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Faculty senators reaffirm academic freedom, ask for input in speech plan

Faculty senators unanimously passed a resolution Friday that reaffirms academic freedom, a response to GW’s plan to clarify free speech policies and resolve on-campus tensions after the outbreak of the war in Gaza.

The resolution asks officials to involve community members when creating and communicating academic freedom policies, protect “liberal educational values” and alert faculty to demonstrations that may disrupt their classes. Faculty senators said they were not consulted before Provost Chris Bracey and University President Ellen Granberg unveiled a plan in January to clarify free speech policies and cultivate “productive” conversations, despite faculty repeatedly asking officials at senate meetings to consult them in the University-wide initiative.

“In this volatile climate when clarity around rules and guidelines governing speech are essential, the University has been notably slow to articulate its free speech provisions, despite the fact there has been particular urgency around the issue since October of 2023 and despite repeated questions on the matter from the senate,” said Katrin Schultheiss, a faculty senator who advocated for the resolution on the floor.

The University’s plan includes programming to reduce campus tensions through

panels, support students affected by the war or victims of doxxing and clarify free speech policies that conflict with others. Granberg said at the meeting that the plan was spearheaded by a “leadership working group” that will continue to evaluate campus-wide measures. Schultheiss said the senate is unaware of any faculty members who serve on the free speech working group.

The measure also requests officials include the Educational Policy and Technology Committee and the Professional

Ethics and Academic Freedom Committee in updating policies that affect academic freedoms and free speech since faculty senators said the appropriate committees were not consulted on the University’s plan. Schultheiss said the measure was “particularly pressing” due to officials’ disciplinary proceedings in response to student-led demonstrations on campus.

“This resolution is offered in the interest of spurring meaningful conversation between faculty and administrators on the critical issue of academic

freedom and freedom of expression throughout the University community,” Schultheiss said. University President Ellen Granberg at a Faculty Senate meeting last semester.

Officials release plan to review campus free speech policies, bolster educational programming Granberg said community members can submit feedback on the plan to the leadership group through an online form.

Staffing remains below pre-pandemic levels, studentfacing offices stagnate

TYLER IGLESIAS REPORTER

Staffi ng levels are still below their pre-pandemic numbers, specifically in student-facing offices, officials reported Friday.

The University employed 3,484 fulltime staff in fall 2022, slightly more than the University’s low point of 3,338 staff in fall 2021 but lower than the 3,807 members in fall 2019, according to the annual core indicators report. Provost Chris Bracey said at a Faculty Senate meeting Friday that officials are working to fi ll roles in understaffed departments like Disability Support Services and the Multicultural Student Services Center and hire more academic advisers to close the gap in the student-to-adviser ratio.

GW laid off 339 employees in December 2020 due to fi nancial stress from the

COVID-19 pandemic. As the number of University staff begins to recover, student-facing departments have remained underfi lled, with turnover and staff shortages in departments like the MSSC and DSS, which have also seen its directors step down from their positions in recent months.

Compared to a group of 13 peer schools, GW is 11th in the ratio between full-time employees per every 100 fulltime students at 21.49, the report states.

Bracey said the University is “well aware” of the low staffi ng levels and is allocating GW’s minimal resources to units that need the most assistance like the academic advising office on advice for how to improve academic programs.

“We know that the MSSC has been understaffed, and so we’ve made commitments to ensure that we have the requisite staffi ng to provide the supportive

Officials present annual academic metrics update

Faculty diversity increased from 2021 to 2023 after “intentional” hiring efforts, according to the annual core indicators report presented at the Faculty Senate meeting Friday. Provost Chris Bracey presented data at the meeting that showed the number of Black faculty has increased by 29 members and the number of Asian faculty increased by 17 members between 2021 and 2023. The report states that the number of Hispanic faculty decreased, with a decrease of eight faculty members between 2022 and 2023, while Native American faculty has remained consistent at two faculty members.

