and pauses on GPA requirements for victims — are based on the national framework of the Every Voice Coalition, a collective of student survivors addressing campus sexual violence through legislative reform.

“During my undergraduate career, I’ve seen the trauma my peers have experienced because of sexual violence and the negligible resources available,” Jencka said during her testimony.

“However, I have also seen firsthand the positive impact the policies from Bill 250436 can have on survivors.”

Jencka said the CRAs the bill requires would

make survivors feel safer when seeking support after a traumatic event. She said GW’s Office of Advocacy and Support staffs CRAs — a resource all students across the District should be afforded. American and Howard universities also offer CRAs. “Since this office has opened, there are countless survivors that inherently feel safer on campus,” Jencka said. “Every college student in D.C. deserves this kind of support, along with the relief of knowing that their peers are being educated on sexual assault prevention.”

Abby Canning, a 2023 graduate from GW, said she testified because her experiences reporting her January 2019 assault to GW’s Title IX Office was “re-traumatizing.” Investigators forced her to answer questions that made her relive the experience and participated in victim blaming, she said.

Canning said her confidential case records were

mistakenly shared with another student over email, erasing the little privacy she had felt. She said when her assailant did receive the guilty verdict, she shed tears of relief.

Canning said she was disappointed that her assailant’s sentence — a onesemester suspension and watching a YouTube video about consent — was insufficient and took less time to carry out than the investigation itself.

“I realized the problem was bigger than just my assailant, that there are institutional cracks that survivors are falling through,” Canning said.

Canning said the bill’s flexible GPA requirements during a survivor’s recovery can allow them to focus more on their safety and healing, instead of feeling guilty about “throwing away” the education they aspired to obtain.

“The consequences of campus sexual violence do not start and end at a Title

IX investigation,” Canning said. “That trauma shows up in every capacity of a survivor’s life, and as a community, we need to show up in those moments as well as with the support they deserve.”

Mondi Kumbula-Fraser, the vice president of government relations and general counsel for the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area, said in a testimony that the consortium shares Henderson’s strong commitment to addressing sexual assault on campus but cannot endorse any specific bill on the topic because the consortium encompasses federal institutions and is expecting the release of updated Title IX guidance from the U.S. Department of Education, which may impact its implementation.

President Joe Biden’s administration originally announced it would release the guidelines in May, which it failed to do, in addition to missing its self-

imposed October deadline.

Kumbala-Fraser said the consortium has noted that the guidance has already been delayed twice.

“My heart goes out to each and every student who was courageous in coming forward and sharing your stories today for your testimony,” Kumbala-Fraser said during her testimony.

Kumbula-Fraser said when the consortium received a first draft of the legislation, some members were concerned that it was “duplicative and unnecessary” because of sexual misconduct reporting covered in federal law including the Clery Act, Title IV, Title IX and the Violence Against Women Act. She said these laws already require colleges and universities to provide data regarding incidents of sexual assault, dating violence, domestic violence and stalking.

“The consortium does not oppose the bill in any way,” Kumbala-Fraser said.

NEWS

December 4, 2023 • Page 3

THE GW HATCHET

Officials to divvy $25 million for residence hall renovations over 5 years MAGGIE RHOADS REPORTER

SARAH GROSS REPORTER

Officials plan to overhaul residence halls across campus over the next five years in a slew of multimillion-dollar renovations, highlighted by the removal or upgrade of kitchens in three residence halls.

Baxter Goodly, the senior associate vice president of facilities planning, construction and management for the Division of Safety and Facilities, announced last month at a Student Association meeting that the University has budgeted $25 million over the next five years to remove kitchens in FSK Hall to make room for more beds, upgrade kitchens in Amsterdam Hall and replace a quarter of the kitchens on Townhouse Row. Officials also plan to upgrade rooms in Amsterdam and repair heating and cooling systems in Amsterdam and FSK, according to Goodly’s report.

Officials will also install new windows in The Dakota, Guthridge and Somers halls, upgrade and repair HVAC systems in District House and Guthridge, renovate bathrooms in Somers and JBKO Hall, and modernize elevators in Guthridge and Mitchell Hall. Fulbright Hall will also receive a new roof and The Dakota and Guthridge will undergo waterproofing, according to the report.

An overhead light shines on a District House kitchenette.

University spokesperson Julia Metjian said officials have not determined how the University will disperse the $25 million across different projects and that the decision to remove kitchens to add beds in FSK is not “final.” She said officials will replace countertops in kitchens and bedrooms in Amsterdam and add new bathroom faucets and flooring.

Metjian said officials are re-

SAGE RUSSELL | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR

placing 25 percent of the kitchens on Townhouse Row because of the “normal renovation cycle.” She said officials replaced kitchens in Townhouses A and B last summer and will replace kitchens in Townhouses C and D next summer.

Metjian said the renovations will likely occur during the summer because student occupancy is lower. Metjian said the projects are still in the planning

phases.

Students expressed mixed feelings on the facilities plans, with students in FSK saying they don’t want officials to remove their kitchens and students in other residence halls saying they welcome the new renovations.

George Courtemanche, a junior in FSK, said he values kitchens for students on financial aid because the meal plans are “ri-

diculously overpriced” for “not great” food.

“Making rice and chicken is going to be cheaper than paying $16 for a meal swipe,” Courtemanche said.

Officials announced plans in August 2021 to open dining halls in Thurston and Shenkman halls, which debuted in October 2022 and January respectively, and shift the University from a dining dollar-based meal system for groceries and GWorld dining vendors to an all-you-care-to-eat meal system at dining halls.

The University now offers five meal plans, including an unlimited GWorld meal swipe plan with $200 in dining dollars for all students, an unlimited flex GWorld meal swipe plan with $800 in dining dollars for sophomores, juniors and seniors and three block meal plans with less meal swipes and more dining dollars for juniors and seniors.

The five meal plans range from $2,060 to $2,800 per semester.

Sofia Khugaeva, a junior who lives in FSK, said officials should instead use the budget to address accessibility problems in FSK. She said the entrance’s handicap button sometimes doesn’t work. A Residence Hall Association and Student Association report in April found that 17 residence halls had accessibility issues, including FSK. “Instead of getting rid of the kitchens in FSK, what they need to do is literally make it accessible,” Khugaeva said.

Faculty tweak testing policies, assignments to avoid AI misuse From Page 1

KATELYN POWER | PHOTOGRAPHER Students practice traditional Falun Dafa arm movements in the University Student Center to center their spirituality.

Spiritual organization connects students to roots, mindfulness BROOKE FORGETTE STAFF WRITER

MOLLY ST. CLAIR REPORTER

The chime of a bell interrupts the stillness of a University Student Center room, signaling the transition to a new meditation pose for a handful of students who gather in the space every week to practice mindfulness through motion in unison.

The students are members of GW Falun Dafa, an organization formed in October that observes a Chinese spiritual movement centered around meditation and mindfulness using controlled body movement.

Jade Do, a first-year graduate student and the group’s president, said the organization upholds the three virtues of the practice — truthfulness, compassion and forbearance, and tolerance — by reading Falun Dafa’s guiding book while creating a space for students from East and South Asian cultures to connect with their values and community while living in the United States.

“I want to create a safe space in an environment for people to come learn and practice Falun Dafa,” Do said. “It’s a place where they can come and socialize through the meditation, read the book and then share our experiences and then discuss any issues we are having in our daily lives.”

Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, was founded in China in 1992 by Li Hongzhi, the movement’s spiritual leader. Hongzhi wrote all of the texts observers use for spiritual practice, one of the most prominent being Zhuan Falun, the guiding book observers utilize.

The practice combines spiritual and moral teachings with a series of exercises, which involve concentrated arm movements like placing one’s palms together in front of the chest and extending arms out to the side with palms facing down that observers may hold for 15 to 30 minutes at a time. Some of these series of poses include Falun Standing Stance, Falun Cosmic Orbit and Reinforcing Supernatural Powers.

