Vol-120-Iss-14

WWW.GWHATCHET.COM

Monday, December 11, 2023 I Vol. 120 Iss. 14 INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER • SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

What’s inside

Holiday Guide pages 8-10

Aston delay worries housing advocates as winter arrives ERIKA FILTER NEWS EDITOR

The District’s delayed opening of a shelter for medically vulnerable unhoused people in a former GW residence hall is exacerbating festering problems in D.C. housing, especially as winter temperatures drop and raise the risk of hypothermia for unhoused people, community leaders and advocates said.

The Aston’s shelter was originally slated to open last month but is now projected for the spring or summer of 2024 when it will house about 100

people matched to housing resources, mixed-gendered adult families and people with temporary medical conditions. Local housing advocates said the delay may form an affordable housing bottleneck as more people look for stable warmth during hypothermia season.

“We know that people are tragically likely to die on the streets in hypothermia season without having the shelter as a resource in the neighborhood,” said Courtney Cooperman, who works as a housing advocacy organizer with the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

In 2022, at least 77 unhoused people died in the District, three of whom died as a result of hypothermia. D.C. has issued 12 hypothermia alerts since Nov. 1, according to the District’s official emergency communications system.

D.C. Department of Human Services Chief of Staff David Ross said at a meeting last month that officials postponed the opening of The Aston for up to six months due to delays in fi nding a provider, an impending lawsuit that unnamed neighbors fi led in an attempt to halt the conver-

sion and an unclear construction timeline. Ross said the agency is still in contract negotiations to select a provider to oversee case management and building operations for the former GW residence hall.

Unhoused people have a right to shelter when the temperature drops to 32 degrees Fahrenheit or below, according to D.C. law. The District opened nine overflow shelters this winter and additional space at two year-round shelters, offering an extra 700 beds for people.

See END Page 4

Santos and spice and everything nice: A major-bymajor gift guide MADIE TURLEY REPORTER

While shopping for family members you’ve known your whole life might be easy, trying to find gifts for new friends at GW might be challenging.

Rather than buying your roommate a candle or another pair of slippers, try the more adventurous gifting-by-major.

No matter if you’re shopping for chatterbox international affairs majors or the biggest business buff around, use this gift guide to find just what to get your friends this holiday season.

For the Political Science Major

This year, jolly old George Santos has blessed us with a new holiday gift: appearances on Cameo, a website where patrons can buy personalized videos from celebrities.

While your political science friend may not have gotten their dream internship, you can give them something better. For just $500, Santos will feed your political science major’s delusions. You can request inspiring words like, “Yes, your major will be very useful in the real world” and “You’re not like other political science majors.” Santos has an impressive professional record for dishing out lies to the public — telling a couple more about the utility of your friend’s major shouldn’t be an issue.

For the International Affairs Major

SAGE RUSSELL | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR Dozens of students led a protest in Kogan Plaza on Friday demanding an end to Israel’s siege on the Gaza Strip while others jumped rope, ate snacks and relaxed in the sunny weather just feet away.

Acceptance rate drop brings GW closer to peers, experts say LAUREN SIMON REPORTER

GW’s undergraduate acceptance rate dropped by more than five percent this year, according to the University’s annual enrollment update presented at a Faculty Senate meeting last month.

GW accepted 43.5 percent of applicants for the 2023-24 academic year — an intentional 5.5 percent decrease from the 49 percent rate in the 2022-23 year and 49.7 percent acceptance rate in 2021 — placing the University’s selectivity in line with 2020’s acceptance rate of 43 percent.

Vice Provost for Enrollment and Student Success Jay Goff said

acceptance rates can fluctuate based on several factors, like the quality of applicant pools.

Goff declined to comment on why officials set a goal to lower the acceptance rate for 2023 and what practices officials implemented to achieve a lower acceptance rate.

Last year, experts said GW’s acceptance rate hike from 43 percent to 49 percent could deter some applicants who care about selectivity when choosing what university to attend. Despite the reduced acceptance rate this academic year, the number of applicants has remained relatively steady. GW received 27,094 applications in 2023 and admitted

11,798 students, compared to 27,266 applications and 13,354 admitted students in 2022.

Officials aimed to enroll between 2,500 and 2,550 first-year students in 2023, the lowest number since 2020, and 2,539 students matriculated into the University, according to the enrollment update. In 2022, GW enrolled 2,941 new first-year students, the largest new class since 2018.

“Due to a decrease in international applications as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as a smaller pandemic class of 2020, the university saw additional capacity for a larger firstyear class in 2022,” Goff said in

an email.

The national average acceptance rate for private colleges was 70 percent in 2021.

Out of GW’s 12 peer schools, only two — Syracuse University and the University of Pittsburgh — had higher acceptance rates than GW in 2022, with 52 percent and 49 percent respectively.

GW and its peer schools had an average acceptance rate of 23.6 percent in 2021, according to institutional data.

Experts in higher education administration say officials may have reduced GW’s acceptance rate to make the University’s selectivity more similar to peer institutions.

Don’t waste your money on gifts for your friends in international affairs.

They already have their holiday gift set out for them: the dinner table.

The holiday gathering is when the devil’s advocate’s reign of terror hits its peak, as they turn the dinner table into their podium. They’ve been cooped up since fall break and just can’t wait to share their new revelations on public policy with their family who doesn’t care.

Since steering away from politics never succeeds, this year, do your friend’s family a favor and help them avoid in-depth foreign affairs chatter.

Buy your Elliott friend’s extended family a set of ultra-protective earplugs to avoid hearing more predictions about 2024 world events.

Remind the family to nod and smile every once in a while, but if they’re lucky, your IA-loving friend may wear themselves out by dessert. Just make sure the family fights the urge to counter any arguments — or else the earplugs will have to stay in until New Year’s.

For the Business Major

There’s nothing better during the holidays than curling up next to a warm fire on a snowy evening for a movie night. For the business major, give them a DVD of a movie they’re sure to have not seen: “The Wolf of Wall Street.”

This melodrama feels like a motivational and feel-good film for people who spend all day learning how to mix up the terms “selling” and “scamming.”

In fact, Jordan Belfort, the lead operator, was a graduate of American University — the D.C. undergraduate experience continues to produce such humbled and dignified young adults.

A ‘moral monster’ and the lobotomy’s legacy at GW NIKKI GHAEMI FEATURES EDITOR

In 1941, Rosemary Kennedy, the sister of future President John F. Kennedy, was taken to GW Hospital.

The 23-year-old had dealt with an array of mental and physical health struggles throughout her life, including intense mood swings, seizures, irritability and depression. Her father, Joseph Kennedy, authorized a procedure considered at the cutting edge of psychiatry, a possible cure for even the most hopeless cases: the prefrontal lobotomy.

Joseph put his trust in psychiatrist Walter Freeman, the first chairman of the neurology department in the School of Medicine at GW, who pioneered the lobotomy, a brain surgery in which doctors sever neural pathways in individuals with mental disorders. Despite pleads from Rosemary’s siblings not to pursue the procedure, Joseph approved the surgery, which Freeman performed with neurosurgery department head James Watts, without telling his wife, Rosemary’s siblings and, allegedly, even Rosemary herself.

At the time, laws allowed fathers and husbands to make medical decisions for women. It would be decades until the law allowed women increased autonomy.

Freeman likely ordered medical staff to shave Rosemary’s head upon her arrival for the procedure, according to research presented in Kate Clifford Larson’s book “Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy

AN NGO | GRAPHICS EDITOR

SOME IMAGES COURTESY OF GELMAN LIBRARY

Daughter.” Staff strapped patients’ feet to operating tables, shaved the top of their heads and masked their line of sight with towels and drapes while performing “unnamed tortures,” Larson wrote.

Andrew Scull, a research professor of sociology at the University of California, San Diego, said Freeman and Watts “very unsuccessfully” operated on Rosemary.

“She was rendered incompetent and barely able to walk and talk,” Scull said.

“She lived for many decades but in a very badly damaged state.”

Freeman described the aftermath of lobotomies as “surgically induced childhood” and argued it was a “necessary stage in the patient’s recovery,” according to “The Lobotomy Letters: The Making of American Psychosurgery” by Mical Raz, a professor of history and clinical medicine at the University of Rochester. She wrote that through letter correspondence and professional settings, Freeman would reassure concerned family members of lobotomy patients who became “uncooperative” and “childish” following the procedure by saying their behavior was a temporary stage that preceded their recovered personality.

But Rosemary never reached that point.

She was institutionalized at St. Coletta, a care institution for people with disabilities in Jefferson, Wisconsin, away from the rest of her immediate family after 1941 until she died in 2005 at age 86.

See FREEMAN Page 4

NEWS

December 11, 2023 • Page 2

News

THE GW HATCHET

THIS WEEK’S

EVENTS

LINKING THE EUROPEAN AND ASIAN THEATERS?

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: COMMUNICATING WITH URGENCY

Tuesday, Dec. 12 | 6 p.m. | Science and Engineering Hall Attend a lecture by Iceland’s Ambassador to the United States Bergdís Ellertsdóttir about Iceland’s position in climate-change debates.

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY Dec. 16, 1968

Wednesday, Dec. 13 | 2 p.m. | Elliott School of International Affairs Join the Institute for Korean Studies for a discussion about the strategic implications of new North KoreaRussia relations.

An outbreak of influenza prompted officials to cancel all remaining classes and exams left in the semester, with the number of infected students swelling to about 50 percent in some residence halls.

Biology students pen letter outlining years of facilities issues in Bell Hall ERIKA FILTER NEWS EDITOR

RACHEL MOON

CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR

Students and faculty working in Bell Hall say recurring facilities problems have hindered their research and created an unsafe environment in the building for at least four years.

More than a dozen graduate students in the biology department penned a letter last week to all six deans of the Columbian College of Arts & Sciences expressing concerns over fluctuating temperatures, black mold, asbestos, ceiling leaks, vermin and malfunctioning windows in the building. Students wrote the letter after years of frustration with the building’s quality, which reached a tipping point last month when a second person broke their finger while opening a window to remedy the unreliable air conditioning.

The letter requests the University and CCAS take “safety seriously” and asked for a meeting with CCAS leadership. Officials scheduled a meeting for Dec. 13 between four graduate students and a group of University leaders including CCAS Dean Paul Wahlbeck and Senior Associate Vice President of Facilities, Planning, Construction and Management Baxter Goodly, per one graduate student.

The letter states that a facilities worker crushed her finger while opening a malfunctioning window to air out and cool down the fourth-floor men’s bathroom on Nov. 9, just eight months after Pooja Anilkumar, a first-year doctoral student, broke her finger trying to close a window propped up using a wooden tool in her fourth-floor lab.

Anilkumar said she was concerned she would not be able to afford medical treatment because she is new to the United States. After taking painkillers for three days, she went to the hospital because she could not bear the pain and could not hold large jars or cook because of the splint for her finger, she said. The University agreed to pay her $2,500 for her treatment after email exchanges with officials, she said.

“On the very next morning, it was extremely painful and I was

HATCHET FILE PHOTO

The University Yard entrance to Bell Hall.

not able to sleep,” Anilkumar said.

She said her injury stemmed from a greater issue with inconsistent air conditioning in the building. Facilities workers responding to FixIt tickets will temporarily fix the building’s temperature, making it either warmer or cooler, which will be stable for one to two days before changing again, she said.

“They really cannot do anything because this building is so old and it’s such an old system,” Anilkumar said.

The letter lists 40 FixIt tickets submitted by students and faculty dating back to 2019 for inconsistent air conditioning, 14 tickets for water leaks, seven tickets for both power outages and plumbing, six tickets for mold and one ticket each for windows, moths, wasps and mice.

Hatchet reporters visited Bell Hall the day after graduate students sent the letter to officials and observed animal droppings in a fourth-floor room as well as what appeared to be mold on the first floor.

University spokesperson Julia Metjian said the FixIt tickets listed

in the letter date back to 2019 but were “largely isolated” and have since been resolved. She said Bell Hall is not slated “to be taken offline” in the near future after The Hatchet asked if officials plan to shut down the building for longterm repairs.

“GW Facilities appreciates the effort that went into the letter detailing issues in Bell Hall and takes these issues seriously,” Metjian said in an email.

But students and faculty working in Bell Hall, which was constructed in 1935, said in the letter the building’s conditions have created a dangerous environment to conduct research and teach classes.

The letter includes photos of temperatures in the hall fluctuating between 59 and 89 degrees Fahrenheit.

Pietro Tardelli Canedo, a thirdyear doctoral student who coordinated the letter, said he and other students felt they had to write after the second air conditioning-related injury in the building.

“That was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Tardelli Canedo said.

He said his laboratory frequent-

ly gets too hot for the reagent he uses for his doctoral research to extract DNA to work properly because the reagents only function between 15 and 25 degrees Celsius.

“When is my temperature going to be cool enough that I can do my experiments?” Tardelli Canedo said. “I think that’s the root of the issue.”

He said the National Science Foundation extended his doctoral research grant because of the pandemic, but he has been unable to start the lab work because of the building’s “unstable” temperature.

“I lost an entire semester just waiting for them to fix the AC situation,” Tardelli Canedo said.

Jennie Brennan, a fifth-year doctoral student, said she has observed water leaks in the basement since she arrived at GW. She said she vacated her former office in Bell Hall’s basement in 2021 after repeated leaks damaged her surge protector, computer mouse and lamp, which she had to replace.

“I stopped using this space because water just pours out of the ceiling and seeps out of the concrete onto my desk,” Brennan said.

“But it’s brown water.”

She said she has not observed a pattern to the leaks but that facilities workers tried between 2020 and 2023 to identify the source of the leak by flushing toilets and checking for a correlation with rain, pipes or air conditioning. She said when she returned to campus in 2020 after the pandemic, she saw that one of her lab mates had placed a rain fly from a tent over her cubicle to protect it from leaking water.