“We’re struggling a little bit with Hispanic hires, but overall it does appear as though we are increasing the diversity of our faculty,” Bracey said at the meeting.

The number of first-year students with a high school GPA above 3.89 jumped from 18 percent of the first-year class in 2014 to 34 percent in 2023, the report states. Bracey said the decadelong rise may

be an indication of grade inflation at the high school level, particularly during the pandemic, but that it may also reflect a greater number of high-performing students entering the University because the first-year retention rate of 91.9 percent in 2022 indicates first-years are successful at GW despite potential grade inflation.

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The University enrolled 1,593 international students in fall 2023, after falling from 1,614 in fall 2019 to 770 in fall 2020, according to the report.

Bracey said the total number of international students has bounced back to near pre-pandemic levels but the number of international residential undergraduate students is nearly half of what it was in fall of 2019. Graduate, law, medical and nondegree international students have breached pre-pandemic fall 2019 levels, according to the report. “Our loss of Chinese students has been significant, there’s no doubt about that,” Bracey said. “But as you can see, we have backfill from areas such as India, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Brazil and Nigeria.”

environment for our students,” Bracey said. “Within the Disability Student Services office, we’ve been hiring there because we know we have more students who are in need of support for disabilities.”

Ilana Feldman, the chair of the senate’s Executive Committee, said the University’s staffi ng shortage is a “problem” and asked Bracey how to boost hiring using officials’ limited resources.

“I think everybody in this room knows how much we and our students are suffering from the beyond-lean staffing situation,” Feldman said.

Bracey said officials are focused on retaining current employees because GW’s staff “aren’t happy” and are leaving the University. He added that replacing staff costs more than hiring new staff.

National Park Service officials will conduct a cleanup of a homeless encampment that borders campus in May, according to a notice posted at the site.

NPS officials will clear residents and their belongings out of the encampment in Triangle Park along Virginia Avenue between 20th and 21st streets May 15. The notice states that officials will temporarily fence off the portion of the park along Virginia Avenue until fall 2024 for “park improvement” and renovations in preparation for the 250th anniversary of the United States’ independence July 4, 2026.

The NPS notice near 20th Street and Virginia Avenue states that officials will resume enforcement of a federal regulation that prohibits camping in park areas of the National Capital Region — which includes D.C. and certain Maryland and Virginia counties bordering the District. The notice states that officials will place unattended property into storage during the May 15 cleanup and that residents can retrieve these belongings by contacting the U.S. Park Police Property Office within 60 days.

A separate D.C. government notice at 21st Street and Virginia Avenue posted Jan. 11 states that District officials were supposed to clear the encampment Feb. 14 at 10 a.m. It is unclear whether officials are still planning the removal.

District law states that officials must give encampment residents at least two weeks of notice before a cleanup. If a cleanup date is rescheduled, officials must give at least 48 hours notice of the new cleanup date and time.

Lucy Medaglia — who has lived in Triangle Park since March 2023 after living in the McPherson Square encampment, the largest encampment in the District before officials cleared it last February — said she believes officials will only clear tents and belongings on the side of Triangle Park closest to Virginia Avenue, with her tent in an unaffected area. She said she feels officials have “neglected” aspects of Triangle Park, like the trees, and they want to revitalize the park before the 250th anniversary of the U.S.

“That takes more power than anything,” Medaglia said about the 250th anniversary of the U.S.

Women’s basketball beats Ramblers on Senior Day, grabs A-10 tourney bye

Women’s basketball (13-17, 6-12 A-10) defeated Loyola Chicago (1415, 8-10 A-10) 50-43 Saturday afternoon in the Smith Center, ending their regular season on a threegame winning streak and grabbing a first-round bye for the Atlantic 10 tournament.

The Revolutionaries were picked to finish sixth in the A-10 at the start of the season, and after losing nine of their first 10 conference games, the Revolutionaries now finish the regular season ranked 11th. A Dayton loss and Davidson’s withdrawal from the tournament cleared the way for GW to nab the 10th seed, giving them a first-round bye and setting the team up for a Thursday matchup against No. 7 Saint Louis.