The exercises are meant to improve one’s mental and physical health, which revolve around meditation and regulated breathing in the Falun Dafa spirituality, according to the book.

Do said GW Falun Dafa has meditation sessions on Mondays and Fridays in the student center, where members participate in movements that can take up to two hours to complete. She said positions like Falun Standing Stance, where one holds their arms above their head, are difficult to hold for a long time, but the transition between movements represents releasing tensions in one’s life.

“If you let go of your attachments and whatever you have in mind, you become lighter and everything becomes easier,” Do said.

Do said she started practicing Falun Dafa her first year at the University of Miami, where she started a student organization for Falun Dafa observers after feeling “lost” growing up.

She said the spiritual practice allowed her to better adapt to Western culture after being raised in Vietnam, driving her to bring the same undergraduate environment to GW. Do said Falun Dafa’s three core virtues taught her to be more attentive and present while connecting

with classmates and professors after learning from the teachings that not attending lectures was “disrespectful.” She said Falun Dafa encourages her to think about her actions and how they affect the people around her.

“Even though today, I have all the material things that I needed, I feel like I needed some moral compass to guide me through life,” Do said.

She said the organization used a Free Bubble Tea & Meditation Workshop on Oct. 30 to introduce Falun Dafa to prospective members.

The Chinese Communist Party banned Falun Dafa as an organized religion on China’s mainland, branding it a “heretical cult” after the group protested the CCP in 1999. Since its defeat, the CCP has arrested, detained and killed observers for their continued practice within China, but the spiritual practice has remained present in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Falun Dafa has alleged ties to the Epoch Times, a conservative newspaper known for promoting rightwing misinformation, but neither organization has confirmed the relationship.

Some Chinese immigrants in the U.S. have also accused the Falun Gong of being a cult because some observers ascribe to Hongzhi’s unconventional teachings like alien visitation and ethnic separation.

Do said Falun Dafa teachings tell followers not to get involved with political movements. She said she does not want GW Falun Dafa to be affiliated with a “specific Chinese political standpoint” and instead prefers the group focus solely on meditation and, later on, incorporate aspects of human rights into the group’s meetings.

“I tend to give more questions so that you’ve got to know something so you can move through them fairly rapidly,” Bird said.

He said he has seen a “couple of instances” where a student doesn’t submit the exam at the end of class and revises their answers after leaving the room. Bird said he can see the timestamps for every answer change because he tests through Blackboard, the University’s primary online education platform.

He said GW should better assist students and faculty with their use of testing technology to combat cheating like Lockdown Browser, a tool that restricts access to other tabs during assessments. He said many students struggle to download the software to their personal devices, which complicates requiring its use.

“Neither the students nor the faculty have been provided with routine and thorough instruction about how to use the technology effectively,” Bird said.

Eric Saidel, an assistant professor of philosophy, said he can identify work produced using AI tools when the paper uses “more sophisticated” language or includes examples that the class did not discuss. He said it is difficult to determine cheating through AI compared to traditional plagiarism because he cannot find a copy of the work online.

“I’m sure I’ve had students who have plagiarized who I have suspected but not caught because I couldn’t prove it,” Saidel said.

Robert Stoker, the associate chair of the political science department and a professor of political science, public policy and public administration, said this summer he decided to prohibit AI use in his classes and that professors in the political science department consulted one another, researched and drafted individualized AI policies.

He said professors need to clearly enforce expectations for AI use because the lack of a standardized University policy forces students to receive different instructions on AI use in each of their classes.

“One of the reasons why it’s an issue is that the University doesn’t yet have a specific policy on AI, except to tell faculty that they should be clear about it,” Stoker said.

“And so that’s the first thing that’s important, you have to have a clear policy in every class.”

Stoker said he aims to prevent cheating by administering tests in class and requiring students to clear their desks. He said he allows students to collaborate on papers and out-of-class assignments when he can’t ensure he will be able to detect when students consult each other.

“What I want to really avoid is a situation where some students can take advantage of an opportunity and other students cannot, because then I’m not protecting the honest students and that, to me, is the most important thing about academic integrity,” Stoker said.

Stoker said he doesn’t often observe academic dishonesty with papers written outside of class because he provides nuanced prompts that AI tools are not equipped to

answer.

“If you give people something not quite so mainstream and that is a little more challenging of the conventional wisdom, then the AI tools don’t work very well for them,” Stoker said.

Alexa Alice Joubin, a professor of English and a Columbian College of Arts & Sciences Faculty Administrative Fellow working on a project about AI in higher education, said she helps faculty struggling to identify cheating with AI tools by developing assignments that aren’t compatible with the technology and sharing ways to use the technology positively.

“One of the cases that came to me is in the Corcoran School and the assignment asked students to read an article and summarize it,” Joubin said. “As you can imagine, it’s perfectly set up for AI.” Joubin said faculty are “incredibly frustrated” because the online AI detection tools designed to help instructors check for AI-generated work can’t reliably catch instances of the academic dishonesty. She said academic integrity cases related to AI don’t often escalate because suspecting faculty lack “hard evidence.”

Joubin said the University is developing further resources for faculty somewhat slowly and she is providing individualized advice to a lot of faculty who don’t know how to monitor AI use.

“I even contributed my AI policy, my sample syllabi, but it’s not quite out there yet,” Joubin said.

“There could be kind of a centralized place for people to find resources more easily. Right now, it’s at a very individual level.”

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY SAGE RUSSELL | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR A laptop displays ChatGPT alongside a GW faculty page.

NEWS

December 4, 2023 • Page 4

THE GW HATCHET

Resilience rating in admissions is proactive but not enough, experts say From Page 1 “University leadership encourages the entire University community to embrace this commitment and work to advance our shared objective of creating and maintaining a more diverse, equitable, and engaged community,” the guidelines states. “Our admissions policy and practices must align with our values and principles, and with the evolving regulatory landscape.”

University spokesperson Julia Metjian did not return a request for comment on how admissions officials calculate an applicant’s “grit” rating and how officials plan to diversify admissions selection committees.

The College Board announced a plan to add an “adversity score” to SAT results in 2019 but abandoned the plan due to criticism from parents and educators that students’ challenges are not quantifiable. Many college admissions officers use the College Board’s free Landscape tool — which provides information about the school and neighborhood students come from but does not provide a score — to learn more about students’ home lives.

GW’s 2023-24 Common Application is also piloting a new question that asks applicants if they spend more than four hours per week taking care of siblings, assisting or translating for family members, living independently, working outside the home or experiencing homelessness. Metjian said the question informs admissions officers of circumstances that influence an applicant’s academic

Provost Chris Bracey listens during a Faculty Senate meeting.

achievement and the applicant’s impact on others.

Raul Fernandez, a senior lecturer at Boston University’s Wheelock College of Education & Human Development, said proposals to evaluate students using the adversities they’ve faced to increase diversity at GW were “sound.” He said it seems like the GW administration has been thinking “proactively” in creating a process where students who would have benefited from affirmative action — like those

SAGE RUSSELL | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR

belonging to minority groups and underserved communities — have an equal opportunity as nonminority student applicants.

“These are all students that are competitive academically, but not all of them come from the same pedigree, right?” said Fernandez.

“Some of them are coming from boarding schools and private schools and the like, and others are coming from under-resourced high schools, sometimes in underresourced communities.”

Fernandez said the provost’s guidelines seem to be focused more on recruiting diverse applicants instead of students to whom an offer has already been extended, which if prioritized, could potentially help increase diversity. He said the University could reach out to students who have been accepted but who haven’t committed to a school as part of this outreach.