“I came back and there was a tent over my desk and wet carpet,” Brennan said.

GW secured a permit in May 2016 to renovate the first and second floors of the building, including demolition, mechanical and electrical work and new partitions, according to D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs permit records. DCRA issued another permit to begin work on the project, including demolishing classrooms and the lobby, in April 2016. GW most recently secured a permit for a plumbing review in June 2019, per DCRA records.

Catherine Forster, the director of the Geological Sciences Program housed in Bell Hall, said she has had mold in her lab three times, most recently about four or five years ago, and that she has since placed a dehumidifier in her lab to prevent future mold outbreaks. She said around the same time, facilities workers reconstructed a corner of her lab because rats were inside the walls.

“One of my students during the first mold infestation who was allergic to mold, he had to move out of the lab until they cleaned it up,” Forster said.

She said the electrical room is humid and usually contains standing water, which caused a mosquito infestation and black mold one summer. She said an electrician once told her it “rains” in the electrical room because of its humidity.

Water has damaged boxes and drawers of geological samples in the storage room and the basement of Lisner Hall, Forster said.

She said the geology program’s space in Lisner Hall, which is connected to Bell Hall, has previously flooded and has similar structural and temperature problems.

“I like Bell Hall, I like it a lot, but you never know from day to day what you’re going to get,” Forster said.

GW had ‘strong’ financial performance in FY23, officials say IANNE SALVOSA NEWS EDITOR

Associate Vice President and University Controller Neena Ali said GW’s $5 billion in assets indicate a “strong” financial performance and liquidity in fiscal year 2023 at a Faculty Senate meeting Friday.

Ali said GW had $5 billion in total assets in fiscal year 2023 — $24 million more than in FY 22 — which allows officials to cash in some of its investments in the event of an emergency.

She said GW is a “tuitiondependent University” because tuition revenue made up 57 percent of GW’s operating revenue in FY 23, with patient care and investments comprising the remaining 43 percent, and auxiliary revenue increased by $19 million due to additions last academic year like GW’s new dining plans.

The report also included new commitments reported by the Division of Development, including that the University received about $20 million less in “bequest intentions” in FY 23 and received $402,000 less in “Hillel gifts.” The report also stated that GW received more than $21 million less in “grants for sponsored projects.”

“We only recognize the money when we receive it because donors can always change their mind,” Ali said at the meeting.

She said GW had $2.8 billion in investments, largely made up of the University’s endowment, a financial foundation used to fund professorships, scholarships and construction projects largely from donations. She said the endowment market performed well and experienced a 9.9 percent increase in FY 23, surpassing the 8.8 percent benchmark.

She said the World Bank building is no longer an option for investments but the University now owns the building, which they can earn $7 million in rental income from. Officials purchased 600 19th St. NW from the World Bank in December 2022 for $11.5 million.

Ali said she did not plan to discuss the Medical Faculty Associates, a group of physicians that teaches at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, but she said she is “sure” that the MFA will be able to pay back their debt to the University. The MFA has accumulated about $200 million in debt to the University and lost $80 million in FY 23 and FY 22.

Data attached to the meeting agenda showed the MFA’s expenses exceeded its revenue by $27 million in the first quarter of FY 24, according to the update by the senate’s Fiscal Planning and Budgeting Committee. The data was not discussed at the meeting.

The update states that the MFA made $90.7 million in revenue in the first quarter of FY 24. Net patient service revenue decreased from $54.4 million in FY 23 Q4 to $53.5 million in FY 24 Q1 due to high provider turnover, according to the update.

The results state that the MFA experienced “unrealized” gains and losses from investments related to the sale-leaseback of 2300 M St. NW — an MFA building that officials put up for sale in November 2022 with the intent of signing a long-term lease for the property — contributing to a drop in nonnet patient service revenue.

In the October senate meeting, faculty senators asked to view and discuss the MFA’s Q1 results at the November meeting, but Chief Financial Officer Bru-

no Fernandes said he would like the MFA’s new CFO, Robin Nichols, to have a chance to review the results before presenting them to the senate.

Fernandes said there are “headwinds” in certain programs’ finances, but the University as a whole is “on target.”

Philip Wirtz, a faculty senator and professor of decision sciences and psychological brain sciences, said he heard from a Columbian College of Arts & Sciences official that the school would receive a 15 percent budget cut. He said officials had not “properly” projected last year, leading to higher expenses than revenues.

“I would have thought that by now we would have learned our lesson,” Wirtz said at the meeting.

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Chair Ilana Feldman said the committee discussed freedom of expression, which are “bedrocks” of the University, after officials’ “recent actions” that could be interpreted as a weakening of officials’ commitment to freedom of speech. She said the GW community should reaffirm their commitment to the freedom of expression.

“FSEC underscored the importance of affirming and supporting this commitment,” Feldman said at the meeting.

She said the Faculty Assembly, an annual meeting of the faculty, held a virtual meeting last week to approve this year’s and last year’s minutes, which faculty could not do during their annual meeting last month since they failed to reach quorum.

University President Ellen Granberg said she attended a conference for university presidents and chancellors last week and discussed the macroeconomic conditions

DANIEL HEUER | PHOTOGRAPHER Associate Vice President and University Controller Neena Ali spoke to faculty senators at the meeting Friday.

in higher education, which will be helpful in strategic planning.

She said she and Provost Chris Bracey are hosting “generative” conversations with faculty who have expertise on the war in the Gaza Strip and will host another Monday. She said she and Bracey will also provide more communication on officials’ stance on free speech, academic free speech, hate speech and academic freedom.

“This is a conversation that we need to have, and what we’re also realizing is that we need to provide more to our community about where we stand in regard to these things,” Granberg said at the meeting.

Granberg said the GWPD’s Safety Advisory Committee of students, faculty, staff and community members will form a report with data on arming and community safety and look into de-escalation and bystander

intervention training for community leaders. She said the next group of supervisory officers is currently completing the training requirements for carrying a firearm.

Katrin Schultheiss, an associate professor of history and a faculty senator, introduced the resolution at the October senate meeting and said the resolution recommends that officials pause the arming of GWPD officers. She said officials should disclose the data they used in deciding to arm some GWPD officers and the potential financial liabilities GW could incur from the arming.

Murli Gupta, a professor of mathematics and a faculty senator, said he and his colleagues are very concerned about campus safety after a man shot and killed three professors at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas last week.

Sharon Reich Paulsen, the executive vice president

and chief administration officer, said she is working on a “one-pager” about protocol for faculty when there is an active shooter on campus.

She said faculty can schedule training on active shooter situations with GWPD and the Office of Emergency Management.

Bracey said faculty will receive an email next week with information on how to mark a course as “incomplete” and that professors will be asked to provide details when marking a course as incomplete. He said the provost’s office will partner with Disability Support Services to ensure that students get fair test accommodations.

He said officials will announce the interim dean of the School of Business next week, who will begin their interim term Jan. 1 after School of Business Dean Anuj Mehrotra departs to serve as the dean of the business school at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

NEWS

December 11, 2023 • Page 3

THE GW HATCHET

Engineering students to improve arm brace for Paralympian, veteran RORY QUEALY

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

UZMA RENTIA REPORTER

A group of mechanical engineering students are designing an arm brace for a veteran and Paralympian, which they will build next semester and finish in March.

The group is customizing an arm brace for Robbie Gaupp — a veteran who served in the U.S. Army for nine-and-a-half years and now competes in Paralympic skeleton and track and field — to wear when competing and in everyday life. This year’s group will adjust the brace, which a different group of GW Engineering students designed last year, to make the design less stiff, fold 90 degrees and stay in place on his arm.

Gaupp said he sustained a right brachial plexus injury — an injury in the nerves that send signals from the spinal cord to the shoulder, arm and hand — in 2008 when he was running at full speed with little lighting during a joint operations mission for Border Patrol. He said he tried to move a low-lying branch out of his path, which knocked him off his feet and dislocated his right arm into his chest cavity. He then lost sensation from the shoulder down, aside from a sensitive area in his elbow and still struggles to move the arm despite several surgeries and rehabilitation, he said.

Gaupp, a lifelong athlete, said he has competed in Paralympic track and field, archery, skeleton and seated volleyball, after initially

JENNIFER IGBONOBA | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER GW Engineering students demonstrate an arm brace designed for veteran and Paralympian Robbie Gaupp.

giving up on sports following his injury. He said he played for the Texas Outlaws, a professional football team based in Austin, Texas, before his injury.

“I just needed to show my ability over my disability,” he said.

Gaupp said a representative from Quality of Life Plus — a nonprofit organization that partners with college students studying STEM fields to design and build as-

sistive technology for disabled veterans — approached him around 2019 at one of his skeleton events to invite him to join their program.

He said he ultimately decided to join, which is how he connected with GW students two years ago.

Gaupp said he hopes that this brace helps him gain greater functionality.

“I want them to know that what they are doing is something

beyond them and is amazing,” Gaupp said. “Because where they just think are helping out with a brace or this or that, they’re helping out with a person’s, basically, livelihood.”

Jade Greenberg, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering, said the team is developing the brace for Gaupp as part of their senior capstone — a two-semester sequence where mechanical engi-

neering seniors design and build a product for a real client — after the mechanical engineering department connected the seniors to Quality of Life Plus and Gaupp to design and produce a project.

“When you work on technology for somebody that has a disability, whether that’s accessibility or personalized solution that fits their body, I felt like I was I was hoping to learn a lot from the client themselves in how they learn to work with their disability and what solutions they might have already come up with,” Greenberg said.

William Gay, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering, said the team met with Gaupp last month to hear his story and needs for the brace and take measurements of his body to specifically fit his brace. He said the team is using some existing materials, like compression sleeves, and computeraided design software, which allows them to design and 3D print other parts of the brace.

He said this semester, the team has focused on gathering information about Gaupp’s needs, communicating with Gaupp and making sketches and designs before they build the brace next semester.

“I feel like we did a good job of understanding exactly what he’s looking for but meeting with him and looking at previous designs to figure out what exactly we need to build for next semester,” Gay said.

Matthew Coughlin, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering, said the group expects to have the final product completed in March.

Q&A: Archivist talks declassified Kissinger documents FIONA RILEY

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

CHUCKIE COPELAND | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Student Association Sen. Ethan Fitzgerald (CCAS-U) shakes hands with SA Sen. Simon Patmore-Zarcone (Law-G), two of the SA's representatives on the University-Wide Programs Fund committee.

SA fine-tunes events fund as student leaders adjust to funding updates DIANA ANOS REPORTER

HANNAH MARR

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

Student Association leaders said they revamped the University-Wide Programs Fund following its pilot year when the fund ran dry three months before the end of the spring semester, leaving students unable to fund large events.

SA Sen. Simon PatmoreZarcone (Law-G) and SA Sen. Ethan Fitzgerald (CCAS-U) — two of the SA’s representatives on the UWPF committee — said the committee has spent about 70 percent of its $219,176.33 budget this academic year to fund fall and some spring semester events. They said this year, the committee reserved funding for specific heritage celebrations, relaxed the 350-guest requirement and stopped requiring organizations to return half of the profits from their event to the fund if members sold tickets at the door.

Student organization leaders said they felt that there was a lack of communication after they submitted requests for funding to the UWPF committee and desired more transparency about the status of their applications.

The UWPF is a joint fund between GW and the SA designated for primarily large-scale and multicultural events, dispersed by a committee of three SA members and three University administrators. The University donates 50 cents for each credit hour a student takes to subsidize the fund.

Patmore-Zarcone said the UWPF committee was “cognizant” of the need to reserve funding for specific heritage celebra-

tions they were unable to fund last year. He said the fund decided to set aside $20,000 for each six of GW’s heritage celebrations the University recognizes this year, including the Latin Heritage Celebration, Native American Heritage Month, Black History Month, South Asian History Month and Asian American Pacific Islander History Month.

“We approach those requests with a mindset of we should be more willing to give them funding to the extent that it’s under this $20,000 limit,” PatmoreZarcone said.

He said the committee pulls from the $20,000 they reserved when student organizations request money to fund one of the six heritage celebrations.

This is a departure from the previous year where there was no “overarching plan,” meaning the committee allocated requests on a first-come, first-served basis and did not reserve funds for particular causes, Patmore-Zarcone said.

Patmore-Zarcone added that the committee has also been more lenient with enforcing the requirement that events using UWPF funds have more than 350 attendees, but the committee is more likely to fund events with cultural significance.

Fitzgerald said the fund has a finite amount of resources, so the committee will ask University officials to help lower the costs of renting organization spaces on campus or ask them to direct student organizations to apply for funding from different bodies like the SA Finance Committee, which may be more suited to fund requests that aren’t culturally based.

“Everything is important, but we just don’t have

enough money,” Fitzgerald said. “So we’re trying to make sure to look at ‘Okay, you need this money now, how can we help you get that?’”

Krissy Cralle, the director of Law Revue — a student organization that organizes an annual law student talent show for about 400 people — requested $29,487.89 from the fund and received $10,000.

She said the UWPF’s creation took $24,000 away from the Student Bar Association’s budget and made it harder to guarantee that their event would be funded because money previously reserved for law students became eligible for use by all students.

She said there was “no discussion” from the committee on the process of approving funds or potential opportunities to appear before the UWPF committee to negotiate their allocation amount.

“Since its creation, there is an added level of uncertainty and frustration that funds have been removed from a pool designated to law students and into a fund which is for all students,” Cralle said in an email.

Nick Anmahian, the president of GW Jazz Orchestra, said he applied to the fund for the first time this fall to fund the organization’s annual winter concert. He said he applied for funding five weeks in advance of the event but did not receive an answer from the committee until he reached out to ask the status of his application because of his hard deadline.