Saturday’s game was a low-scoring defensive battle with both teams shooting under 35 percent from the field. Sophomore guard Nya Robertson led GW in scoring with 16 points. She finished the season averaging 15.9 points per game, fourth in the A-10.

Robertson got off to a quick start in the first quarter, scoring GW’s first 8 points of the game to give the Revs an 8-4 lead. The Ramblers pulled ahead to lead 17-15 at the end of the first quarter. The Revs responded at the start of the second quarter with layups

from Brown and graduate student forward Mayowa Taiwo. Loyola briefly took the lead in the third quarter, but the Revolutionaries countered with an extended 11-0 run that stretched into the fourth quarter, giving the team a 42-34 lead, which they would hold on to for the rest of the game.

Taiwo brought down 11 of those rebounds, contributing to the Senior Day victory for the Revs. Taiwo was honored before the game for reaching 1,000 career rebounds, the third-most in program history. She already holds the program record for games played. She’s also one of eight players honored before the game as part of Senior Day. Those honored included Brown

and graduate student forward Faith Blethen, a fellow five-year player. Senior guard Asjah Inniss, who played all 40 minutes of Saturday’s game, was also honored. Graduate transfers Madison Buford and Maren Durant capped off their careers in the Smith Center.

Seniors Nya Lok and Taylor Webster rounded out the eight seniors whose time at the program is wrapping up. The Revolutionaries will face Saint Louis in their first A-10 tournament game in Henrico, Virginia, at 5 p.m. Thursday. The Billikens won 66-56 when the teams met earlier this season. The winner of Thursday’s game will advance to play VCU in the quarterfinals.

DANIEL HEUER | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER A notice taped to a trash receptacle notifies residents of an incoming encampment cleanup. See CFO Page 5

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY

Panel looks to bridge physical divide between Kennedy Center, Foggy Bottom March

A panel of urban planning experts released a report last month with recommendations to improve the physical divide created by a stretch of highway near the Kennedy Center.

D.C. officials commissioned the think tank Urban Land Institute to lead the report, which consisted of a two-day panel in September with more than 30 stakeholders to form recommendations. The report calls for the formation of an authority to oversee a proposed Kennedy Center Cultural District, helping facilitate land use changes.

The board of the potential Kennedy Center Cultural District Development Authority would include the deputy mayor for planning and economic development, the Kennedy Center, the governors of Virginia and Maryland, and other nearby institutions to create transportation, governance and funding plans, the report states. The report also recommends the reconfiguration of Interstate 66, which stakeholders contend divides Kennedy Center pedestrians and cyclists from the rest of Foggy

Bottom.

Marc Gazda, a project manager at ULI Washington and the report’s author, said a key goal of the panel was outlining a framework for local leaders to galvanize support for their proposals.

“The very next step is forming this development authority,” Gazda said.

The report, also supported by the National Capital Planning Commission, found that

a strong desire for pedestrian and cyclist connectivity in the region is not met by existing infrastructure. Gazda said the stretch of I-66 near the Kennedy Center effectively isolates the area from institutions on E Street like the State Department, along with the National Mall and the rest of Foggy Bottom, making it difficult for pedestrians and cyclists to travel to nearby landmarks.

“Some of the side effects from that jumble of infrastructure that we observed were that it’s incredibly unintuitive to

get to this study area from the Foggy Bottom Metro station,” Gazda said.

The report states that the route from the Kennedy Center to the Metro station “is not intuitive or immediately visible,” although the distance between the two locations is relatively short.