“They could do visits to communities, towns, cities where there’s a higher preponderance of

Geismar to amplify student voices with council representation, surveys From Page 1 “Advocating for the safety for both Jewish and Muslim students on campus is a necessary component of the battle against hate on campus and in our student community,” the order reads.

The order states that each council will receive $1,000 of Geismar’s executive budget to conduct surveys of students to gather data to back up their findings on what change students want the University to create to bolster their requests to administration. Both councils are also required to host a cultural celebration event like hosting a guest speaker or holding a celebration to highlight traditions, customs and values of each council before March 2024, per the order.

The creation of the two special councils follows rising tensions on campus after the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October. Student groups have hosted vigils, protests and walkouts in support of both Israelis and Palestinians.

Geismar said the new councils will provide student advocates with a direct voice to University administration to further help them advocate for change.

“This is in every way meant to supplement the

students of color and invite them out, meet them and their families and really make the case that there is an institution that the students and their families should choose,” Fernandez said.

James Murphy, the deputy director of higher education policy at Education Reform Now, said it is unlikely the new admissions guidelines created in response to the ban on affirmative action will have much effect on the diversity of GW’s student body. He said the lack of affirmative action will decrease diversity regardless.

“The effect of getting rid of the consideration of race in the admissions process almost certainly is going to lead to declines,” he said.

He said the idea of adversity ratings implies that students from racial minorities will be predominantly low-income or first-generation college students, which is not always the case. He said many selective schools have used tools like the College Board’s Landscape to assess adversity, but the impact has been minimal.

“Nothing correlates with race like race,” he said.

Murphy said GW could diversify its student body by recruiting more students transferring from local community colleges, eliminating legacy admissions and expanding financial aid programs like Pell Grants.

GW still considers applicants’ relation to GW alumni on applications, but legacy status does not guarantee admission or scholarships. Officials have not made changes to legacy admissions since the Supreme Court overturned affirmative action.

CRIME LOG THREATS TO DO BODILY HARM

Public Property on Campus (2000 Block of F Street) 11/26/2023 – 7:30 p.m.

Open Case A female student reported that a male subject threatened her while walking on the sidewalk.

Case open.

THEFT II/FROM BUILDING

Mitchell Hall (7-Eleven Store) 11/27/2023 – 5:13 p.m.

Closed Case GWPD officers responded to a store employee’s report of an unknown male subject stealing consumable goods. Officers canvassed the area with negative findings of the subject.

No identifiable subject.

FILE PHOTO BY RACHEL SCHWARTZ | SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Student Association President Arielle Geismar sits in the University Student Center.

student activism, organizing and networking already happening on campus, not replace it,” Geismar said.

“Students have created such a strong community, and this is meant to bolster the work students are already doing.”

The order states that students will be allowed to apply to be potential commissioners — who lead the council — and councilmembers. Geismar said in choosing potential members, her team is looking for students whose lived experiences correlate with the councils’

SNAPSHOT

goals.

In accordance with the Collaboration Act the senate passed earlier this year, each council will hold two commissioners — one chosen by the SA president and one by the senate. All four will be approved by the senate, and once commissioners are appointed, they will work with the Deputy Secretary of Faith and Religious Justice Persia Zurita, per the order.

Geismar said the two councils will replace the anti-semitism task force former SA President Christian

Zidouemba spearheaded in early 2023 during his term as president. She said under the new councils, students will be able to directly advocate to University administrators, instead of student leaders expressing opinions for the students.

“Rather than expressing students’ beliefs to administration, I wanted to create an avenue that allows students to platform their own voice and show that directly to admin,” Geismar said.

“There’s such a large variety of students who need to be heard by administration.”

JOSEPH DECILOS | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

CREDIT CARD FRAUD

Various Locations Reported 11/27/2023 – Multiple Dates and Times Closed Case A female student in Shenkman Hall reported that their former male roommate had stolen their credit card information and made unauthorized purchases.

Referred to the Division for Student Affairs.

OBSCENE TELEPHONE CALLS

University Student Center 11/28/2023 – 2:31-3:10 p.m.

Open Case A staff member reported that they received obscene phone calls from a male student who said he would receive more help if he came in with a baseball bat and damaged the office.

Case open.

THREATS TO DO BODILY HARM

Support Building 11/30/2023 – 12:46 a.m.

Closed Case GWPD officers responded to a report of a dispute between two contractors. The male contractor who was reported to be making threats to the female supervisor left the scene upon officers’ arrival.

No further action.

—Compiled by Max Porter

TWEETED Stop callin me I don’t wanna talk Darren Buchanan Jr. on 11/23/2023, before winning the Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week award The House of Pop celebrates its matriarch, Cake Pop, at a birthday party before its “Pop Off! Night of a 1,000 Cakes!” performance at the Pitchers bar in Adams Morgan on Thursday.

@DBUCHANANJR2

NEWS

December 4, 2023 • Page 5

THE GW HATCHET

Data indicates autonomy in Title IX process, director says From Page 1

Panelists address attendees at the discussion at the Elliott School of International Affairs.

PHILLIP CASTRO | PHOTOGRAPHER

Experts talk new Argentinian president, campaign strategies PHILLIP CASTRO REPORTER

Experts in Latin American politics discussed the effects of Argentina’s recent presidential election on the future of the country’s government at the Elliott School of International Affairs on Thursday.

University of Lisbon senior research fellow Andrés Malamud, American University professor of political science Agustina Giraudy and GW professor of international affairs Michael Shifter discussed Argentinian President-elect Javier Milei’s campaign promises and how he won the country’s presidential election last month. The panel was hosted by LATAM@GW and moderated by GW professor of international affairs Diego Abente-Brun.

Argentinians elected the farright libertarian with 56 percent of the vote Nov. 19 over the incumbent Minister of the Economy Sergio Massa. Milei — an economist and former television personality with little political experience — represents a break from left-wing Justicialist Party presidents, who have assumed the role for 16 of the last 20 years.

“This is the first time an outsider in Argentina has won an election,” Malamud said. “Never, never before has an outsider won an election.”

Malamud said Milei’s victory was possible because of his charisma and campaign that appealed to an “angry” electorate wanting change after many years of economic mismanagement. He said Milei — whose

party has seven out of 72 seats in the Senate of Argentina’s National Congress and 38 out of 257 in the lower Chamber of Deputies — doesn’t have enough seats to protect himself from an impeachment vote, let alone enough to pass his sweeping economic reforms like closing the Central Bank of Argentina and replacing Argentina’s national currency with the U.S. dollar.

“It’s not just the minority, it’s not that he lacks quality, it’s not that he’s not going to be able to pass his legislative agenda,” Malamud said. “He doesn’t even have a legislative shield — he doesn’t take a third of the seats in either chamber and you need a third of the seats in either chamber to block an impeachment proceeding.”

Malamud said Milei will need to form coalitions with other parties to stay in power, which means he will likely not be able to keep all his campaign promises.

Malamud said it is “unthinkable” that Milei won the presidency after making controversial comments calling former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher — who led Britain during the 1982 Falklands War against Argentina — one of the “great leaders” in humanity’s history and calling Pope Francis — an Argentinian — a “filthy leftist.”

Giraudy presented her research on the demographics of Milei’s voters at the event, who were predominantly “extremely” conservative men from younger generations with “authoritarian tendencies.”

“The Milei voter does not be-

lieve that democracy is the best type of regime,” Giraudy said.

Giraudy said younger voters are unfamiliar with the military dictatorship that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983 and committed many human rights crimes and extrajudicial executions.

“Argentina has lots of economic problems, but in terms of democratic stability and the value for democracy, it is a country that we should praise,” Giraudy said. “This is changing, and this is changing quite dramatically.

The younger generations don’t remember what happened in the 1970s.”