“I don’t like being pushed off week after week and then not told what’s actually happening,” Anmahian said. “For money, that’s pretty crucial. I had to schedule an event.”

Following the death of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger last month, the National Security Archive published a “Declassified Obituary” of the late U.S. leader.

The National Security Archive, which is housed in Gelman Library, garnered significant media attention for its obituary with a series of explanations and documents that dove into Kissinger’s actions and the corresponding records to prove his complicity. The obituary featured documents that revealed Kissinger’s role in executing former President Richard Nixon’s horrific bombing campaign of Cambodia during the Vietnam War between 1969 and 1973, his refusal to condemn the genocide in Bangladesh

by Pakistan’s military and his support of right-wing junta governments in Latin America.

“Together, these collections constitute an accessible, major repository of records on one of the most consequential U.S. foreign policymakers of the 20th century,” the obituary states.

The Hatchet’s Fiona Riley sat down with Lauren Harper, the archive’s director of public policy and government affairs, to discuss the archive’s research and Kissinger’s legacy.

Riley: What is the National Security Archive?

Harper: We are a team of primarily historians. I’m one of the few folks there who’s not a historian by trade but who used something called the FOIA, or the Freedom of Information Act, to go after historically significant documents.

Riley: Where is the National

Security Archive housed and since when?

Harper: We’re located at GW’s Gelman Library, we’re on the seventh floor.

We’re independent, so we don’t get any funding from GW or anything like that, but we’ve been housed at Gelman since 1995 and have a great relationship with the University. The organization itself has been around since ‘85, but we’ve been at Gelman since ‘95.

Riley: Why did the National Security Archive move to Gelman Library in ‘95?

Harper: We received a lot of interest from each of the main local universities, but the connection we found with GW was immediate, initially through President Steve Trachtenberg and the librarian at the time, Jack Siggins, and the synergy with the Elliott School, the History Department and others on campus made it a really attractive place for us.

1995 was also the year Gelman undertook a major upgrade of its research collections — a result of joining the prestigious Association of Research Libraries — and the National Security Archive’s unique declassified documents added major value to Gelman’s holdings and brought global attention to the University.

Riley: When did the National Security Archive begin requesting information on Kissinger?

Harper: The real genesis started, I’d say, in 2001. So, Kissinger is a neat person for a lot of reasons, but one of the things that he did that was unique is that he took all of his official records from the State Department and basically made a gift of them to the Library of Congress. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that he did this because he didn’t want them to be subject to

The National Security Archive in Gelman Library.

FOIA. Riley: How did the National Security Archive obtain the Kissinger documents if they were housed in the Library of Congress, given it is part of the legislative branch and not subject to FOIA requests?

Harper: What we ended up doing was drafting a complaint that we were basically going to sue the State Department and the National Archives and Records Administration, and basically say that “You allowed Kissinger to get away with violating the Federal Records Act, so not the FOIA, but the Federal Records Act, and you allowed him to take government property and basically take them offsite and make them inaccessible.”

Riley: How long did it take for the Kissinger documents to return to the federal government?

Harper: That whole process took four years, from 2001 to 2004. It won the transfer of about 15,500 records back to the property of the federal government.

Riley: What makes the Kissinger documents so valuable?

Harper: His insistence on recording nearly everything he said himself, or what was said to him, has resulted in an astonishing amount of primary sources. He tried to keep the recordings private until five years after he died by gifting them to the Library of Congress, but the archive threatened to sue both the State Department and the National Archives and Records Administration for failing to preserve the documents as required by the Federal Records Act. Now, the public can more accurately judge Kissinger’s legacy — with his own words.

FILE PHOTO COURTESY OF ANYA MELYAKOVA

NEWS

December 11, 2023 • Page 4

THE GW HATCHET

Accessible housing supply dips as pandemic program shutters

CRIME LOG UNLAWFUL ENTRY

Potomac Square 12/5/2023 – 1:29 p.m.

Closed Case GW Police Department officers responded to a report of a previously barred male subject yelling. Officers made contact with the subject, issued him an updated bar notice, and escorted him off GW property.

From Page 1 Wes Heppler, a staff attorney at the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, said while The Aston was not scheduled to be used in the cold-weather housing plan, as outlined in the District’s Fiscal Year 2024 Winter Plan, the West End shelter would be a “first big step” in D.C. through the introduction of a noncongregate shelter, where residents are offered privacy in buildings like hotels or dorms.

“Those are all lost opportunities for people over the winter to get into a noncongregate shelter facility,” Heppler said.

The wait also comes after an unnamed group of local property owners filed a lawsuit in July attempting to block the conversion of the former residence hall into a shelter, which they later dropped. The District completed the purchase of The Aston in early August for $27.5 million, but the group filed a second lawsuit in late October in another attempt to block the conversion. That lawsuit is still pending.

Heppler said DHS and the District of Columbia Housing Authority have a “pattern” of falling behind on construction and renovation projects.

“It’s always a lengthy, delayed process to get new facilities built or to get existing facilities renovated,”

Subject barred.

THEFT II/OTHER

Public Property on Campus (900 Block of 24th Street) Reported 12/5/2023 – Unknown Date and Time Open Case A male student reported his scooter stolen.

Case open.

CREDIT CARD FRAUD The Aston's entrance on New Hampshire Avenue.

Heppler said.

District officials in 2020 established the Pandemic Emergency Program for Medically Vulnerable Residents, or PEP-V, giving unhoused people with preexisting medical conditions the ability to isolate across four hotels during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The District announced it would phase out the program nearly a year ago, and Amber Harding, the executive director of the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, said the District plans to shut down the Capitol Skyline Hotel, the last remaining PEP-V shelter later this month, with some residents forced

ERIKA FILTER | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

to leave as early as Dec. 1.

Between the end of PEPV and the closure of two shelters undergoing renovation, the District was projected to lose 787 beds for unhoused people this year.

Harding said the roughly 80 people still housed in the Capitol Skyline Hotel will likely move into housing units using the District’s Housing Choice Voucher Program. She said the “vast majority” of Capitol Skyline residents are “somewhere in the housing process.”

“It’s a mess,” Harding said. “And it’s causing a lot of concern, a lot of problems that really could have been prevented.”

Harding said officials viewed November’s planned opening of The Aston, set for a month before the closure of the last PEP-V shelter, as a “safety net” for residents moving out of the Skyline Hotel as they waited to move into permanent housing. DHS officials are now telling Skyline residents to seek housing in shelters with minimal qualification requirements or seasonal shelters, which may impose shorter durations of stay or bag limits, she said.

Twenty-four Skyline residents are slated to move to 801 East, a low-barrier overnight shelter in Southeast D.C.

Off-Campus 12/8/2023 – 5:18 p.m.

Closed Case A male student reported fraudulent charges made to his credit card.

Referred to the Division for Student Affairs.

THEFT II/FROM BUILDING, CREDIT CARD FRAUD

Lisner Hall 12/8/2023 – 9:00 a.m.-5:50 p.m.

Open Case A female staff member reported her backpack stolen, which contained credit cards that were fraudulently charged at an offcampus location.

Case open.

—Compiled by Max Porter

Freeman pushed lobotomy on patients, even when unnecessary From Page 1 Rosemary’s case is perhaps the most high-profile example of a failed lobotomy, and she was just one of Freeman’s many patients over his 28-year career at GW, throughout which he performed thousands of lobotomies. The lobotomy was once so ubiquitous at GW that The Hatchet dubbed the University the “home of the lobotomy” in a 1984 feature.

Freeman reportedly performed more than 3,400 lobotomies over the course of his career. The procedure is now considered outdated because of its invasive nature, large chance for error and the discovery of safer, more effective psychiatric therapies.

An anonymous Instagram account called “GW Lobotomies” published a post in March criticizing both the lobotomy procedure and GW’s role in allowing the procedure.

The post urged the University to acknowledge “a procedure that has caused such harm to the disabled community in relatively recent

history.” They said the University has a “horrible track record” with situations involving mental illness and disability on campus and connected the history of lobotomy in Foggy Bottom with alleged continued negligence for neurodivergent people in the community.

University spokesperson Julia Metjian did not return a request for comment regarding the account’s demands for reparations, acknowledgment of the lobotomy’s history at GW and increased disability services on campus.

GW, the “Home of the Lobotomy”

In 1926, Freeman joined GW as a professor of neurology, where he worked directly with patients for the first time. By 1954, the hospital board asked him to resign amid negative publicity toward the lobotomy procedure and the hospital.

Scull said the University should acknowledge the tragic history of lobotomy at GW, even though there were no “mechanisms in place” in the mid-20th century to prevent the procedures or their negative results given the lack of sound mental

health research at the time.

“It’s hardly a badge of honor that this happened, started where it did,” Scull said.

Jack El-Hai, the author of the 2005 book “The Lobotomist” which explores Freeman’s life and lobotomy history, said Freeman joined GW in 1926 when he became interested in psychosurgery and the University offered him a faculty position teaching neurology. Because of him, GW Hospital became the “landing place” and “home” of the lobotomy, El-Hai said.

El-Hai said the GW administration was likely “neutral” on the procedure until Freeman began conducting ice-pick lobotomies in the late 1940s. It was then the University asked Freeman to leave, he said.

An invasive procedure

Known as the father of lobotomy, Freeman developed and popularized the operation. Lobotomies were first thought by some medical professionals to relieve mental illnesses like depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and anxiety in patients with more treatment-resis-

tant cases that might not have been responding to drugs, talk therapy or electroconvulsive therapy.

Freeman was originally inspired by Portuguese neurologist António Egas Moniz’s “leucotomy” procedure, also known as the prefrontal lobotomy. The prefrontal lobotomy requires two holes to be drilled into the patient’s skull to access the prefrontal lobe, the section of the brain that primarily controls emotions and thoughts. Moniz would win the 1949 Nobel Prize in medicine for his creation of the lobotomy.

In 1945, Freeman developed the transorbital lobotomy, known colloquially as the “ice-pick lobotomy,” in which he used a sharp tool to cut through the eye socket and sever nerves in the prefrontal lobe. Using this speedy operation, Freeman was able to exponentially increase the number of lobotomies he performed throughout the 1940s and even encouraged psychiatrists who were not surgeons to use this technique on their patients to remedy overcrowding in psychiatric wards.

“In the early days, Jim Watts

as the surgeon would perform the surgery, Freeman would sit holding the patient’s hand while the operation proceeded, and he would talk the patient through the operation,” Scull said. “When the patient started to become confused, they stopped cutting. That was purely a trial-and-error thing.”

Some experts in the history of psychiatry argue that Freeman acted justifiably when he pioneered the lobotomy at the beginning of his career because it could have been a promising therapy for incurable cases. But Freeman also insisted that surgeons and psychiatrists use lobotomies even after the development of other methods that were proven to be more effective, like therapies and drug treatments, spurring controversy within the medical world for generations to come.

Experts argue that over the years, Freeman’s lobotomies became less about improving the quality of life for those with severe mental illnesses and instead became a vehicle to prove his medical prowess to the wider academic community and society as a whole.

Business school dean reflects on diversity, new degree offerings as tenure closes FIONA RILEY

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

RACHEL MOON

CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR

At the sunset of his tenure leading the GW School of Business, Dean Anuj Mehrotra said he anchored his time at the University in listening.

Mehrotra said he put the ever-changing business market and feedback from colleagues and students in the foreground of his approach to helming the school, where he led GWSB through the COVID-19 pandemic, expanded the 4+1 combined degree program and installed the school’s first chief diversity officer, which facilitated the school’s rise to the top of nationwide diversity rankings. After serving five years as dean, he faces the eve of his departure from GW and a new job starting in January as the Stephen P. Zelnak Jr. Chair and dean of the Scheller College of Business at Georgia Tech, where he earned his doctorate degree.

He said it is difficult to leave the University as a dean and GW parent whose daughter’s college experience and graduation overlapped with his tenure. Mehrotra also anticipates his imminent academic homecoming to his alma mater.

“I have really truly, truly enjoyed my last five-and-ahalf years here,” Mehrotra said. “It’s been a fantastic

ride.”

Here were some of GWSB’s developments under Mehrotra’s leadership:

Making GWSB market-driven

Under Mehrotra, the business school introduced the 4+1 combined degree program, which allows students to graduate in five years with both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in business, and George Talks Business, a series of 30-minute talks with business, government and nonprofit leaders. GWSB also expanded the 4+1 program to students outside of the business school in April 2023.

“The School of Business overall at this stage, if we reflect on where we are as an institution and as a school compared to other schools in the country or the world, is extremely well poised with our very good programming both at the graduate and undergraduate level,” Mehrotra said.

U.S. News and World Report ranked GWSB No. 59 in best business schools overall and No. 8 in international business in 2023.

James Bailey, a professor of management and the Hochberg Professorial Fellow of Leadership Development, said Mehrotra focused on “wiring” classes for online learning by providing faculty with lavaliers, small clipon microphones to improve

sound quality for those attending class virtually, and a studio for recording digital sessions.

Bailey said Mehrotra’s emphasis on specialized master’s degree programs that allow students to take fewer classes and courses directed to their area of focus was “client sensitive” and brought attention to the school by attracting students looking for instruction on a specific business.

Charted course during pandemic

Mehrotra led the business school through a revenue decrease when graduate enrollment fell short of projections by nearly 30 percent in 2018. He proposed to solve the revenue drop by adding more postdoctoral fellows to the school to offer them research and work opportunities while cutting costs for the school.

Mehrotra said his biggest challenge as dean was leading the business school through COVID-19 pandemic challenges and supporting business school community members facing personal challenges he could not resolve. Almost 50 business school faculty signed a letter in September 2020 asking officials to put financial decisions like layoffs and other “harmful” long-term decisions on hold during the pandemic.