The report found stakeholders view the area near I-66 as “interrupted” by the highway and stated the need to refocus the area on pedestrian use because it is now primarily catered to vehicle users. First

proposed in 1958, the construction of I-66 displaced more than 270 families and left some historic homes, built in the 1870s, tucked beneath an exit ramp. The report recommends creating a grand boulevard along E Street connecting the Capitol to the REACH area of the Kennedy Center. The report also evaluates the region bound by Constitution Avenue, the Potomac River and M and 23rd streets. Stakeholders are divided on the placement of the Virginia Avenue protected bike lane, with some saying its two-way

bicycle traffic should be replicated in other areas and others saying its “confusing and unsafe nature” limits overall mobility in the area, according to the report. D.C. Department of Transportation installed three sets of bike lanes in the neighborhood between 2020 and 2021, most recently along Virginia Avenue from Rock Creek Trail to Constitution Avenue in 2021.

The report also recommends adding additional signage to help pedestrians navigate the area, and future market analyses of the study area to evaluate visitor traffic and the capacity for retail in the area.

Thomas Luebke, the secretary of the U.S. Commission on Fine Arts and one of the stakeholders identified by the panel, said the highway network does not function well for those living near it and “cuts off” the Kennedy Center from the rest of the city.

“It would be nice to reconnect it,” Luebke said. “There’s a whole cluster of issues that all point to a really great opportunity in this part of the city to improve things we probably wouldn’t do today if we were thinking about it that way.”

Luebke said Congress ultimately decides the placement of commemorative works like monuments but there is high demand for potential site areas. The report states that a new governance structure for the Kennedy Center region could make it more amenable as a site for new monuments and museums.

“It’s a perennial idea of trying to fix this,” Luebke said.

Reproductive rights group launches student abortion doula program

A reproductive rights student group has trained a team of students to help other students through the process of an abortion. Junior Sophia Boyer, the treasurer of GW Reproductive Autonomy and Gender Equity, said the Abortion Support Collective launched Feb. 20 and accepted and trained 20 student doulas to provide emotional and practical support to students receiving medicated or in-clinic abortions through phone calls, messaging and inperson meetups where doulas teach students breathwork exercises and affirmations. Boyer said students seeking support can fill out a form asking if they’re seeking a medicated or in-clinic abortion and the type of care they want from student doulas, who cannot provide

medical care.

Boyer said the program provides “abortion support bags” — fabric tote bags with pads, heating packs and ibuprofen — to students who request materials through the form. She added that the collective helps connect students to abortion providers in D.C. through the D.C. Doulas for Choice Collective — an organization offering abortion doula services.

“Going through an abortion can be an incredibly emotional experience,” Boyer said. “You can be incredibly happy, incredibly sad. And we wanted to create a student network in which people could kind of show up and be there for fellow students.”

Junior Stephanie Spector, the co-president of RAGE, said the group asks students to clarify on the form whether they would like support from a student doula before,

during or after an abortion. She said the group selected students for the collective who did not look at abortion as a “negative process” and would be able to adapt to different circumstances.

“One of the big things about doula work is that you have to kind of understand what your client wants in different cases and to some people their abortion might be a really beautiful thing. To some people, it might be a really devastating thing,” Spector said.

One of the collective’s main priorities is providing students with physical support through breathwork. One doula, sophomore Maddie Bird, said she learned and practiced different breathing and yoga exercises to teach students throughout the process of their abortion to feel connected to their bodies.

Spector said digital security and maintain -

ing online confidentiality for the students seeking abortions was a concern throughout the creation of the program because of the criminalization of abortion in states like West Virginia. Online search histories have been used to prosecute women for violating abortion restrictions, according to the Washington Post.

Spector said the collective plans to delete all information the form receives from students every 30 days to ensure no long-term records exist. She said doulas will use encrypted messaging services like Signal to communicate with their clients to keep students’ information private.

“That was really important to us in figuring out the right apps to use, the right means of communication. And given that our collective is mostly virtual for the time being, we just really needed to make sure

that we were ready and prepared to launch this and be able to also protect and keep private the information of the people who were using the collective,” Spector said.

Spector said leaders in RAGE used a curriculum from the D.C. Doulas for Choice Collective to train student doulas over the course of a two-day, oncampus training session in January. She said the training provided student doulas with information about the process of a medication abortion and where to refer students to receive abortion pills.