Shifter said Milei was acting “pragmatic” by walking back some of his “anarcho-capitalist” policies. He said Milei had promised to condemn and cut Argentinian trade and relations with communist countries but decided to support trade with China because they make up 10 percent of Argentinian exports.

Shifter said Milei has appointed many ministers from the administration of former President Mauricio Macri — a member of the center-right Republican Proposal party — to high-ranking posts like economy minister.

Shifter said the appointment may signal a shift away from his more extreme ideas and may cost him popular support in the long run.

“He’s making a lot of interesting moves, which you would expect from somebody who is called ‘El Loco,’” Shifter said.

“So, for a guy who knows nothing about politics and as an outsider, I think it’s something to watch closely.”

Of the 405 reports filed last academic year, 270 were cases of sexual harassment, 104 were sexual assault, 68 were stalking and 27 were dating violence. Eleven were domestic violence, two were retaliation in the Title IX process and 12 were requesting support for pregnancy and related conditions, according to the report.

In the 2021-22 academic year, 246 of the 380 reports filed were cases of sexual harassment, 126 were sexual assault and 77 were stalking, according to the office’s first-ever Title IX report last year. The office also received 29 reports of dating violence and 22 for pregnancy and parental services that year, per the 2021-22 report.

Reynolds said last year the Title IX Office tracked when there was an “unknown party” associated with the report, meaning the reporter did not provide the Title IX Office with a first and last name for either the complainant or the respondent. This year the report separated “unknown party” into “unknown complainant” and “unknown respondent,” she said.

Unknown respondents — individuals reported to be the perpetrator — represented the highest number of reported respondents with 170 reports, followed by 124 undergraduate students, 44 unaffiliated respondents, 31 graduate students, 16 faculty and 14 staff respondents, according to the report.

Reynolds said without the respondent’s identity, the Title IX Office can’t engage in the resolution process that determines whether there was a Title IX policy violation, but complainants can still access supportive measures.

“The high number of unknown respondents is directly related to how the Title IX Office strives to respect complainant autonomy throughout their engagement with the office,” Reynolds said. “One of the most common ways that is achieved is by not requiring a complainant to share the identity of a respondent unless they would like to.”

The report states that 272 complainants were undergraduate students, 71 were graduate students, 35 were unknown, 28 were non-GW

affiliates, 19 were staff and five were faculty.

Like the previous year, the majority of reports were filed by designated reporters — GW community members like faculty and staff who are required to report suspected or alleged sexual harassment to a Title IX Coordinator — who filed 253 reports, an increase from 217 the previous year. Complainants filed 110 reports on their own behalf, 26 students made reports on behalf of someone else, non-GW affiliates made six reports, those reported to be perpetrators made two and eight cases were reported anonymously, per the report.

The report states that similar to last year, the majority of complainants chose not to initiate a formal resolution — when the Title IX Office determines a policy violation occurred and considers subsequent disciplinary action — or an alternative resolution, when both parties and the University agree on a resolution. Almost 150 complainants chose to obtain supportive measures, 122 chose not to respond to the Title IX Office’s outreach email following the filing of their report and 84 chose not to request further action.

The report states that the Title IX office worked on four formal resolutions and five alternative resolutions to formal complaints, compared to seven formal resolutions and 12 alternative resolutions the previous year.

The Title IX Office, in conjunction with the Office of Advocacy and Support, also launched in June the Sexual Assault and Intimate Violence Helpline, a confidential resource for community members who have experienced sexual assault, sexual harassment, stalking, and dating and domestic violence, per the report. Reynolds said clinically trained professionals who can provide crisis counseling, safety planning and emotional support staff the helpline.

“In the immediate aftermath of an incident, it is important that community members have a resource that they can speak to confidentially regarding their option to report and what reporting might entail so that they can make an informed decision about whether reporting is right for them,” Reynolds said.

Who run the world? Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, students and faculty say ZAINAB RENTIA REPORTER

Miss Americana and Queen Bey have masterminded their way into the global spotlight, and students and professors delved into the varying discography and public perceptions of the two artists at Phillips Hall Friday.

First-year student Thomas Morningstar, Master’s of Business Administration candidate Zhangzhu Wan and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies professor and director Ashwini Tambe discussed Taylor Swift’s and Beyoncé’s contributions to feminism and appeals to LGBTQ+ audiences. The discussion is the latest installment of the WGSS program’s Pop Culture Tea Time series.

Wan, who grew up in China, said Beyoncé is positively perceived in the country but Taylor Swift holds a very negative reputation, although it has improved in recent years as more Chinese women embrace feminism.

“When it comes to sex and relationships, the general Chinese culture tends to be a little more conservative if we use the Western standards to look at it,” Wan said. “So, all of her boyfriends and writing music on them was not perceived well in China.”

Wan said Swift’s negative image in China has led many people to refer to her derogatorily as a “bus” because everyone can “get on” her, while her fans are referred to as “emissions” because they devotedly follow her.

Tambe said Beyoncé’s 2022 album “Renaissance” portrayed her breaking free from societal

RACHEL KURLANDSKY | PHOTOGRAPHER Panelists unpack the cultural impact of Taylor Swift and Beyoncé during the discussion at Phillips Hall.

expectations for women to act in a reserved and respectable manner. She said Beyoncé’s performances are much more “risky” than her earlier, more “dignified” performances.

Wan said Swift is the face of white feminism, an expression referring to a form of feminism that prioritizes white women.

Wan said she is worried that Swift’s immense influence and large fanbase — many of which she says are young, white feminists — might further the belief that white feminism is the “center” of feminism and detract from the complexity of issues plaguing women of color.

Morningstar said Swift’s song “The Man” portrays her attempt to assimilate into patriarchal society instead of trying to “combat” the structure. They said Beyoncé, however, tries to be “her own self” and asserts her femininity.

The group pivoted to unpack Beyoncé and Swift’s popularity among LGBTQ+ audiences, which they say comprises a significant portion of their fanbases.

Wan said Swift began showing her support for the LGBTQ+ community in her 2019 album “Lover” and many consider her song “Betty” from her album

“Folklore” to be Swift’s gay confession to the song’s subject, even though Swift said she wrote the song from a fictional persona.

Morningstar said much of Swift’s work could be considered queerbaiting — alluding to being part of the LGBTQ+ community when she is not — simply to gain more popularity. Morningstar said this could take attention away from LGBTQ+ artists.

“When you have the power, as I’ve said, you can very much easily take over the conversation, it can very much become just her voice,” Morningstar

said.

Tambe said Swift and Beyoncé have amassed strong influence among queer audiences for years. She said Beyoncé “directly” appealed to queer audiences for the first time in “Renaissance” by paying “homage” to house music — a genre that originated in queer clubs in the 1970s and 80s — which Tambe said is a “refuge” for marginalized people.

The group also debated the contrasting scope of the two artists’ music and their writing styles.

Morningstar said while Swift focuses more on “heartbreak” and “emotion” in her discography, Beyoncé’s music focuses on “liberation” from the struggles she faces in her life, citing her 2016 album “Lemonade” where she aired grievances about her marriage to rapper Jay-Z. Morningstar said they find it “interesting” that Swift consistently writes about her relationships instead of “promoting other aspects of her own self worth.”

Wan said Swift focuses on her personal experiences because she knows her emotional songs are more popular among her fans.

Wan said glorifying and contributing “aesthetic” to depression is a central part of Generation Z culture, and that Swift’s music is sad in a way many young people are able to resonate with, which lends to her popularity.

Tambe said Swift is a “confessional” songwriter because most of her songs draw from personal experiences. She said Beyoncé also exercises this method of songwriting, as seen in “Lemonade.”

OPINIONS

December 4, 2023 • Page 6

Opinions

WHAT THE UNIVERSITY WON’T TALK ABOUT THIS WEEK The number of reported academic integrity violations p. 1 FROM GWHATCHET.COM/OPINIONS “It is almost taboo to tell someone you have no idea what you’re majoring in — but that’s what college is for.”