“For me, almost every

BRIA RODE | PHOTOGRAPHER Dean Anuj Mehrotra will start a new position at Georgia Tech in 2024 after serving GW for five years.

challenge is an opportunity where you can do something about it, but there are some stories that you couldn’t do anything about it, like when people were sick,” Mehrotra said.

Bailey said Mehrotra showed “kindness” and “openness” toward faculty when communicating his reasoning behind decisions and managing the school’s budget during the pandemic when resources were limited.

Embracing diversity, inclusion

Mehrotra said the business school has boosted its diversity, equity and inclusion through partnerships, like with Globant, a software company, to create more awards for women in technology and invite women to join the business school’s certificate programs. Mehrotra added that after listening to GWSB’s DEI needs and wishes through the Dean’s Diversity Council, the business school also added a lactation room and gender-inclusive bathroom to Duquès Hall, where the school is housed.

The school also plans

to open a meditation and prayer room in a few weeks, he added.

GWSB also hired its first chief diversity officer in 2021.

Mehrotra said he created the position to formalize a method for GWSB stakeholders to speak to the school’s leaders about diversity and hold GWSB accountable for moving in a positive direction.

“I’ve been here 40 years, and he’s the best dean we’ve had,” said Leo Moersen, an associate professor of accountancy and business law and the school's interim chief diversity officer.

NEWS

December 11, 2023 • Page 5

THE GW HATCHET

Milken launches chronic disease research partnership with Armenian university

Student organization to bring after-school science program to DCPS middle school SACHINI ADIKARI REPORTER

A new student organization is working to bring science and engineeringbased programs to students in an underserved D.C. public school.

Leaders of GW Engineers’ Philanthropic Society said they will develop and teach programs starting in the fall of 2024 in science, technology, engineering and math for D.C. Public School students to increase accessibility and interest in the fields. EPS executive board members said they wanted to create an organization to give back to the D.C. community after noticing a lack of engineering organizations on campus dedicated to philanthropy and service work.

Ruiz Kamaruszaman, a senior and the president of EPS, said the STEM programs are part of the work of the Engineering Horizons Committee, one of two EPS committees.

Members will develop and teach STEM programs to students at Eliot-Hine Middle School, a DCPS school in Northeast D.C. which he said lacks an after-school science curriculum.

He said EPS’s second committee, the Volunteering Discovery Committee, works with Connected DMV — a nonprofit that works to improve social inequities in D.C., Maryland and Virginia — to give back to the D.C. community while helping EPS members professionally advance by getting handson work in STEM and adding volunteer hours to their resume.

“When you join our org, you’re not just joining to have a title,” Kamaruszaman said. “There’s impact to be made, not only for the community, but for your own career and your own development, and there’s a really supportive team here to guide you along.”

Kamaruszaman said

JENNA LEE REPORTER

JENNIFER IGBONOBA | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Students from GW Engineers’ Philanthropic Society pose in the Science and Engineering Hall.

he noticed a disparity between the “privilege” GW students have compared to the broader D.C. community, seeing many unhoused people around campus during his sophomore year. He said he noticed a lack of philanthropic platforms focused on making an impact on young students in D.C., pushing him to create EPS in October to connect students with STEM programming.

“As engineers, we talk a lot about the prospect of engineering solutions to the world’s problems. But I don’t think a lot of students realize how immediate that reality could be for them through the right platform,” Kamaruszaman said.

Taylor White, a senior and EPS’ vice president of community relations who heads the Engineering Horizons Committee, said the STEM program will officially launch in the fall of 2024 and the group is in the process of talking with administrators at Eliot-Hine.

She said the committee works with the Higher Achievement Program — an extracurricular nonprofit that works to pre-

pare underserved students for high school and college — to bring STEM-based, after-school learning to Eliot-Hine. She said the program currently offers after-school programming for math at Eliot-Hine but lacks a science curriculum, which EPS hopes to resolve by talking with Eliot-Hine faculty leaders to develop and teach programs in science and engineering.

“The students at EliotHine will really enjoy it, and I also think the parents of students at Eliot-Hine will really enjoy it because it’ll give them relief knowing that their students are still at school and they’re still being taken care of and watched,” White said.

“But also fostering some sort of passion and a future in education, STEM education.”

Nicolo Krueger, a junior and the director of community relations for EPS, said most people typically think of philanthropy as monetary donations, but EPS’s goals align more with helping people hands-on through their committees.

He said he personally aims to convince at least one student to go to college by

showing students through their programs that anyone can do STEM through the Engineering Horizons Committee.

“People have this idea that STEM is the most impossible thing to do, and you have to do amazing in high school to pursue STEM, which is just not true at all,” Krueger said.

“Being able to tell kids that thought that they couldn’t that they can would be critical.”

Senior Rigel Brown, EPS’s vice president and head of the Volunteering Discovery Committee, said members of the committee volunteered at Connected DMV’s Quantum World Congress — a conference for researchers, technology developers and industry experts in quantum field theory — in September.

Brown said the group brought 30 volunteers from EPS to help run the event and to network with experts.

“In the engineering school, we have a lot of resources, a lot of smart people, but there wasn’t a ton of philanthropy being done focused on the D.C. area,” Brown said.

The Milken Institute School of Public Health will partner with an Armenian university to research the prevention of chronic diseases like cancer and cardiovascular disease for the next five years, officials announced last month.

Milken and the American University of Armenia Turpanjian College of Health Sciences, or AUA, in Yerevan, Armenia, will annually enroll five to six Armenian students to take courses on chronic diseases from Milken and AUA faculty and conduct research between September 2023 and 2027 on AUA’s campus. Carla Berg, a principal investigator of the project, said the institutions aim to develop a formal prevention program for noncommunicable diseases, or NCDs — diseases like heart disease and diabetes that do not spread through infection — allowing both institutions to share research findings to help inform health policy related to NCD prevention.

Unhealthy eating habits, smoking tobacco, infrequent exercise and high alcohol consumption are the behavioral origins of susceptibility to NCDs. Generational poverty can also increase the risk of developing NCDs because of insufficient access to health care, indicating the growing need for global research into their prevention, according to a 2023 study published in the National Library of Medicine.

“We hope to enhance research capacity related to NCD prevention and control, emphasizing social determinants of NCD

risk factors,” Berg, a professor of prevention and community health at GW, said in an email.

Berg said selected Armenian citizens studying medicine receive covered tuition from the U.S National Institute of Health Fogarty International Center and additional funds to conduct research.

Principal investigators Berg and Nino Paichadze, Milken professors, and AUA professor Varduhi Petrosyan are leading the project.

Berg said researchers want to share practices that mitigate the development of NCDs, like improving social conditions and reducing tobacco and alcohol consumption, to advance their research.

She said the program looks to widen the scope of research into NCD prevention with the students launching research careers focused on NCDs at the end of the program’s five years.

AUA held the introductory meeting for the program from Oct. 9 to 11 where program leaders convened to share their research findings related to NCDs, like the high risk of NCD development linked with global tobacco use, with participating students who will research similar topics.

“One of my mottos is, ‘To whom much is given, much will be required,’” Berg said. “I feel like it is incumbent on countries with resources and expertise to share and elevate our neighbors around the globe.”

Experts in global health and NCDs said cooperation and education across national borders is crucial to advancing research into NCDs, which affect people globally.

Native ecology fellowship showcases Indigenous communities, biodiversity CAITLIN KITSON

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

EÓIGHAN NOONAN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

A river of blue chiffon cuts across a wall of the center atrium in the Flagg Building, charting the course of the Potomac River and the history of the Piscataway people native to the land that the District now occupies.

The river is part of an exhibit titled “(Up)Root(ed): Uplifting Native Ecology and Indigenous Visibility on Campus” that opened Dec. 6 and features textured maps of changing postcolonial coastlines and a zine highlighting common native and invasive plant species on campus. Students in the “Landing in Piscataway Terrain” fellowship began work in late September and curated the exhibit — which will be on display through Dec. 16 — to highlight Indigenous communities and biodiversity in the D.C. area.

Shawn Shafner, a graduate student and the founder of the fellowship, said studying Indigenous communities’ relationship with the environment that makes up the Foggy Bottom Campus brings more visibility to Indigenous communities and serves as a first step toward restorative justice.

“This scholarship was about learning where we’ve come from, understanding where we are on our campus and thinking about how we move forward and how

George Washington’s campus can be in greater alignment with Native ecology and Indigenous visibility and thriving,” Shafner said in a speech at the exhibit to a crowd of more than 30 people.

The Piscataway’s traditional territory extends along the Potomac River, from the Chesapeake Bay through modern-day Baltimore. The Piscataway people made up a confederacy of tribes ruled by the “Tayac,” or emperor, and were primarily farmers with skills in hunting and fishing.

The fellowship launched this September through a public-service grant from the Honey W. Nashman Center for Civic Engagement and Public Service and enrolled 17 students to study Native ecology. The program partnered with the Accokeek Foundation — a nonprofit based in Accokeek, Maryland’s Piscataway Park that educates the public about the park’s natural environment and Piscataway history.

Shafner said he began researching the Piscataway land the Flagg Building sits upon while pursuing a master of fine arts in social practice art. He said his research of Piscataway history led him to the Accokeek Foundation, where he discussed how to set up a partnership between GW and the organization.

“I really wanted to be learning from Indigenous communities, I want to be supporting them,” Shafner

said. “And I felt like GW has resources, so how could we be there doing something?”

Shafner said Zí Proctor, the stewardship coordinator at the Accokeek Foundation and a Piscataway farmer, told him that one of the best ways to support Indigenous communities is to learn about and engage with their ecology to restore the natural resources Indigenous people use to support themselves.

“We’re on your land,” Shafner said. “Tell us about how you see this space and then let us be of service to help removing invasive plants that challenge the native ecosystems and in helping to cultivate those Indigenous ecologies that again, can restore those lifeways.”

Shafner said the program originally planned to conduct a campus sustainability audit but discovered one had already been completed in 2017. He said he met with representatives from facilities and the Office of Sustainability to incorporate the audit into a plan to remove invasive plant species from campus spaces and replace them with Native plants.

Students in the program visited Piscataway Park and the Accokeek Foundation for service days, a Native tree walk and educational experiences, like planting at the foundation’s garden, throughout the semester, Shafner said. He said some students looking to promote Native ecology sowed native wildflowers and other plants into the soil of Anniversary

SAGE RUSSELL | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR Leaders of the fellowship welcome visitors to the newly launched exhibit at the Flagg Building this week.

Park on F Street.

“My hypothesis is that engaging with the land itself, with the native land, exploring our urban campus a little bit, and the ecology there, in my own experience, like learning the names of plants helps me feel at home,” Shafner said.

Anjela Barnes, the executive director of the Accokeek Foundation, said the foundation’s work falls under the concept of “Reimagining Accokeek,” which uplifts the voices of Indigenous communities and protects natural ecosystems by learning how plants and animals can share resources to maintain biodiversity.

She said traditional meth-

ods to learn about and care for native ecology are necessary to protect biodiversity, which is in Indigenous communities’ hands. Indigenous lands account for 80 percent of the world’s remaining biodiversity, home to a wide range of animals, plants, fungi and microorganisms that indicate healthy environments.

“We’re here on this Mother Earth that is providing us and without it, we can’t survive,” Barnes said in a speech at the exhibit. “So it’s really important that we really, really work hard together.”

Addy Dunbar, a fellow and sophomore majoring in international affairs with a concentration in environ-

mental studies, said she was drawn to the program through her interest in sustainability and because of the program’s emphasis on including Indigenous voices in sustainability.

Dunbar said she hopes GW will move away from routinely planting and removing flowers around campus, like certain perennial plants, that are not native to the land and instead focus on planting and maintaining native plants.

“The proper step for GW would be moving away from that regular planting because it’s just aggressive on the soil,” Dunbar said. “It’s not good for the plants themselves.”

Officials to prohibit student events in U-Yard, Kogan through end of semester FIONA BORK

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

HANNAH MARR

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

Officials will no longer allow student programming in University Yard effective immediately and will prohibit events in Kogan Plaza starting next week to create “24-hour quiet areas,” per an

email to students Friday.

The Division for Student Affairs announced that U-Yard is now unavailable for student groups and individuals to organize events, programming and unplanned activities through Dec. 19, while Kogan will become unavailable for student activities between Dec. 11 through Dec. 19.

The email states that officials are closing off the areas, which are

near study spaces and classrooms like Lisner Hall, which is part of GW Law, and Gelman Library to ensure students can study and prepare for finals.

Students have hosted several protests in campus spaces following the outbreak of the IsraelHamas war in October, including in Kogan, by the F Street House and in front of the Elliott School of International Affairs. Prior to

the email, a pro-Palestinian coalition of student organizations had planned a protest in U-Yard for Friday afternoon but switched the location to Kogan on Thursday.

GW will not permit “amplification by handheld devices” in U-Yard or Kogan and prohibits excessive noise that disturbs others, including through shouting, “pounding objects or surfaces”

and playing music or other electronics at all times per the Code of Student Conduct, the email states.

“During this period, any individuals or student groups who wish to organize social activities, demonstrations or other events may use Potomac Square or another reservable and available space,” the email states. “Normal activities for the identified areas will resume effective Jan. 2, 2024.”

OPINIONS

December 11, 2023 • Page 6

Opinions

THE GW HATCHET

WHAT THE UNIVERSITY WON’T TALK ABOUT THIS WEEK Why officials removed a portrait of Walter Freeman from the walls of the Himmelfarb library p. 1 FROM GWHATCHET.COM/OPINIONS “I witnessed the protests of the Sudanese Revolution and can affirm that the citizens of Sudan need real change.”

—ROWA NAWARI on 12/7/2023

Reflecting on a revolutionary year STAFF EDITORIAL If one word could sum up 2023 at GW, it would be “revolutionary.” The University gained a new president and a new moniker, introduced and implemented sometimes controversial policies, continued to transform on-campus dining, and much, much more in a little less than 12 months. To put it simply, this was a year of change.