First-year Ashley Marroquin Castillo, a member of the student collective, said one of her roles as a doula is to reassure students who may feel guilt or shame over their abortion.

“There are also some people that grew up very religious and have a lot of stuck-to views on having a medicated abortion and people could face a lot of religious guilt for that,” Marroquin Castillo said. “And what we’re there to do is to provide an open space to reassure them that, ‘It’s okay, you did what was best for you.’”

She said doulas learned how to set “healthy boundaries” between themselves and the students they are helping to protect doulas’ own mental well-being while still fostering a safe environment for students. If the doula and student feel comfortable, students can request in-person meetings, but the doulas are primarily trained to provide virtual support through online messaging and Zoom calls, she said.

“It could be that people are just kind of scared to get an abortion and don’t really know what the process is like,” Marroquin Castillo said. “So we’re just kind of there to reassure them that ‘You’ll be okay, things will be safe, I’m gonna take care of you and what you’re doing is not wrong.’”

Since doulas are not trained to provide medical care for students go -

ing through an abortion, student doulas can refer patients seeking in-person medical care to other abortion care providers that RAGE works with, like the D.C. Doulas for Choice Collective and the D.C. Abortion Fund, she said.

“We’re not medical professionals, obviously, there’s only so much we can really do, but we’re just trying to provide practical information and emotional support to our clients,” Marroquin Castillo said. Graduate student Caroline Motley, a member of the student collective, said the group receives a notification whenever a student fills out the abortion support form. She said an available doula will be put in contact with the student to talk them through the process of their abortion, adding that doulas ensure students follow the proper regimen of a medicated abortion.

“That’s also the beauty of having so many abortion doulas in the collective, is that someone will be willing and able to step up as needed and then they are responsible for helping that individual,” Motley said.

RAGE Co-President Maddy Niziolek said the collective received its first request last week and they have since paired the respondent with a doula. She said the next step of the collective is to work with the Student Health Center to provide pamphlets about the program and have the center direct students seeking an abortion to the collective. She said she hopes students will feel like they can “trust and rely on youth doulas” to provide care on campus.

“There are not many abortion doula collectives on college campuses that focus on medication abortion support work, so it’s a little bit of a new area,” Niziolek said. “We’re continuing to work on what this looks like and building it to really support students in every way that they need.”

The Student Government Association led a runoff election after Program Board Chair Alec Baldwin lost the presidential primary. He transferred to New York University soon after.

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SAGE RUSSELL | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR Cars whiz by the Kennedy Center on Interstate 66.

Biomedical engineering students produce low-cost 3D prosthetics for children

A team of biomedical engineering students has partnered with a humanitarian organization to produce dozens of 3D-printed prosthetic limbs for children at an affordable cost.

Senior Alec Tripi, a member of the GW Biomedical Engineering Society, has led a partnership since last year with e-NABLE — a national organization known for creating the first 3D printable prosthetic hand and sharing opensource designs for assistive devices — which connects amputees with prosthetics free of cost. Tripi said his team has donated dozens of these medical devices over the past few months to organizations like Infinite Technologies Orthotics and Prosthetics, which works with child amputees who frequently outgrow their devices.

“Children are not often covered by insurance for prosthetics, because they’re constantly changing in size,” Tripi said. “It’s hard to justify giving a child specifically upper-limb prosthetics because they’re constantly growing out of them, kind of like how kids grow out of shoes.”

Tripi said the partnership began with a prosthetic workshop last spring — one of a handful of philanthropic projects run by GW BMES, an engineering group focused on professional development and community outreach. He said through the workshop, members of GW BMES produced devices to donate that cost roughly $20 to manufacture, accounting for parts like printing filament and screws.