—MADIE TURLEY on 11/30/2023

Intimidation, harassment have no place at GW STAFF EDITORIAL Where do we go from here?

That’s the question facing the University community after a “doxxing truck” displayed the names and faces of students reportedly involved in the Student Coalition for Palestine at GWU last Wednesday.

University officials rightfully condemned the truck, as did GW for Israel — it was a stunt meant to intimidate and threaten students, smearing members of the coalition as “GWU’s Leading Antisemites” instead of engaging with the students or their beliefs in good faith.

Debate and discourse is at the core of the University, and students have long interrogated ideas in the classroom, Kogan Plaza and on the streets of Foggy Bottom — even and especially unorthodox ones.

But the last two months have proved that debate and discourse are not without their challenges.

After targeting students at Harvard and Columbia universities in October, the arrival of the doxxing truck on campus last week underscores how fraught it has become for students to engage in speech and the steps GW must take to protect their ability to do so.

As University President Ellen Granberg and Dean of Students Colette Coleman alluded to in their statement on the truck, the University can’t control what outside groups do on public property. But when professional provocateurs seek to intimidate, harass or get a rise out of students

— regardless of whether they claim to be informing the public — officials must stick up for vulnerable members of the University community.

Granberg and Coleman said members of their staff “have contacted the students targeted and are providing resources and support,” which, while needed, strikes us as vague and not fully understanding of students’ concerns. Chants of, “You know who keeps us safe? We keep us safe” are cries for help — students are asking the University to support their safety.

GW might take notes from how Harvard responded to attempts to dox and harass its students.

Harvard has provided its students with guidance on how to request for false or harassing statements and personal information to be taken offline and created a specific task force to assist students who experience doxxing, harassment and online security issues.

Plastering a student’s name and likeness over the internet can push them into silence or send their mental health spiraling.

No one should have to hide who they are or what they believe for fear of retaliation, whether that means concealing their identity or refraining from expressing their sincerely held beliefs.

Critics of pro-Palestinian student organizations may note that free speech does not mean freedom from consequences. But would they condone harassment of

THE GW HATCHET

and threats of physical harm against those students? No matter how contentious the back-and-forth exchange of ideas can become, attempts to silence others have no place on our campus.

The issue isn’t so much that students’ names and faces have been shared well beyond Foggy Bottom but that someone may use that information to hurt them in light of Islamophobic attacks on Muslim and Palestinian students at GW, the fatal stabbing of a 6-yearold Palestinian American in Illinois, and a shooting in Vermont that injured three Palestinian college students.

Let us be clear: The doxxing truck was not just a “misguided and malicious effort,” as Granberg and Coleman said. Nor did it only endanger students.

Offering crude and crass smears in lieu of ideas is antithetical to everything the University stands for.

While there is no easy answer to the question of where we go from here, we’re going to have to face whatever the future brings — more vigils, protests and demonstrations, and more tragic loss of life — together. GW should rise to the occasion, hold true to its values and foster an environment where students can safely exchange their ideas.

Every student, no matter what they believe or how fiercely they critique the University, should know that GW cares about their safety and will do everything in its power to protect them.

Amid global conflict and campus tensions, officials’ words matter

W

ords matter. They reveal our values and principles, who we are and what we stand for. Words make up and represent narratives.

Good leaders articulate narratives that inspire people to come together as a community. They follow through with concrete actions to rally people around a shared purpose.

Shaista E. Khilji Guest Contributor University President Ellen Granberg’s recent community messages and GW’s decision to suspend Students for Justice in Palestine at GW for three months tell the sad story of how words without supporting actions ring hollow and how words can divide rather than bring together a community.

As a faculty member who has served GW for 18 years, I have read Granberg’s statements and those of other campus leaders with disappointment.

As a proud member of the GW community, I have watched these events unfold with regret, shame and dismay.

In the New York Times, Nicholas Kristof wrote that this war is a “knotty test of our humanity.” As Israel resumed its attacks on the Gaza Strip after a temporary truce, more than 15,000 Palestinians have lost their lives — a figure that represents nearly one out of every 200 Palestinians, according to the Washington Post. Save the Children estimates that one Palestinian child in

Gaza is being killed every 10 minutes.

Amid this heartbreaking tragedy and in rereading Granberg’s Oct. 11 message, I wonder if she was inclusive of Muslim and Arab faculty, staff, students and other pro-Palestinian voices in speaking of leading with compassion and understanding. I also wonder: How do we prove our worthiness of empathy to those who don’t consider us equal humans?

Dr. Amr Madkour and I are not alone in decrying the blatant dehumanization of Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims. Sadly, we are all too familiar with the casual demonization of Muslims and the frequent use of narratives to misrepresent our beliefs and “otherize” us in mainstream media and politics. It pains me to see universities, supposed bastions of democracy and free speech, treading the same path of intolerance.

I want to tell Granberg and other GW leaders that the University has let us down. Hence, when I read that the theme for GW’s Ninth Annual Diversity Summit was “A Call for Justice, Liberation & Empathy,” it felt like empty words.

I wondered what these words meant to Palestinian students given GW’s poor track record with them.

With these lofty claims, what is the justification for actively silencing Muslim, Arab and pro-Palestinian voices because they seek justice? What can undo the harm we have experienced?

I am not writing to evoke sympathy from GW leaders.

I write to fulfill my sense

of responsibility toward all students who feel silenced and isolated for highlighting the plight of Palestinians. I write on behalf of faculty and staff who are afraid to speak up for fear of retaliation and despite trepidations for my own safety.

I speak as a Revolutionary, whom GW describes as “not afraid to break boundaries” and willing to “go beyond what’s conventional or expected to focus on shifting mindsets.”

I feel obligated to humanize Palestinians, whom some on our country’s campuses have called “blood thirsty morally depraved animals.”

Palestinians are humans with dignity and have the right to freedom everyone deserves.

As humans, we all make mistakes. Our words may not always be perfect.

Hence, with each imperfect word, good leaders can find an opportunity to reflect, reach out and learn. I hope for it to happen at GW. I also hope my imperfect words communicate my pride in GW and depict the tormented souls many of us live with. Lest my imperfect words are twisted and misrepresented, I wish no one any harm or hurt.

Although saddened, I find the courage in me to remain optimistic for a just world where our political and institutional leaders are not beholden to their donors and board members.

They are encouraged — not prevented — to lead with moral clarity. I dare to dream!

—Shaista E. Khilji is a professor of human and organizational learning and international affairs.

Addressing the ANC’s attendance problem

A

s members of the Foggy Bottom and West End Advisory Neighborhood Commission take roll for their monthly meetings, it’s becoming difficult to ignore the empty seats.

And the commissioners who show up are becoming awfully familiar with the repetition of some regularly absent names.-

Matthew Donnell Opinions Columnist The ANC is facing an attendance problem. The body has a difficult time reaching a quorum to hold votes, which affects its ability to consider agenda items and recommend policies. If representatives can’t fulfill their basic responsibilities to the public, constituents should pressure their commissioners to show up to meetings.

A unique feature of D.C.’s Home Rule Charter, ANCs are supposed to advise federal agencies and the D.C. government on issues that impact the communities they represent. While ANCs are hardly political heavyweights in the capital’s network of government organizations, they can influence significant decisions.

When government agencies look to approve liquor licenses, rearrange traffic patterns or build homeless shelters, they are supposed to consider the relevant ANC’s input with “great weight.”

Foggy Bottom’s ANC elected two representatives in No-

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GIA KALYANI | CARTOONIST

vember to serve on the task force charged with overseeing The Aston’s conversion into a homeless shelter. But if commissioners continue to skip meetings, the fate of this redevelopment will suffer along with the people whom it’s meant to benefit.