As the semester winds down, the editorial board is looking back on the year that was 2023. Here’s what went well, what didn’t and what resolutions GW can set for itself in 2024.

Let’s touch on some of this year’s more successful stories. It may not be flashy, but officials’ decision to install a contraceptive vending machine in the University Student Center in January expanded students’ access to contraceptives at a time when reproductive health care is increasingly under threat in the U.S. GW installed two more vending machines on campus in District House and West Hall in August, a reminder that student advocacy really can make a difference.

It was also a big year for the culinary connoisseurs on campus. Shenkman Hall’s dining space opened in January, GW fully transitioned to its new meal swipe system and new places to eat have popped up in District House, the recently renovated student center and Western Market. But budgeting dining dollars and now meal swipes remains as difficult as ever.

And who can forget where they were Sept. 6? That day, GW sheltered in place after a homicide suspect escaped police custody at GW Hospital, setting off a flurry of emergency alerts. (In case you missed it, police finally caught their suspect in October.)

Despite the memes, campus security was a major theme this year. Then-University President Mark Wrighton an-

I

MAURA KELLY-YUOH | STAFF CARTOONIST

One semester wasn’t enough to experience the US

want to go, but I don’t want to leave. As a Dutch exchange student, my English might not be perfect, but I know that statement is contradictory — though that doesn’t make it any less true. I think many exchange students can share the sentiment.

Nova Spier Columnist When I first arrived in the U.S. near the end of August, I had a backpack, two suitcases and 19 years of expectations. I also had seven months of excitement for GW after getting selected by my home university and six months of stress about the paperwork and getting my visa to actually get into the U.S. and GW. It took 10 days before my Dutch roommate, who came from the same home university as me, and I had our first mental breakdown.

Everything was overwhelming: All of the food is fried — why fry things to make unhealthy food even unhealthier? The water bottles are so big, and the tap water tastes so bad.

Someone asked me how I travel from Amsterdam to the Netherlands. Why doesn’t anyone know their geography?

Our questions were not only focused on America but also on college life.

Why do I have to take five courses at the same time?

My home university splits the semester into three periods with a maximum of two courses at a time.

Why do professors assign so much reading — do people

Hatchet The GW

609 21st St. NW Washington, D.C. 20052 gwhatchet.com | @gwhatchet eic@gwhatchet.com news@gwhatchet.com opinions@gwhatchet.com photo@gwhatchet.com sports@gwhatchet.com culture@gwhatchet.com copy@gwhatchet.com multimedia@gwhatchet.com

even do the reading, and is it all quantity over quality?

Where do American college students make their friends, how do they afford to go to college, how do they survive a semester?

Living in a house with about 30 other exchange students made life much easier. At nearly every hour of the day, there was someone around me with similar questions, trying to adjust to this culture and academic setting while simultaneously making the most out of the semester.

The weeks flew by.

I checked the famous landmarks around D.C. off my bucket list, explored different neighborhoods, and traveled to Arlington, Annapolis, New York and Minneapolis. I joined the paper, the radio and a musical all while trying to make (American) friends, doing my coursework and not wanting to admit to myself how much I miss everyone back home.

After four months of living here, I still cannot answer all the questions I asked myself at the start of the semester, but I know the shock wore off. I will never say “y’all” unironically, although “like” and “yada yada yada” have infiltrated my speech. America has grown on me.

Just as I’ve conquered the culture shock, learned how to navigate the academic field successfully and laid the basis for great friendships with classmates and club members, I am leaving.

I dread saying goodbye to the American friends I might never see again. The U.S. is too big to see all of

nounced the University would arm some GW Police Department officers with handguns in April, receiving pushback from students and faculty. Ensuring the safety and security of the University community is no easy task, yet it’s hard to see how locked and loaded GWPD officers play — or have played — a positive role in doing so.

And then came October. At vigils, protests and demonstrations during and since that month, GW has grappled with grief and sorrow, fear and anger, and the complexities that come with regulating free speech at a private institution.

Should GW stick to the sidelines like a referee or jump into the fray with a volley of statements? That’s the question facing University President Ellen Granberg and college administrators across the country.

If 2023 was a year of changes, it also had its fair share of challenges: Making sense of GW’s history, charting a course for its future, figuring out the roles and responsibilities of a university, and lately confronting hurtful speech and harassment. No one ever said higher education was supposed to be simple.

There’s plenty GW could do next year with enough time, money and willingness, like closing the gender pay gap between female professors and their male counterparts or hiring more mental health professionals. Plus, a dash of compassion and a bit of understanding would do well to lower the temperature of a campus that still feels like it’s simmering in anger.

So, as the new year looms, let’s resolve ourselves to find strength and support in one another. For our part, the editorial board remains committed to taking a hard look at GW, D.C. and the world we live in. The past 202 years have made GW what it is today. Here’s to all that the next one has in store.

them if I ever come back. If I ever see them again, it will be because they want to see the works of Van Gogh and Rembrandt and explore our windmills, canals and tulips.

The international friends I made, mostly from Europe, will be easier to visit, but that does not make it any less complicated. I am going to miss seeing them every day, and I’ll bawl my eyes out when most of us leave at the end of this semester.

Of course, I miss home.

My family and friends, our tap water and bread, good cheese and stroopwafels.

I am craving home, but at the same time, I feel like I have just settled in. I want to stay another semester, but neither my academic schedule nor my bank account allow it.

I have often complained about the U.S. and how, in my biased opinion, the Netherlands is superior to it. Still, I will miss the U.S., everyone I met at GW and everything I have done here once I step on my flight to Amsterdam, bags stuffed with souvenirs and memories that will last a lifetime.

I went for strolls on the National Mall with people from England, Austria and South Korea. I studied in the Library of Congress. I chatted with the activists and Secret Service officers in front of the White House.

I am grateful for every single memory.

One semester just wasn’t enough.

—Nova Spier, a senior majoring in journalism and mass communication and an exchange student from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, is an opinions writer.

My senior year is beginning its end

R

eflecting on her years spent in New York City, Joan Didion wrote, “It is easy to see the beginnings of things, and harder to see the ends.”

GW began for me the day I moved into District House, a muggy August afternoon spent unpacking, grocery shopping and saying goodbye to my parents. I know when my time at GW is ending, I just don’t know how.

Ethan Benn Opinions Editor When I turn my tassel and toss my cap into the air this spring, will I have done everything I’ve wanted to do here? There are 160 days between now and Commencement on the National Mall, technically 159 days before I receive my degree. But I don’t hear the sounds of “Pomp and Circumstance” when I imagine graduation — I hear a ticking clock, a countdown to cram in as many “firsts” and “lasts” as possible.

Is this the dreaded “senior scaries?” I don’t feel anxious so much as I do sentimental. I need to soak up every memory so I can wring it out later: the salty starchiness of Tonic’s tater tots, the dulcet tones of “doors opening” on the Metro, the crunch of fallen leaves on the way to class.

Maybe it’s the sunk cost of four years worth of tuition, or because I really do love this place, but I’ve got to take more than a diploma with me.

There are so many sights left to see, things left to do and people left to meet. From my bloated bucket list: visit Arlington

National Cemetery, stop at every Metrorail station, catch a game at Capital One Arena, run into a member of Congress on the street, schlep to every Tatte in the DMV in one day, go to the top of the Washington Monument, and on and on.

I’ve biked to Arlington and back, seen a show at the Kennedy Center and celebrated my birthday in the Watergate Hotel. I’ve stood on the Key Bridge to Rosslyn at sunset, watching as pink and orange shroud D.C.’s skyline and dance off the Potomac River. But it still isn’t enough. It never will be. I’m trying to take as much of GW and D.C. with me as I can for fear I’ll never be able to come back — that those job offers won’t come through, that I won’t afford rent, that I won’t escape the sleepy suburbs I grew up in.

What stings the most are the opportunities I’ve already missed. I’ve sat behind Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on a flight and caught the same train to work as Metro General Manager Randy Clarke — true #OnlyAtGW moments, if ever there were ones. But I couldn’t work up the nerve to say something to either of them. And never mind all the internships I haven’t applied for or all the office hours I’ve never attended.

That’s what terrifies me: I can’t or won’t do what I want to before the clock runs out.

With just a few months of my senior year left, I fear I don’t have time to gallivant around, playing tourist in my own backyard. No matter how much time I carve out, no matter how badly I want to tick one more item off that list, something always comes up.

I walked to the National Mall for the first time on that

muggy August afternoon, climbed the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and took a selfie as beads of sweat rolled down my face. I could do all of that because it was before everything: before classes started, before I joined The Hatchet, before I forgot to do laundry or eat dinner, before I stayed up all night doing homework more times than I’d care to admit.

The spell New York cast over Didion eventually lifted, but I still find myself enchanted by D.C. — and GW — every day. Despite it all, I can’t help but smile whenever a motorcade screams past my window or when a lost traveler stops me for directions on my way to class.

I relish taking my family to Founding Farmers when they visit, planning which museum we should visit over brunch and getting them to understand why I love it here. In fact, I’d rather have them come to D.C. than return to New Jersey or Georgia for winter break.

I haven’t booked train or plane tickets yet because I don’t want to leave unless I have to.

I am at the end of the beginning and the beginning of the end of my senior year, halfway to leaving the place I’ve called my home for the past two and a half years, halfway to parting with the friends I’ve made. There is so much to do and so little time to do it — and to think I wanted to graduate early.

I’m ready to move on, to go into the world with a diploma in my hand. But I’m not ready for the end.

—Ethan Benn, a senior majoring in journalism and mass communication, is the opinions editor.

Zach Blackburn, editor in chief Nick Pasion, managing editor Jaden DiMauro, managing editor Grace Miller, managing director Nicholas Anastacio, community relations director Grace Chinowsky, senior news editor Erika Filter, news editor Ianne Salvosa, news editor Fiona Bork, assistant news editor Fiona Riley, assistant news editor Hannah Marr, assistant news editor Rory Quealy, assistant news editor Jennifer Igbonoba, contributing news editor Max Porter, contributing news editor Rachel Moon, contributing news editor Nikki Ghaemi, features editor Cade McAllister, events editor Ethan Benn, opinions editor* Riley Goodfellow, contributing opinions editor*

Paige Baratta, editorials assistant* Auden Yurman, senior photo editor Florence Shen, assistant photo editor – features Sage Russell, assistant photo editor – news Jordan Tovin, assistant photo editor – culture Sandra Koretz, sports editor Ben Spitalny, contributing sports editor Nick Perkins, culture editor Jenna Baer, contributing culture editor* Nicholas Aguirre Zafiro, video editor Ava Thompson, assistant video editor Cristina Stassis, copy chief Faith Wardwell, publishing assistant Shea Carlberg, senior copy editor Lindsay Larson, assistant copy editor Anna Fattizzo, research assistant Brooke Forgette, research assistant

Dylan Ebs, research assistant Annie O’Brien, podcast host – culture Lizzie Jensen, podcast host – news Isabella MacKinnon, design editor Maura Kelly-Yuoh, contributing design editor An Ngo, graphics editor Ishani Chettri, web developer Peyton Rollins, contributing web developer Ethan Valliath, social media director* Anaya Bhatt, contributing social media director* Max Gaffin, contributing social media director * denotes member of editorial board Business Office

Eddie Herzig, business manager

Submissions — Deadlines for submissions are Friday 5 p.m. for Monday issues. They must include the author’s name, title, year in school and phone number. The GW Hatchet does not guarantee publication and reserves the right to edit all submissions for space, grammar and clarity.

Submit to opinions@gwhatchet.com Policy Statement — The GW Hatchet is produced by Hatchet Publications Inc., an independent, non-profit corporation. All comments should be addressed to the Board of Directors, which has sole authority for the content of this publication. Opinions expressed in signed columns are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of The GW Hatchet. All content of The GW Hatchet is copyrighted and may not be reproduced without written authorization from the editor in chief.

Cost — Single copies free. Additional copies available for purchase upon request.

December 11, 2023 • Page 7

Sports

SPORTS

THE GW HATCHET

GAMES OF THE WEEK

MEN’S BASKETBALL

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

vs. Bowie State Tuesday | 7 p.m.

Men’s basketball looks to remain undefeated at home against the Bulldogs.

NUMBER 16:47:00 CRUNCH

vs. Hampton Saturday | 2 p.m.

Women’s basketball looks to kickstart a winning streak at home against Hampton.

Sophomore Ava Topolewski’s time to swim the 1500 LCM freestyle Thursday, a new GW record

GW basketball’s secret weapons: Student managers talk roles, contributions BEN SPITALNY

CONTRIBUTING SPORTS EDITOR

MARGOT DIAMOND STAFF WRITER

GW’s basketball programs are well-oiled machines.

Players, coaches and staff work diligently to ensure that not only games go seamlessly, but practice, travel and everything in between.

Alongside them are the student managers, who perform myriad tasks to ensure things go according to plan.

The women’s basketball team has three managers, each of whom fills a specific role. Nate Chicoy, a freshman studying international business, says he makes sure the coaches know the names of the refs during the games.

“We, all three, have separate tasks on gameday,” Chicoy said.

“They’re not heavy tasks, just some little stat keeping during games, or water and towels during games, just help set up. Just be there.”

Brady Rosenstock, a sophomore majoring in communications, served as a practice player his freshman year and decided he wanted to take on a bigger role this season. Isabella Smetana, a sophomore studying biomedical engineering, became interested in the position after seeing a post on Instagram. All three interviewed with Assistant Coach Adam Call, after which they were hired as managers.

With the benefit of priority class registration, Rosenstock was able to build his schedule around the practices, giving himself the availability to attend every day.