And when commissioners fail to attend meetings, GW students lose what little

representation they have in the ANC. From state assemblies to both chambers of Congress, governing bodies nationwide are feeling the “sting of empty seats” in recent legislative sessions. Twenty-one lawmakers from both sides of the political aisle in the New Hampshire Legislature have participated in fewer

than 70 percent of votes this session. As a result, pivotal pieces of legislation can often be decided by a given day’s roll call. At the federal level, absences played a crucial role in determining the direction of each day’s votes during Kevin McCarthy’s turbulent, 15-round election for Speaker of the House.

Being present is the bare

minimum for elected officials at every level of government. Though illness and family-related absences are reasonable, commissioners have said that other members of the local governing body lack sound excuses for their truancy.

While ANC 2A Chair Jim Malec has already called on regularly absent commis-

sioners to resign, constituents should intervene before the Board of Elections is tasked with determining a method to appoint replacement representatives — who may or may not be just as absent as their predecessors.

Instead of relying on the D.C. government to fix the ANC’s attendance issues, constituents should email their commissioners, canvass the neighborhoods within ANC 2A and show up to ANC meetings to pressure their commissioners to do the same.

If commissioners can’t acknowledge the concerns of their constituents when they meet face-to-face, voters should elect candidates who will show up to meetings.

Now that constituents know about the body’s truancy problem, the next cycle’s election will focus on candidates’ attendance. Instead of hoping the same commissioners will change their behavior, constituents should encourage reliable friends and family members to run for ANC 2A seats.

Whether you serve in the halls of Congress or between the bookshelves at the West End Neighborhood Library, showing up to vote matters.

Commissioners are supposed to speak on behalf of their constituents, but community members will continue to lose their voice if representatives don’t show up to speak for them.

—Matthew Donnell, a senior majoring in political communication and English, is an opinions columnist.

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CULTURE

December 4, 2023 • Page 7

THE GW HATCHET

THE

Culture

SCENE

MIRACLE ON 22ND STREET Tuesday, Dec. 5 | Smith Center | Free Pregame GW’s men’s basketball game against Navy with free bratwurst and bops.

RELEASED

A VERY MERRY SWIFTMAS Friday, Dec. 8 | Wunder Garten | Free Swifties unite for this winter wonderland of music, mash-ups and more.

NEW MOVIE: “MAY DECEMBER”

THIS WEEK:

GW alum competing on ‘Survivor’ booted in blindside vote FIONA BORK

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

Kellie Nalbandian was waiting to leave for her night shift as a nurse when she got a text that made her jaw drop. She turned to her girlfriend sitting next to her, who asked what was going on, and simply replied: “Survivor.’’

The text was an invitation for the 30-year-old Nalbandian to compete in season 45 of “Survivor,” a competition TV show that involves a group of castaway contestants, 18 this season, who inhabit an island for 26 days and earn supplies through challenges that test the player’s physical and mental strength. The players compete to survive and win a cash prize of $1 million, with contestants voting out one of the players every episode until three remain and a jury of eliminated contestants decides the winner.

Nalbandian — a 2015 GW graduate with a bachelor’s degree in speech, language and hearing sciences and minors in biology and psychology from Weston, Connecticut, who works as a critical care nurse at New York Presbyterian Hospital and attends Yale University part-time — said she first started watching “Survivor” as a critical care nurse in New York City during the peak of the pandemic and applied to the show in January 2022.

After facing “death and despair” in her career, she decided that her life was too short to hold her back from anything, she said.

“I just kind of kept this thought in my head, I was like, I feel like maybe I could do this,” Nalbandian said.

GW alum Kellie Nalbandian perches against a tree on the Mamanuca Islands in Fiji.

Nalbandian traveled to the Mamanuca Islands in Fiji this spring for the filming of the 45th season of “Survivor.”

After 16 days, Nalbandian was a beloved ally and leader on the island. But in “Survivor,” that kind of influence makes you a threat — and a target. While Nalbandian rallied players to oust widely disliked contestant, Jake, a group of mutineers plotted behind her back to vote the GW alum off the island.

During the vote, the host, Jeff

Probst, counted off three ballots in a row for Jake. Players only needed five votes to get cast off the island.

Jake was two away.

Then, Probst pulled out a vote for Nalbandian. He pulled out a second, then a third, then a fourth.

Probst unfolded the final vote: Kellie.

“What the hell guys,” she said after the vote.

Nalbandian, the tenth player eliminated from the show of 18, said the vote was a “blindside.” She

COURTESY OF ROBERT VOETS/CBS

said she “blacked out” after Probst read the first few votes.

“I wanted to play the game so bad. I felt like I had more to play.

And that’s what you see is that devastation of all that hard work that I put into it,” she said.

While a student at GW, Nalbandian said she became an emergency medical technician and served as the president of the GW Emergency Medical Response Group her senior year. She said working as an EMT and later becoming a nurse

helped her develop stress management and relaxation skills that she applied to “Survivor.”

She said competing on the show reminded her of the summer of 2014, which she spent working as an orientation leader with a group of strangers for the Colonial Cabinet, the group of student leaders who direct GW’s orientation program. She attributed her time working on the cabinet to her success getting along with different types of people as a contestant on “Survivor.”

Nalbandian added that she came out as a lesbian while at GW and found comfort and acceptance from her orientation leaders while she was a first-year, which made her want to do the same for incoming students.

“That cabinet experience is, there’s nervous freshmen, everyone’s in a scary zone there, being able to be someone who provides accessibility and comfort in maybe a little bit of a chaotic situation, is what I think still serves me super well in the game,” she said.

Nalbandian said the hunger in “Survivor” is one of the most physically difficult parts of the game, but she got used to it. She said the constant stress of thinking about the game, like deciding how her team would eat that day and where the group would sleep, were the more challenging aspects.

“There’s no supplies, there’s nothing, like I barely ate,” she said.

Nalbandian said she would return to “Survivor” “in a heartbeat” if she were to be called back again for a return season.

“I loved every second,” Nalbandian said.

I can’t believe it’s not a Hillternship: Students branch out with fresh gigs SOFIA PAPARELLA REPORTER

When walking to class, you’ve probably seen classmates in business professional clothes transiting to and fro their Capitol Hill internships.

There exists a constant social pressure for GW students to multitask: be a student and gain solid professional experience. But not all GW professional opportunities have been completed on the Hill or in the White House.

Check out these unique internships to help inspire your own job hunt for the upcoming semesters.

A New Kind of Economic Game Theory

Keaton Dudley, a junior majoring in economics, said he challenges the traditional stigma of GW internships as a virtual intern for a game developer, Castix LLC. Dudley said he was tasked with creating ways in which a free-for-all game could simultaneously generate a profit for the developer.

In comparison to the typical “hillternships” GW students are notorious for doing, Dudley said his experience allowed him to apply economics in a creative professional atmosphere.

Dudley said he was given a lot of freedom to utilize his knowledge within his internship, whereas many congressional opportunities are refined and have orga-

nized set tasks.

“It wasn’t the traditional GW experience, where you’re in D.C, you’re going to Congress,” said Dudley.

Being Her Own Social Media Boss

While most GW professional experiences require students to work for someone else, Tess Mendelson, a senior majoring in journalism and mass communications, is her own boss.

Mendelson said she decided to take a leap of faith by founding her own creative consulting business, @tmcreativeconsulting on Instagram.

Mendelson said her selfmade internship holds her accountable for ensuring that the needs of her clients are met and that she continues to grow as a business.

She said she manages the social media accounts of her clients daily.

“I plan to do this full time once I graduate, so I think that’s pretty interesting,” Mendelson said.

Preventing the Future Fish Apocalypse

GW’s overwhelmingly political focus means the school’s scientific research is often not discussed. Olivia Fitzgerald, a sophomore majoring in biology, said she is one among many other students doing biological research with GW professors.