“I was fortunate because we get priority scheduling,” Rosenstock said. “So I was fortunate to really

clear my schedule and remove my stuff because I go to every practice.”

Rosenstock, nursing a scratch on his neck at the interview, which he said was a result of a physical practice battle with graduate student forward Mayowa Taiwo, helps the team by serving as an extra body in scrimmages and collecting rebounds during warmups. His rough-up was not the first time an injury has happened in practice, as he shared that he broke then-senior forward Faith Blethen’s finger last year.

“She was able to play through,” Rosenstock said of the injury. “But that was bad.”

Smetana shared that she traveled with the team to Maryland last week for the game against Towson, a 68-60 GW loss, where she roomed with graduate student guard Nya Lok. “She’s super awesome,” Smetana said of Lok. “They were all really nice.”

Eli Cole, a graduate student in the School of Business, became a manager for the men’s team after inquiring about a position with a graduate assistant in one of his classes. He filled out an application, interviewed and was hired early this September.

The men’s team, which has 11 managers, uses a scheduling system to delegate tasks, including practice duty and laundry.

“We have one big loop and then set up the gym for practice,” Cole said. “We have the extra pinnies in case they’re running drills, we have a bucket of pads for different drills, practice plans. Super simple in that way. And then during practice, we have towels for the floor, we have extra balls if one goes out of bounds.”

On game days, Cole said

LEXI CRITCHETT | PHOTOGRAPHER

Basketball team managers exchange words at a practice.

managers arrive hours ahead of tipoff to help with shoot around and lay out the players’ jerseys. During the games, they help the graduate assistants with anything they need, distribute water and bring stools out during timeouts.

Cole said that he has been able to develop relationships with the players, both inside the Smith Center and out.

“Now, when I’m walking down the street with them or going to class, we’re friends,” Cole said.

“And then we get to the game, and it’s all business-focused and we each have a job to do.”

The managers for the women’s team also said they’ve become close with players, particularly Rosenstock, who is in his second year with the program.

“If I see them in the dining hall, I’ll for sure say ‘hi,’ and sometimes I’ll eat with them,” Rosenstock said.

The managers also said their basketball knowledge has increased since working for the teams, as learning terminology from practices and stat-keeping are major components of their positions.

Additionally, having a close view of the operations side of the programs has given them insights into how

Division I basketball teams are run.

“It’s just interesting to see the backend of a college DI level team,” Chicoy said. “How they handle recruitment, how they handle the backend stuff that no one really sees.”

Cole said he enjoys the team environment and being able to learn from and laugh with players and coaches alike.

“I think the biggest thing is just it’s very friendly and welcoming,” he said. “I look forward to going.

Everyone from the players, the GA’s, the coaches, everyone is very humorous all the time.”

Men’s basketball defeats Coppin State behind dominant defensive showing BEN SPITALNY

CONTRIBUTING SPORTS EDITOR

GRANT PACERNICK REPORTER

Graduate student guard Nya Lok attacks the basket.

LEXI CRITCHETT | PHOTOGRAPHER

Women’s basketball takes down Coppin State to remain undefeated at home BEN SPITALNY

CONTRIBUTING SPORTS EDITOR

MARGOT DIAMOND STAFF WRITER

Women’s basketball defeated Coppin State 5541 on Saturday, riding a 24-point third quarter to the team’s fifth victory of the season.

Graduate student guard Nya Lok led the team with 14 points, shooting 6-12 from the field and 2-3 from three, accounting for half of the team’s four makes from beyond the arc. Sophomore guard Nya Robertson, who leads the team in scoring with 15.6 points per game, is nursing an undisclosed injury and did not play in the game.

“I’m just really proud of the team today,” Head Coach Caroline McCombs said. “We’ve had a lot of people in and out of our lineups, and so coming together and seeing them play the way that they did today, I thought that was really important for our growth.”

The team built an early lead, with a Lok layup cementing an 8-2 lead three and a half minutes into the game. Both teams struggled to score in the first half, with the Eagles going 8-26 from the field, while the Revs went 10-31. An 8-0

run by Coppin State gave the Eagles a 21-20 lead with 1:41 remaining in the half, although a jumper from senior guard Asjah Inniss gave GW a 22-21 halftime lead.

The Revs went 4-16 in the second quarter, scoring just 9 points in the period.

This has been a common occurrence for the team, who have scored 10 or less in the second quarter in three of the past four games.

Coming out of halftime with just a 1 point lead, the Revs dominated the third quarter, outscoring the Eagles 24-6.

“I think we’re a better third-quarter team,” McCombs said. “Our second quarter hasn’t been the best quarter for us consistently.”

Graduate student guard Essence Brown kicked off an impressive 17-point run eight and a half minutes into the third quarter with a 3-pointer, making the most of her return to the lineup after being out since Nov. 15. In the quarter, the Revs held the Eagles to just 1-11 shooting from the field and 0-5 from deep.

“Our quote of the week by [Assistant] Coach [Adam] Call was ‘control your attention,’” Lok said. “And that’s something we kept trying to emphasize in each quarter.”

Graduate student

forward Mayowa Taiwo scored a season-high 12 points, tying with Inniss for second on the team. Now playing alongside graduate student forward Maren Durant, Taiwo has struggled to find the same scoring success she did last year, when she reached double figures 12 times.

“Mayowa is somebody that we rely on a lot,” McCombs said.

“And because she’s playing with Maren, she’s scoring in maybe some different areas.

She’s getting right to the rim, getting great shots, I think they just haven’t fallen for her.”

The Revs now stand 4-0 when playing in the Smith Center this season compared to their 1-5 record in away or neutral-court games. This game marks the first of a four game homestand for the Revolutionaries, and the squad said they’re optimistic about the stretch as they have gone undefeated at home thus far.

“Yeah, I mean, it’s home, so things just feel better,” Inniss said. “You practice on it Monday through Friday. So I feel like it’s just that feeling of having that support system back home as well.”

The team will take on Hampton next Saturday, Dec. 16, at 2 p.m. in the Smith Center.

Men’s basketball (8-2) routed the Coppin State University Eagles (1-10) in the Smith Center on Saturday night, winning 76-45.

Three Revolutionaries scored in double figures, including redshirt freshman forward Darren Buchanan Jr., who led the team with 14 points. The Revs led from start to finish, boosted by a 14-4 run starting around the midway point of the first half.

On the other end, the GW defense stifled Coppin State’s shooting, holding them to just 20-77 from the field and 2-22 from three.

Following Buchanan in scoring was freshman guard Trey Autry with 13 and redshirt sophomore guard Maximus Edwards with 11. Autry’s 13 points were a new career high to go along with a team-high and career-best eight rebounds.

“I think Trey and Darren really understand who they are as players,” Head Coach Chris Caputo said after the game. “A lot of times it’s an adjustment for young players, understanding how can you be effective at this level, at this time. I think in

Darren and Trey’s case they really do.”

Despite the high margin of victory, the Revolutionaries committed 17 turnovers on the night, something that Caputo said he is concerned about. “[I’m] concerned with the turnovers, but I thought most of them were just trying to pass the ball or maybe making the wrong read,” Caputo said.

Still, the team was able to pass the ball effectively, collecting 20 assists to CSU’s eight. Fifth-year senior guard James Bishop IV, who leads the team in scoring with 18.2 points per game, had just 4 points on the night, although he led the team with six assists.

“It’s not a one-man sport,” said Autry on the team’s playmaking. “It’s a team sport, so us being unified, connected, I think that goes a long way into the record that we have.”

With 14:02 remaining, Coppin State forward Toto Fagbenle hit a layup to cement a 10-0 run for his team, bringing the score to 40-27. Buchanan immediately responded, however, with an andone layup the following possession. GW then went on a run of their own, scoring 13 unanswered points with Autry as well as freshman guard

Jacoi Hutchinson and freshman forward Zamoku Weluche-Ume, contributing 3-pointers.

“I’m trying different things to get ourselves going a little bit and make a little bit of a run,” Caputo said.

The lopsided score meant playing time was spread out more evenly, with 10 players seeing the floor for the Revs. WelucheUme picked up the first field goal of his collegiate career, scoring 6 points and shooting 2-2 from beyond the 3-point line.

Graduate student center Babatunde “Stretch” Akingbola swatted five shots after breaking the program record with 11 in the previous game. His 3.8 blocks per-game average is first in the A-10 and tied for second best in the country.

All in all, the Revolutionaries dominated all aspects of the game, winning the battle on the boards 52-38 and connecting from outside with nine threes.

“We just want to dominate and win and show that we are GW,” said Buchanan.

The Revolutionaries look to remain undefeated at home as they take on the Bowie State Bulldogs (4-5) on Tuesday, Dec. 12, at 7 p.m. in the Smith Center.

RAPHAEL KELLNER | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Freshman guard Trey Autry and sophomore guard Benny Schröder trap a Coppin State player on the baseline.

December 11, 2023 • Page 8

HOLIDAY GUIDE

THE GW HATCHET

Reviewing states’ trees at the National Christmas Tree

JORDAN TOVIN | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR A lit menorah illuminates a note from loves ones wishing a happy Hanukkah.

How students are celebrating Hanukkah away from home BRIANNA KIMMEL REPORTER

Celebrating the holidays away from family might sneak up on college students as a source of homesickness and stress.

Students celebrating Hanukkah, also spelled as Chanukah among other Hebrew transliterations, are looking for ways to combat holiday-induced homesickness with their own versions of the holiday’s traditions. But living in a residence hall makes the celebration of Hanukkah, which spans finals week this year, particularly challenging as several pillars of the holiday — from lighting the menorah to frying up latkes — are one fire hazard after another, making it hard for students to observe the festival of lights in their home away from home.

Maggie Abrams, a firstyear majoring in exercise science, said that being away from home this holiday season has inspired more gratitude for the people around her. She said Hanukkah is a beautiful celebration of perseverance and determination.

“It’s made me appreciate that you have to build a community by yourself your family,” outside Abrams said.

Although Abrams

said she hasn’t yet found a huge Jewish community at GW, she plans to light electronic candles each night with a Jewish friend from her residence hall and her non-Jewish roommate.

Abrams said she is looking forward to sharing her culture with non-Jewish friends while maintaining fire safety in the residence halls.

“My mom sent me an electric menorah, so that will be used for sure,” Abrams said.

Abrams said that it makes her happy to see her friends get involved in menorah lighting and other Hanukkah festivities for the first time even if they aren’t Jewish.

“It’s so fun to see people delighted by the songs and the meanings the same way I’m sort of enticed by people putting up Christmas trees,” Abrams said.

Leia Jekel, a senior studying cognitive neuroscience, said bringing friends into the celebration has helped keep her holidays feel homey.

Jekel said her family traditionally has smaller Hanukkah parties, so keeping her celebrations tight helps remind her of home. This year, Jekel said she is excited to have a kitchen to use her grandmother’s special recipe to make latkes for her friends for the first time.

“She’ll probably be on the phone with me,” Jekel said.

Jekel said that she doesn’t particularly like

doing things she’s never done before alone, so having her grandmother guide her over the phone will help her feel more connected to her family during this holiday season.

“Inviting people over and being open and hosting has been really nice for the holidays,” Jekel said.

Ethan Messerman, a sophomore studying marketing, said that despite living in a dorm without a kitchen last year, he and his friends were able to have a potluck-style Hanukkah dinner. He said each person brought a main meal like matzo ball soup or a side like applesauce for the latkes. Messerman said he and his friends were able to have a full spread of authentic Jewish delicacies to celebrate the holiday.

Messerman said he enjoyed teaching his nonJewish friends about Jewish traditions, including the history of Hanukkah.

“It was cool getting the opportunity to celebrate Hanukkah with students who were not Jewish,” Messerman said.

Messerman said college students often have to adapt to a new normal when celebrating the holidays away from home for the first time, but building a community to share stories, meals and celebrations is an effective way to combat the holiday-induced blues.

“Part of what makes holiday traditions so important is that you spend them with your family or your community,” Messerman said.

You can’t go home again — that is unless you visit the National Christmas Tree.

While the massive fir tree at the center may draw most of the attention, the National Christmas Tree across from the White House is surrounded by smaller trees, lined up in what is called the Pathway of Peace, each decorated to represent a different state or territory with ornaments from students from the state. Here are our thoughts on how the various trees represent our home states.

New York Eóighan Noonan | Senior Staff Writer

This year’s New York tree represents the state’s iconic landscape and terrain, featuring designs depicting state landmarks and symbols associated with New York, from upstate Buffalo to the borough of Brooklyn. Ornaments are donned with subway trains and slices of pizza, referencing symbols often associated with New York City, the cultural capital of the U.S. and famously the top-ranked city in the country for pizza. Several ornaments depicting apples also allude to NYC’s famous nickname, “The Big Apple.”

While many ornaments reference this landmark city, the tree — decorated by students from the upstate town of Marlboro — pays homage to the entire state’s gorgeous landscape.

Several ornaments feature the Hudson River, apple trees, foxes and forests in a beautiful tribute to New York’s geographical makeup as home to treasures like the Catskill and Adirondack Mountains and the serene Hudson Valley.

Spanning from Manhattan to Albany, the variety of ornaments reminded me of my upbringing in the lowest point of the valley in between the tranquil expanse of upstate New York and the concrete jungle of the city.

Pennsylvania Kathleen Gianni | Staff Writer

with ornaments focused on Philly cheesesteak and Independence Hall. But after seeing the tree with only one Philly-related Liberty Bell ornament, I was upset with Pennsylvania’s representation at the state tree display for reasons other than the city rivalry.

I was rather disappointed by the excessive number of white-tailed deer ornaments that hung on the tree. While I appreciated a nod to the official state animal with one or two ornaments, deer took over nearly half of the tree’s decorations with a total of nine visible deerrelated ornaments — a bit much for a state animal shared by 11 other states.