Fitzgerald said she works with Patricia Hernandez, a professor of biology, in the Hernandez Lab

studying the pharyngeal anatomy — the area just behind the nose and mouth — of three invasive carp species to help mitigate the disruption to the food web of large rivers in the Midwest. In simpler terms, she and the other scientists are trying to figure out why these types of fish are so successful at being invasive in their ecosystems.

May it Please the Court

GW might not be a sports school the way the University of Alabama is, but there are still opportunities for students to enter the sports world professionally. Abe Rothstein, a junior majoring in political science, does color commentary for GW women’s basketball on ESPN+. Rothstein said he got his start with the network after GW’s production team saw the coverage he had done for WRGW. Rothstein said he had not anticipated that working as a TV commentator with the GW production team would make him so passionate about sports. He said this professional experience in sports journalism has allowed him to expand beyond a typical 9-to-5 job on the Hill.

“I always thought I was gonna be like a politics person moving forward, and then this all happened and now I completely rethought everything I want to do moving forward,” Rothstein said.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY JORDAN TOVIN | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR A student surfs for unconventional internship offerings.

JORDAN TOVIN | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR A group of patrons await their food at Georgetown vegan eatery Green Almond Pantry.

Chronicles, capers and custard: My experience on a Georgetown food tour KIANNA GRAY REPORTER

Blue Fern Travel’s “Fork Tour” of Georgetown satisfies hunger and gives a taste of the history of the area.

Unlike some food tours that give small tastes of many restaurants, this food tour gives full portions from five spots around historic Georgetown. The experience is on the pricier side of D.C. attractions at $124 a person, but Blue Fern Travels seeks to make every dollar spent worthwhile.

My experience on the food tour began in the bustling Grace Street Collective, an open-concept collection of restaurants situated about a half-block away from the Georgetown waterfront. My mother, aunt, family friend and I embarked on this tour as a way to see a bit of the city and were excited for the experience despite the overcast weather forecast for the day. We met our tour guide, Soneka Anderson, at the vegan Green Almond Pantry.

With the fervor that only someone with a background in theater can muster, Anderson explained that the co-founders of the tour group, Mary Collins and Stefan Woehlke, founded “Fork Tours” as a way to help people eat like local Washingtonians.

She also quickly brought out the first dish of the tour:

a seasonal butternut squash tart with a roasted tomato soup. The tart was flaky with a creamy and rich filling, which contrasted the slightly tart and brothy soup. It was a phenomenal start to the food tour as a nostalgic, simple yet artfully made dish.

From there, we trekked through historic back alleys to Il Canale, an Italian restaurant that boasts Vera Pizza Napoletana certification demonstrating entirely authentic Italian ingredients and equipment. The restaurant sits next to the C&O Canal, which Anderson explained was a passion project of George Washington.

I ate melt-in-yourmouth meatballs with a bright tomato sauce and a side of bread with garlic-infused olive oil. Then there was a hint of spice from a Diavola pizza topped with Calabrese salami and Buffalo mozzarella on a woodfired crust that added both crunch and airiness.

The walk to the next stop was cut short by the uncooperative weather. Yet Anderson was set on making up for this inconvenience by taking a detour to Compass Coffee while we waited on our falafel from a small standing-room-only location of Falafel Inc. that prides itself on providing locally sourced food at affordable prices.

The pita was overflowing with pickled cabbage,

falafel, cucumbers and various sauces. Each bite brought a different flavor: tangy, spicy, nutty and fresh. Falafel Inc can also be found right in Foggy Bottom inside Western Market.

From there, the tour ended on a sweet note at the Brasserie Liberté with the dish that wowed me the most. I have been thinking about this awe-striking creme brulee ever since I took my first bite. Breaking through the thin crunch of caramel into the creamy vanilla custard made a balanced bite regarding both flavor and texture. The custard even had specks of vanilla that stuck to the dish at the end, practically calling on me to scrape the last bits of the divine dessert despite being fuller than imaginable at that point.

Unlike waiting in the District’s constant lines, this tour gets you in and out of some of the best restaurants without a wait and takes care of all the planning for you. With commentary about where young JFK lived or whom you may see in the nation’s oldest ongoing jazz club, Anderson’s poignant humor and spunk made this an unforgettable way to leave the Foggy bubble.

While the typical student budget may not often accommodate this price, it is a great activity for parents’ weekend or a way to treat yourself after finishing grueling finals.

December 4, 2023 • Page 8

Sports

SPORTS

THE GW HATCHET

GAMES OF THE WEEK

MEN’S BASKETBALL

SWIMMING AND DIVING

Saturday Swimming and diving travels to Columbus, Ohio, to compete at the Speedo Junior Nationals from Wednesday through Saturday.

vs. Navy Tuesday | 7 p.m.

Navy crosses the Potomac to take on the Revs.

NUMBER CRUNCH

2.8

Blocks per game for graduate student center Babatunde Akingbola, which leads the A-10

New Kids on the Court: Freshmen thrive under Caputo GRANT PACERNICK REPORTER

Freshmen have flourished at GW — and it’s no rookie mistake.

Men’s basketball Head Coach Chris Caputo’s tenure since arriving to Foggy Bottom last year is perhaps best highlighted by the success of the rookies under his stewardship.

Maximus Edwards nabbed the Atlantic 10’s Rookie of the Year honors last season after averaging 10.7 points per game, and redshirt freshmen forwards Garrett Johnson and Darren Buchanan Jr. have already won three A-10 Rookie of the Week awards this season.

“I think we do a good job of teaching guys how to be successful in terms of what are the things that translate from high school basketball to college basketball,” Caputo said.

The Revolutionaries’ roster this season is loaded with transfers and freshmen, giving many players the chance to star

in collegiate contests for the first time in their careers.

And freshmen haven’t backed down from the opportunity — the young guns account for four of the team’s top seven scorers, sparking a 6-2 start to the campaign.

The Revolutionaries swept the first three A-10 Rookie of the Week awards of the season, with Johnson taking home the award the first two weeks after a red-hot start to the season. Johnson’s season has been especially sweet considering the adversity he faced in the leadup to his collegiate debut — he missed a season at Princeton and subsequently dropped out after being diagnosed with a benign tumor in his hip, and it was unclear if he would ever get another shot to play basketball.

Johnson garnered national headlines for his performance in his NCAA debut against Stonehill last month in which he scored 21 points and pulled down nine boards. But, while Johnson said his teammates

have helped the squad gel while on the court, he said Caputo helped develop the spirit used to dazzle in his first competitive basketball games in two years.

“So even though we have a lot of inexperienced young guys, he gives us confidence to go play our game and do what we’re good at,” Johnson said.

After Johnson won the honors two weeks in a row, Buchanan took home the rookie crown in the last full week of November, averaging 17.3 points per game at the Baha Mar Hoops Nassau Championship in the Bahamas. Buchanan redshirted last year at Virginia Tech, leaving a Power 5 conference to play at Foggy Bottom, much like Edwards who redshirted his first season at Kansas State after becoming injured in the preseason.

“I feel good to win that award that shows how much work I’ve been putting in and just trusting what the coaches have been telling me throughout practice in the offseason,” Buchanan

said. “And now to finally see it come to light.”

Buchanan may be in an intrateam competition with Johnson to see who can win more A-10 Rookie of the Week awards before the end of the season — or who might win A-10 Rookie of the Year — but he too recognizes how hard Johnson had to work to get back on the court.

“It’s a friendly competition with me and G right now,” Buchanan said.

“But at the end of the day, I’m happy for him, because everybody knows G’s story and what he’s been through.

So I tell him every day, ‘Bro, just keep going.’”

For the Revolutionaries, youth runs deep. With more rookies than returners, true freshmen guards Trey Autry and Jacoi Hutchinson have stepped up early. The pair have each averaged more than 20 minutes per game so far, picking up valuable experience before the start of conference play.

“We are playing younger players,” said Caputo. “Trey and Jacoi are amongst

the leaders in minutes for freshmen in the league.”

The younger guys on the squad have no shortage of mentorship, looking to veterans on the team like graduate student guard James Bishop IV for leadership. Buchanan said Bishop, Edwards and graduate transfers Antoine Smith Jr. and Babatunde Akingbola provide teaching moments to the rookies.

Conference play kicks off next month and the freshmen will have to continue their hot starts to knock off A-10 stalwarts like Dayton.

“We want to win the Atlantic 10,” Johnson said.

“We know we’re good enough to do it.”

But, even if the year doesn’t go exactly according to plan, there’s always next year for the plethora of young men.

“We have a really promising future and if we stick together, I think we’ll do some special things here in the next couple years,” Johnson said.

RILEIGH REPOVICH | PHOTOGRAPHER

Men’s basketball falls to South Carolina in biggest loss of season KRISTI WIDJAJA REPORTER

COLIN WAGNER | PHOTOGRAPHER Senior forward Ethan Redden glides across the ice during the match against Georgetown.

Men’s club ice hockey takes down Georgetown 6-1, wrapping up semester CARRIE MCGUINNESS REPORTER

Friday night saw men’s club ice hockey conclude their semester by securing a 6-1 victory against Georgetown at the St. James Arena, finishing with a 7-2 semester record.

This game was the third match-up between the two D.C. teams this year. In the first, a Sept. 23 game at Capital One Arena, the Revs were shut out by the Hoyas 0-3. The Revs would avenge the loss in a Sept. 29 match-up which they would narrowly win, 5-4.

The team is also coming off a three-game winning streak and tournament win in the Atlantic Coast Conference Hockey League Hockey Tournament.

In the first period, Georgetown attempted three shots on goal that were saved by sophomore

goalkeeper Sage Yoke, who saved 22 out of 23 attempted shots. After Georgetown was awarded a penalty shot, the Hoyas managed to slide the puck into the net at 6:17 into the period. Freshman defenseman Sawyer Von Jess responded with a slap shot seconds later, tying the game.

After Georgetown received a tripping penalty, junior defenseman and captain Cade Llewellyn took advantage of the penalty and scored at 4:08 in the first period. The Revs built themselves a comfortable lead in the first quarter, scoring two goals just seconds apart, both by senior forward Clendenin Stewart.

Stewart was assisted on both shots by junior forward Shawn Montgomery and sophomore defenseman Justin Holt. By the end of the first period, GW built a strong lead, ending the

period up 4-1.

The second period saw Stewart score his third goal of the game at the 16:35 mark, stretching the GW lead to 5-1. During GW’s power play, senior forward Ethan Redden scored 11 minutes into the period off an assist from Llewellyn.

In the final 10 minutes, the Hoyas and Revs both struggled to get the puck in the net and the Revs remained in control 6-1.

The third period saw both teams suffer a scoring drought. Ultimately, the Revs came away victorious, winning 6-1.

The Revs will not resume play until the start of the new year, affording them time to learn from this game and prepare for next semester’s slate.

The Buff and Blue will take on Loyola University in Baltimore, Maryland, on Jan. 19 at 8:15 p.m.

Men’s basketball suffered their second loss of the season against South Carolina on Friday, falling to the Gamecocks 67-89.

The Revs struggled to score all game while failing to stop a series of South Carolina offensive runs. GW had high hopes going into the contest, the Gamecocks are the Rev’s only Power Five opponent this season and.

Redshirt freshman forward Darren Buchanan Jr. led the Revs with 18 points and six rebounds on 54.5 percent shooting from the field. Senior guard James Bishop IV scored 14 points and freshman guard Trey Autry notched 13 points on 62.5 percent shooting from the field.

The Revs got off to a

slow start, shooting at an 11.1 percent clip in the first five minutes as two 3-pointers from junior guard Meechie Johnson put the Gamecocks up 3-13.

Buchanan responded with back-to-back buckets in the sixth minute to cut the deficit to 6, 7-13.

The teams continued to exchange blows throughout the first half, punctuated by a fast-break layup from Autry, which he followed with a 3-pointer assisted by Bishop to cut the Gamecock lead to 26-30 with about six minutes to go in the half.

After the burst, a missed 3-pointer from sophomore guard Maximus Edwards led to a 7-0 run for the Gamecocks, which staved off the comeback attempt.

Edwards struggled all game, going 2-for-12 from the field for four points, well below his season

average of 15.1.

In the first minute of the second half, Buchanan notched four points on a pair of free throws and a fast-break dunk to cut the score to 36-42.

After a jumper in the paint from Buchanan brought them within 6, the Gamecocks went on a 14-0 run, extending the South Carolina lead to 20 points at 45-65 with 9:16 remaining.

The Gamecocks didn’t relent, hitting three 3-pointers of their own to maintain a 73-54 lead.

South Carolina made 18 3-pointers on a 51.4 percent clip on the night, setting a new program record.

The Revolutionaries will play their next six games at the Smith Center, where they remain undefeated, . They tip off against Navy on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

FILE PHOTO BY RACHEL SCHWARTZ | SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Senior guard James Bishop IV cuts across the court during a game last year.

Why two volleyball players kneel for the national anthem at their games From Page 1 “I think it is also hard to stand for a country who you’ve repeatedly seen oppress people that look like you,” Robinson said. “And some of the social issues going on with this country, I don’t agree with and I think are morally wrong. And so for those reasons, I kneel to make a statement against, not supporting, the things that this country is putting people through.”

Both Robinson and Stewart said while kneeling initially felt daunting, the support of their teammates and coach made them feel more comfortable, especially at the Smith Center. Robinson said her experience kneeling last

season played a “big part” in building the confidence she now wields.

“Last season had a big part in building that confidence and bravery,” Robinson said. “We had incredible leaders to look to to help us foster that confidence.”

One of those leaders, Tierra Porter, was a former teammate and is a current graduate assistant for the George Washington Athletics Educational Support Services, and she also knelt during her time with the team. The pair said seeing Porter kneel helped them gain the confidence to kneel themselves.

“I looked up to Tierra a lot,” Robinson said. “And so her kneeling also motivated me to kneel.”

Head Coach Katie Reifert said she supports her players’ decision to kneel and that she is “incredibly proud” of them for standing up for what they believe in.

“It’s something that, you know, to put yourself on that stage to be judged, is incredibly brave,” Reifert said. “And the fact that that’s something that they thought about very deeply and decided to do together, inspired by their teammates, which I think is also beautiful.”

While Stewart and Robinson recognize there are “many different perspectives” on kneeling during the anthem as a form of protest, both emphasized they mean no disrespect toward veterans and the military by kneeling.

“In the media, a lot of the time, people like to paint kneeling as disrespectful to the American flag, as disrespectful to people who have served for our country,” Stewart said. “So I wanted to highlight that just to make people aware that it’s not any of that, because I very much respect the people that have served for my country. My grandfather served for our country.”

Robinson shared Stewart’s sentiment and added that she feels there’s a fundamental lack of understanding between people who choose to kneel and their critics.

“There needs to be an understanding between people who don’t understand why you do it

and then people who are actually doing it,” Robinson said. “I fully respect people who are committed to committing their lives to fighting for this country. A lot of my friends’ parents are in the military or have fought for them. So when I kneel, it’s not a disrespect to them.”

Despite such misunderstandings, Robinson said kneeling is an effective tool to remind people of social issues that have gone unresolved, like police brutality.

“It can be easy to ignore or forget,” Robinson said. “These things are just happening on a loop, and until real change starts happening, it needs to be a continuous conversation that can’t be put on the back burner.”