I would have rather seen decorations relating to Pennsylvania’s claims to fame like Taylor Swift, Hershey’s chocolate and maybe even the Eagles or Steelers, making for a more balanced representation of the state that moves beyond too many deer.

Texas Dylan Ebs | Staff Writer

The decorations on the Lone Star State’s tree depict iconic Texas landmarks like the Alamo and gorgeous views of the Hill Country.

Though Texas is known for its vast, rural landscape, I was surprised to see the lack of ornaments honoring the state’s cities.

I enjoyed seeing the aspects of Texas that were represented.

Multiple ornaments included references to “Deep in the Heart of Texas,” Alvino Rey’s iconic 1941 song performed most famously

by Alvino Rey about the beauty of the state.

ornaments featured icons from the state like a cardinal and common blue violet, central both in an official capacity and to my own experiences growing up in Illinois. I often see cardinals, the state bird, around my backyard at home.

There were a few scenes from Chicago, including the skyline and the Bean, a mirrored statue of a bean in Millennium Park. When my family and I would walk around the city and happen upon the statue, we would take mirror selfies in its reflection.

New Jersey Carly Cavanaugh | Reporter

New Jersey often gets a bad rap, stereotyped as a knockoff New York or as being filled with “Jersey Shore” wannabes. But most residents agree that Jersey pride runs deep due to its often underrepresented beauty and diversity.

Looking at the state Christmas tree, I was reminded of Jersey staples like the views of the shore, its farmland and its sea and wildlife. .

I often forget about the expansiveness of New Jersey’s landscapes. Despite being the densest state in the union, the sprawling forests and state parks of South Jersey are often overlooked, but ornaments highlighting fields of violets and serene woodlands s howe d these views off.

Illinois Diana Anos | Reporter

The Illinois Christmas tree depicts both farm scenes and the Windy C i t y itself.

T h e

AN NGO | GRAPHICS EDITOR

GW HATCHET STAFF

As a proud Pittsburgh native who often feels like my city is overshadowed

by Philadelphia, I prepared to walk away disappointed, fearing a tree decorated

ANNALIESE PERSAUD | DESIGNER

Roommates of different religions honor traditions new and old JACOB GLASS REPORTER

NYLA MOXLEY REPORTER

Each year, the holiday season is a bombardment of Santa hats and Nativity scenes as Christmas dominates December.

While Christmas may be the most wholly represented winter holiday, it is not the only celebration — Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Winter Solstice are just a few of the plethora of other holidays. Pairs of roommates at GW celebrate different winter holidays and have taken the opportunity to learn all about a new culture.

First-year roommates, political communication major Olivia Occhipinti and international affairs major Estelle Cohen, said solidarity is important when it comes to honoring and respecting each other’s traditions and practices. Cohen is Jewish and celebrates Hanukkah, while Occhipinti said as a Muslim she does not celebrate any winter holidays.

The pair said they anticipate celebrating Hanukkah alongside friends — and, of course,

a dreidel. They said they also plan to celebrate future holidays together like Eid, a Muslim holiday in April that Occhipinti celebrates.

Cohen said she plans to gift Occhipinti a Moroccan dress for Eid and will join her for future Iftars, the meal eaten after sundown on Ramadan.

Cohen and Occhipinti said they are very conscientious of all of each other’s religious practices, not just holidays. Occhipinti said she attends Shabbat dinners, a weekly Friday night dinner to observe the Jewish day of rest, with Cohen. Cohen, for her part, said she sometimes reminds Occhipinti to pray.

Being Muslim, Occhipinti said she prays five times a day.

She said that in Islam, when an individual is praying, people are not supposed to walk in front of one’s prayer mat so as not to sever the line between them and God. “She always walks around the prayer mat, even if it’s so inconvenient for her to do it,” Occhipinti said.

Besides Hanukkah, the two said they intend to celebrate something they call “winter love” together because neither celebrates Christmas. They said they haven’t decided what the

celebration will entail, just that it will be a way for them to celebrate with each other.

“It’s just that we just love each other and we love winter and it’s super secular,” Cohen said.

Lydia Nassef and Hannah Streeter De Taboada, two firstyear roommates majoring in philosophy and exercise science, respectively, also share their holiday traditions.

Nassef, who is Catholic, celebrates Christmas, while Streeter De Taboada, who is Jewish, celebrates Hanukkah.

Streeter De Taboada said during their time living together, she has taught Nassef about Jewish traditions like eating challah, a traditional bread eaten on Shabbat. Nassef said she tried some at the campus org fair this past fall.

“Honestly, next semester, it’s gonna be a lot more stuff,” Nassef said. “I just enrolled in Judaism.”

Both roommates said the winter holidays are less about religion and more about tradition and family for them. Streeter De Taboada said decorating a Christmas tree together brought a sense of family togetherness that she enjoyed.

JORDAN TOVIN | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR First-year roommates Hannah Streeter De Taborda (left) and Lydia Nassef embraced their respective Jewish and Catholic traditions this holiday season.

“I guess there’s also a sense of nostalgia to them, which is really nice,” Streeter de Taboada said.

“And I know it sounds basic but just being with family and that connection.”

Nassef said she went with Streeter De Taboada to the Jewish student organization Chabad GW’s

Mega Hanukkah event in Kogan Plaza last Tuesday.

Nassef said it was her first time hearing a prayer in Hebrew. The pair also said they want to continue their celebrations by baking challah and other traditional Hanukkah foods this year.

Nassef said Judaism is still somewhat unfamiliar to

her, as she went to Catholic school in a predominantly Catholic town all her life. But she said she feels lucky to be rooming with and learning from Streeter De Taboada.

“It’s cool that now I’m learning about another religion through someone who I’m such good friends with,” Nassef said.

December 11, 2023 • Page 9

HOLIDAY GUIDE

From Wookies to croquet: So-badthey’re-good holiday movies to watch NICK PERKINS CULTURE EDITOR

Let’s face it: Every Christmas movie is bad.

Even the classics you watch year after year like “Home Alone” or “Elf” still end in the cheesy, totally predictable manner where everything works out for everyone and they learn the true meaning of Christmas.

They’re heartwarming but might lack Oscar-worthy depth.

While the limitations of the genre mean that even the best Christmas movies are predictable and most filmed stories about Santa are mediocre, it also means that truly terrible Christmas movies are wildly entertaining for their overthe-top cheesiness and oftridiculous plotlines. Rather than discovering that, in fact, “A Christmas Story” isn’t all that entertaining, fire up one of these so-badthey’re-good Christmas movies this winter while you sip your hot chocolate.

“Star Wars Holiday Special”

I was 10, it was Christmas Eve, and I couldn’t sleep. So I did what any kid would do and wandered downstairs, only to be traumatized by finding my parents doing the most horrible thing my young mind could imagine: watching the “Star Wars Holiday Special.”

We watched for about 20 minutes that fateful night, and not once did a human character utter a word. Instead, the 1978 TV special follows the family of “Star Wars” hero Chewbacca’s family during their celebrations of Life Day, the Wookie

THE GW HATCHET

version of Christmas.

The only problem was that Chewbacca’s Wookie family spoke only in incomprehensible guttural growls, meaning well over a third of the movie flies by without viewers being able to understand anything that is said.

I didn’t make it past the growling-Wookie extravaganza my first year, but 365 days later, my parents and I still had a sense of morbid curiosity about what other Life Day adventures could be awaiting Chewbacca’s unfortunately named son Lumpy and the rest of the characters.

It was about as weird as you can imagine. The special plays out like a 1970s variety show, with segments ranging from things you might expect to see in a normal Star Wars film, like a call to Luke Skywalker, to quintessentially 1970s decisions, like having a villain be distracted by watching a holographic MTV music video of psychedelic rock band Jefferson Starship. The most eccentric scene — high praise when talking about the “Star Wars Holiday Special” — comes when Chewbacca’s father Itchy watches what is essentially a sexual fantasy about Golden Age star Diahann Carroll, a scene so weird you can’t help but laugh.

“Santa Claus Conquers the Martians”

If a dreadful Star Wars variety show isn’t enough to satiate your holiday sci-fi craving, well, “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians” might not be much better.

But what the 1964 uber-lowbudget film lacks in quality, it more than makes up for with a plot so ridiculous it’s

hard to not crack a smile.

The movie follows a group of Martians who, worried about their children on Mars being sad, decide they need to kidnap Santa Claus and bring him to Mars to cheer everyone up. The real laughs of “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians” comes from the sheer seriousness with which all the characters treat a movie about, well, Santa being kidnapped

by Martians. The genuine, earnest tone with which characters deliver lines, like “No one on Earth will ever know that Santa Claus was kidnapped by Martians,” completely contrasts the otherwise ridiculous plot and makes the movie a hoot to watch.

“Welcome to Christmas”

There’s always comfort in the familiar — that’s the entire business of Hallmark movies. The classic formula has a big-city executive too busy with work to care about going to a small town where they fall in love with a hot stranger and rediscover the meaning of the holiday season.

The charm of the 2018 Hallmark flick “Welcome to Christmas” comes from the fact that it hits every single one of those tropes — even going so far as to name the small town in question “Christmas.”

Though the film may not deepen your cinematic knowledge, there’s a joy to be wrought from eagerly anticipating each predicted plot point and getting to laugh to yourself as, perhaps, the main character learns to love Christmas more than their

career — surely, no one could’ve seen it coming.

“Santa’s Summer House”

Any college student knows how hard it can be to hit a word count on an essay — “Santa’s Summer House” shows that it can also be hard to hit a 90-minute runtime on a movie. The flick follows a group of overly hardworking vacationers who have forgotten the true meaning of Christmas, almost all played by 1980s B-movie action stars plus one former “Survivor” contestant. This band of misfits mysteriously get lost on their summer vacation only to wind up at the doorstep of an oddly jolly plump man who insists he isn’t Santa Claus.

“Santa’s Summer House” could be described as an exercise in patience as the movie does all it can to fill up a feature-length runtime. Easily the most amusing effort to pad out the film equivalent of a word count minimum is an 11-minute croquet montage in the middle of the movie.

Nothing happens plotwise. Characters just play croquet for more than 10 minutes, often with outof-sequence shots spliced together that make the game impossible to follow — but hilarious and effective at taking up time.

“Santa’s Summer House” didn’t win any awards, but no Christmas movie really should. Even if it isn’t the next “Citizen Kane,” the film will be sure to give you some laughs and teach you about croquet along the way.

AN NGO | GRAPHICS EDITOR

All I want for Christmas are these underthe-radar holiday tunes DIANA ANOS REPORTER

ELLA MITCHELL REPORTER

There are only so many times a person can be sonically bludgeoned by “All I Want For Christmas Is You” before having a festive breakdown.

Feel free to call us bona fide Ebenezer Scrooges, no more positive than the lump of coal you find at the bottom of your stocking, but for those fighting the urge to steal the spirit of Christmas from a town of unsuspecting Whos after your eighth listen of “Jingle Bells,” it might be time to mix up your holiday tunes. Here are seven off-the-beaten-path picks to spice up your holiday listening habits.

“Skating” — Vince Guaraldi Trio

“A Charlie Brown Christmas” is an oft-watched holiday movie with crazy characters, colorful animation and, most importantly, many recognizable jams. “Skating” has all the holiday vibes as an upbeat song to play at a winter dinner party or even as study music trying to finish up work just in time for a break.

The piano is at the forefront, along with some bass and softer percussion in the background. Each instrument does its own thing but mixes to express the joy of winter. As the piano flutters about, the higher notes are full of whimsy as if someone is spinning around on the ice rink. The piano changes rhythm multiple times throughout, reminiscent of the ups and downs one experiences while ice skating: twirling, falling and being pulled around by friends.

“Wintering” — The 1975

The 1975’s “Wintering” expresses the nostalgia one feels when returning home for the holidays, dealing with family and friends and the chaos that the time brings. Different guitars, a

How Hatchet staff members found out Santa wasn’t real GW HATCHET STAFF It’s nothing short of a miracle that parents convince their little ones to believe in Santa.

He violates international space laws, breaks and enters with abandon and wiretaps worse than Watergate, and yet kids can’t get enough of him. Despite the joy and fear this man of myth inspires, several Hatchet staff members unraveled the hoax of Saint Nicholas at a young age, and their truth-seeking journeys were anything but jolly.

Jenna Baer | Contributing Culture Editor

Growing up as a little Jewish girl, there was nothing I wanted more than to celebrate Christmas.

Not the midnight Mass or reading about the story of Jesus Christ parts, I just loved the home decor. From the twinkling lights to delicate ornaments, I was desperate for a tree of my own to decorate. I even begged my parents for the Jewish equivalent, a Hanukkah — also spelled as Chanukah — bush, to no avail.

Despite wanting to keep Christmas out of our home, my parents avoided breaking the Santa isn’t real news to my siblings and me, fearing we’d spoil the holiday for our friends.

So when the man in the big red suit and flowing white beard showed up at my pre-kindergarten holiday party, I stood in line with all of the other kids to ask him for a present.

I waited patiently as my classmates begged Santa for puppies and bicycles before it was finally my turn to sit on his lap and ask for the one thing my parents would never give me: a Christmas tree.

My request broke Santa’s sugar-coated heart, along with the parents who were volunteering that day.

When my mom came to pick me up after school, Santa and several of the parents came up to her and offered to pitch in to buy my family a Christmas tree, mistakenly assuming we couldn’t afford one.

Horrified, my mom explained we were Jewish before marching me straight to her car and revealing the hard truth: Santa wasn’t real.

Carly Cavanaugh | Reporter

TANNER NALLEY | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER A listener plugs into holiday country anthem “Glittery” by Kacey Musgraves featuring Troye Sivan.

piano and drums carry on throughout with a big guitar solo at the end. Each of the instruments can be heard individually but all meld together into a playful and upbeat tempo.

The singer expresses his disdain for the chaos in a somewhat sarcastic tone in what seems like a neverending thought. Although he is quite annoyed with different guests for the holiday and all the complaining they do, he is still happy to be home.

“Glittery” — Kacey Musgraves ft. Troye Sivan

In the same way you’ll be finding specks of glitter in the most bizarre places years after using it, the catchy twang of Musgraves and Sivan’s vocals in “Glittery” manages to cement itself in every corner of your mind for days on end.

“Glittery” emphasizes the transformative power of love as it capitalizes on wintery imagery like, “You light me up like starlight on a Christmas tree,” and, “You shake me up and turn me upside down /

One day when I was 8 years old, I went over to my neighbor’s house for a playdate around Christmastime. I was in her room with her and her older sister when her sister went on a tirade about how Santa was fake. I insisted

that she must be wrong.

Unfortunately, she was not swayed by my logical argument that Santa must be real because there was no way everyone could be in on a lie. She showed me a Bible app on her phone that linked something about St. Nicholas to mortality, proving Santa must be a hoax.

I went home in a fit of tears and spent the night on my iPod Touch, searching Safari for any proof of his existence. My mom saw an article on my iPod about how to tell your child that Santa isn’t real, and she reassured me the next morning that people could post anything they wanted on the internet.

My skepticism subsided.

But the next year, I received my annual letter from Santa and noticed the use of the word “whom.” The only person I knew who used that word was my dad, and Santa’s messy, italicized handwriting was awfully similar to his, despite the capital letters he used to disguise the handwriting.

Once I saw Santa’s special wrapping paper in my parents’ closet that year, I knew for sure it was all a ruse.

Nicola DeGregorio | Reporter

Being a few years younger than my older sister, I often relished listening in on the conversations she was having with friends.

One December, my nosy intentions got the best of me, and I overheard them giggling and whispering about still believing in Santa.

Hearing this conjecture was the beginning of the end, and I set out to discover the truth for myself. I searched each room, closet and corridor to find any potential gifts.

I gave silent thanks to the North Pole after each failed inspection.

Until I realized that there was one room I hadn’t checked: my parents’ bedroom.

I stopped short at a receipt from Barnes and Noble strewn across the dresser, where one item was purchased: “The Kicks: Saving the Team” by Alex Morgan, the exact title I wrote on my Christmas list weeks before.

On the big day, I snuck the receipt down the stairs, ready at any moment to reveal the truth. Peeling back the wrapping paper of one particular gift, in bold letters the book’s title stared back at me.

Jumping up, I pulled out the receipt and presented it to my mom. I asked the question I had known the answer to since stumbling upon that little sheet of paper: Is Santa real?

Just like a snow globe,” to capture themes of finding nuggets of joy in a seemingly cold and pessimistic world.

“A Nonsense Christmas” — Sabrina Carpenter

In Carpenter’s trademark “Nonsense” fashion — the lighthearted tune is nonsensical and the holiday rendition manages to be sassy, light and clever. It’s like she took every holiday-themed buzzword out there, sprinkled in a fair amount of young love and innuendo and called it a day.

Admittedly, some of the lines are so festive that they borderline nonsense — fittingly, given the song’s title — but there’s unmistakable campy fun and parallels to the original song to be unwrapped in lines like “I’ll take you for a ride, I’ll be your Vixen / I don’t even know, I’m talking Christmas.” It’s a hoot and a half and bound to make you smirk through the power of sheer goofiness at least once.

JENNA BAER | STAFF CARTOONIST

December 11, 2023 • Page 10

HOLIDAY GUIDE

THE GW HATCHET

Eggnog roasting on an open fire: Holiday food in the District KATHLEEN GIANNI STAFF WRITER

As the semester wraps up and the holidays approach, brace yourself for the dining halls’ take on seasonal foods — slimy ham, teethcracking gingerbread and runny cranberry sauce.

Just because you’re stuck on campus during finals season doesn’t mean you should be subject to GW Dining’s ill-fated attempts to recreate classic holiday meals. No matter if you celebrate the holidays filling up on sweet treats or ordering Chinese takeout on Christmas night, treat yourself at one of these five spots around the District to get your fix on all of your seasonal favorites.

AN NGO | GRAPHICS EDITOR

Christmas Cookies at Baked and Wired

Since you can’t get grandma’s homemade Christmas cookies anywhere in D.C., settle for the next best thing: a holiday treat assortment from Georgetown bakery Baked and Wired. Baked and Wired offers a selection of Christmas cookies with classics like snickerdoodle ($3.75) and chocolate chip ($3.75). While visiting Baked and Wired, make sure to check out the coffee bar portion of the bakery to get an extra boost of energy during the busiest time of the year.

1052 Thomas Jefferson St. NW. Open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday.

Chinese dinner at Chang Chang

For those who opt for a Chinese feast Dec. 25 instead of the usual ham-and-potato dinner, Chang Chang, a Sichuanese restaurant in Dupont Circle, will be open on Christmas and through the holiday season.

With entrees like wagyu beef lo mein ($32) and sesame tofu ($20), you can load up on all your favorite Chinese plates at Chang Chang. In addition to dining in, the restaurant also offers a condensed takeout menu if you prefer to eat your Chinese dinner in the comfort of your home while binging all of your favorite holiday movies.

1200 19th St. NW. Open 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 to 9 p.m.

Monday through Thursday, 11:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday.

Hot Chocolate at Tryst

Head to Adams Morgan-based cafe Tryst for a selection of hot chocolate to warm you up from the chilly December weather. The coffee shop and cocktail lounge sells traditional hot chocolate ($4) with a list of flavors that can be added to the drink for an additional 75 cents, like brown sugar, caramel, vanilla and hazelnut, to truly get in the holiday spirit.

Tryst also includes a Mexican hot chocolate ($4.50) on their seasonal menu, made with cayenne chili syrup, vanilla, chocolate and cinnamon. Pair your cocoa with a slice of Tryst’s warm pecan pie ($6.75) to improve on the lukewarm-at-best pies you might find at Thurston on a given Monday.

2459 18th St. NW. Open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Wednesday and 7 a.m. to midnight Thursday through Saturday.

Christmas Buffet at Farmers Fishers Bakers

If the idea of Christmas dinner sounds appetizing but the actual cooking aspect not so much, Farmers Fishers Bakers has you covered with their all-you-can-eat Christmas day dinner buffet ($55).

The dinner buffet, open from 2 to 8 p.m. on Christmas Day, will have you going back for seconds, thirds and probably even fourths for a truly gluttonous meal.

Participants can fill their plates with meats, like turkey or prime rib, and side dishes, like mashed potatoes and macaroni. The buffet

also includes a variety of sweet treats with Farmers Fishers Bakers made-from-scratch desserts like cakes, donuts and cookies to end your meal on a sweet note.

3000 K St. NW. Open 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Tuesday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Saturday, and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday.

Spiked Eggnog at Death Punch

Adams Morgan bar Death Punch transformed at the end of November into a winter wonderland, decked out with nutcrackers and candy canes and serving up holiday cheer until the end of December. The Jingle Balls Nog ($18) on their seasonal drink menu imitates the classic holiday beverage with ingredients like cream, egg, vanilla and nutmeg but is spiked with cream sherry and cognac.

For those who aren’t the biggest fan of eggnog, the holiday drink menu has 10 other cocktail options like the Christmapolitan ($18), made with winter flavors of cranberry and rosemary, and the Snowball Old-Fashioned ($18), a classic old fashioned with gingerbread. No matter if it’s as a two-week farewell to friends or a way to celebrate going home and getting to eat more than whatever District House is serving that day, these cocktails give a thematically appropriate way to ring in the holiday season.

2321 18th St. NW. Open noon to 2 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and noon to 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday.

AN NGO | GRAPHICS EDITOR

GIA KALYANI | DESIGNER

GIA KALYANI | DESIGNER

Downtown Holiday Market returns for 19th year BROOKE SHAPIRO REPORTER

NICOLA DEGREGORIO REPORTER

Tents lining Penn Quarter, pop art maps of D.C. at every turn and the scent of hot chocolate wafting through the air can only mean one thing: The District’s beloved Downtown Holiday Market is back.

Spanning F Street Northwest between 7th and 9th streets is the 40-day Downtown Holiday Market, now in its 19th year, curating a selection of local vendors.

The market represents international cultures through artisanship, food and music.

The Holiday Market this year features a live stage for local D.C. musical artists to jam out with their favorite tunes, holiday or otherwise.

Michael Berman, the director of the market, said while the event features a good portion of local DMV businesses, some artisans travel both nationally and internationally to participate, fostering the true diverse spirit of the event. Additionally, Berman said minority and women-owned businesses frequently participate in the market and use it to grow their vocation.

While businesses might use the market to launch themselves, some vendors also use the holiday selling

extravaganza as a way to give back. One such vendor is jewelry brand Article 22. The business creates sustainable pieces from debris like shrapnel from the Vietnam War. When a customer buys a piece of jewelry from Article 22, a portion of the proceeds goes to Mines Advisory Group America, a nonprofit that removes detonated bombs from war-affected areas.

Kathryn Walker, manager of the DC Region for Article 22, said having an in-person connection with District locals through the Holiday Market was important for the business to build a network.

History is also central to Nancy Wasserman, the owner of Glitzy Glass, who creates and sells a plethora of Judaic pieces like menorahs and mezuzahs.

She incorporates lace her grandmother made in Boston while the rest of her family was living through the Holocaust into her glasswork. She melts pieces of lace into glass of varying colors.

Wasserman said this is her 12th year as a vendor at the market. She said during her time selling entwined glassware on F Street, she has built a community of camaraderie among visitors and other vendors alike, a cross-generational experience reflecting the nearly centurylong connections in her work.

“It’s the most amazing

place because I get to see people year after year and we all become friendly and we all get older and we meet children of the people we know, and it’s really wonderful,” Wasserman said.

For visitors, too, the market is a way to get into the festive spirit during the winter season. From vintage prints depicting idyllic scenes of France to candles smelling of warm vanilla, visitors can shop for holiday gifts and enjoy the season with friends and family.

John Butsch, a visitor from Takoma Park, Maryland, said whenever he visits the market, he goes to Migue’s Mini Donuts, a must-eat for anyone looking for a sweet treat as a shopping intermission.

Kathleen Waterston, a Georgetown University graduate student, said she appreciated the vast offerings of the various vendors, in particular the range of original art and prints. But, for Waterston, the highlight of the Downtown Holiday Market was its ease and accessibility.

“I think it brings a lot of people together in terms of something to do after work ends or a destination to have to go to with my friends,” she said.

The Downtown Holiday Market is open daily from noon to 8 p.m. until Saturday, Dec. 23, and is located at F Street NW between 7th and 9th streets, outside the National Portrait Gallery.

LUCAS CABRERA HACHE | PHOTOGRAPHER The Downtown Holiday Market glints at the foot of the National Portrait Gallery.

HATCHET FILE PHOTO Channel your inner “You’ve Got Mail” and browse a D.C. bookstore like Capitol Hill Books for a holiday pageturner.

Single and ready to Kris Kringle: Solo holiday activities SOFIA PAPARELLA REPORTER

Though every Christmas movie ends with a couple falling in love — no matter how much they seemed to hate each other before — movies aren’t real life.

If you weren’t able to find a partner this cuffing season, you can still enjoy the festivities of the upcoming holidays. Take on these activities to delight in the festive winter ambiance and forget about your romantic failures.

Bake Your Favorite Cookie Recipe Without Having to Share

There is nothing better than the smell of fresh chocolate chip cookies wafting through your apartment on a cold winter evening.

Though whisking flour, milk, sugar and all other cookie add-ins is often a communal task with partners or parents, there’s no reason you can’t treat yourself to a solo baking evening as the nights grow colder and lonelier.

The best part about baking alone is that you have no one to share your baked goods with, and you can eat as much as you like without guilt.

Read a Book and Take in a Good Winter DC View

If you like to be alone with your thoughts, an exciting book that finishes your Goodreads goal before the new year and a beautiful D.C. view is all you need to enjoy the season. Getting the best of both worlds, you can enjoy the book for the mind and the view for the soul.

Avoid books with Hallmark-esque, romantic comedy storylines with enemies-to-lovers who fall in love on Christmas, as those may remind you of your loneliness. A thrilling novel or holiday-themed murder mystery like John Grisham’s “Skipping Christmas” or classic pageturner “The Hunt for Red October” are distractions from reality that will better get you through the season.

If you’re looking for a classic winter D.C. spot, check out the Dumbarton Oaks, Café du Parc and Georgetown Waterfront Park. These locations are the full package: winter ambiance, a relaxing atmosphere and cozy seating.

Take a Solo Walk by DC Light Displays while Listening to a Favorite Podcast

While falling in love under the glimmer of Christmas lights may be any young romantic’s

dream, you don’t have to be in a rom-com to enjoy the holiday light displays around D.C. There are plenty of great spots to enjoy a solo whimsical stroll during a relaxing winter night.

Observe holiday light displays and attractions at Tyson’s Winter Lantern Festival and the U.S. Botanical Gardens. Tyson’s outdoor maze consists of 1,000 LED-light Chinese lanterns and animal displays. Having your favorite podcast by your side during your journey through the lights is a great way to make you feel like you’re not alone after all, with the hosts’ conversations right at your ears.

Volunteer at a Local Soup Kitchen

Instead of wallowing in your own sadness, you can do community service to benefit the District’s community. Many volunteer opportunities and soup kitchens in the D.C. area need extra hands, especially during this time of year, which tends to be their busiest.

Consider dedicating some time to volunteering for organizations like Martha’s Table, DC Central Kitchen and Bread for the City. At an organization like these, you could help distribute produce, restock inventory and interact with members of the D.C. community.