“These are very rarely covered by insurance because they’re not deemed medically necessary in a lot of cases,” Tripi said. “Addition-

ally, they require a lot of maintenance. If they break down, you have to pay the copay fees, the repair fee, everything.” Tripi said e-NABLE is dedicated to making affordable 3D prosthetic printing processes as widely available as possible by acting as a medium for creators to share 3D prosthetic design files. Tripi said he downloaded premade 3D models online, modified them using design software like Fusion 360 and printed them using GW’s facilities to reduce production costs.

“I’ve made my own modifications throughout the years to make it more simple, like changing where the holes are for better leverage, the tensioning, and that sort of thing,” Tripi said. “Very small modifications have been made, but the base files of these exist on the internet, they’re very easy for anybody to download, rather than having to design a hand completely from scratch.”

Tripi said he sees potential for future growth beyond the workshop last spring, and that as a researcher, he’s worked with sensors for prosthetics. He said he hopes to find a cheap way to integrate tactile feedback into his designs so that people using prosthetics can sense feeling in addition to being able to grab.

The workshop has already donated “a couple dozen” 3D-printed prosthetic limbs to local organizations like Infinite Technologies, an Arlington orthotics and prosthetics clinic, since the beginning of the partnership last spring, he said.

“I definitely hope to see this project pursued further at GW,” Tripi said. “I will actually be here next year for my master’s, so hopefully I can help whatever organizations are here and interested in furthering this project.”

Tripi said he is passionate about the seeing positive impact reducing the cost of prosthetic limbs can have on patients in becoming more mobile and active. He said the devices keep patients healthy, fit and happy, and that lower costs make the prosthetics more accessible.

“It also reduces the burden on the health care system by people being able to go out and engage and do all these things, but then also the mental health aspect of feeling normal and being able to actively participate in things is huge,” Tripi said.

BMES Co-President Zaynah Khan has recently been working

SGA, officials to publicize prepackaged meals for Ramadan

The Student Government Association will partner with officials to publicize a dining service that provides prepackaged meals for students throughout the month of Ramadan.

The SGA’s Deputy Secretary of Faith and Religious Justice Persia Zurita said the SGA has sent emails to the student body and plans to post on Instagram to publicize a continued initiative that distributes suhoor boxes — meals eaten before dawn — for students observing Ramadan from March 10 to April 9. Zurita said students will register through a link to request meals on selected days or the entire duration of Ramadan and collect their meals in District House Market from 5 to 9 p.m. using a meal swipe.

“I just want to make sure that Muslim students feel included on campus, and so that was basically the whole initiative, making sure that students have access to those resources because fasting for an entire day is not easy,” Zurita said.

Zurita said the menus for the suhoor boxes change per day, but will generally include dates, granola bars and fruits. Last year, students could pick up their suhoor boxes at the dining halls in Thurston and Shenkman halls, but this year they are moving it to District House. Zurita said the

necessities of Muslim students should not be ignored as they balance their studies, extracurriculars, prayers and fasting during Ramadan. Zurita said she became interested in exploring further accommodations for Muslim students during Ramadan after reading an oped last spring about the lack of support from the University with Ramadan accommodations. She said she was inspired to advocate for a large population at GW that felt underrepresented.

“I thought it would be a great inconvenience for students to have to eat their own funds to have to purchase meals for religious observance,” Zurita said.

University spokesperson Julia Metjian said GW Dining and the SGA worked together to identify additional dining options for Muslim students as they observe Ramadan.

SGA President Arielle Geismar said dining halls and off-campus food options are closed before sunrise when suhoor is consumed, therefore students do not have access to meals. She said because students pay for a meal plan from the University, they should be able to use their meal plan in a way that “works for them.”

Geismar said she heard complaints last year from students while serving as Residence Hall Association president, and now as SGA presi-

dent about the inaccessibility to meals during Ramadan due to closed dining halls or financial constraints.

“This program was in existence last year, but was not properly advertised or distributed, so it’s our goal to make that happen and to know that it’s a resource available to students,” Geismar said.

MSA President Raheel Abubakar said the University implemented a similar program last year of providing suhoor boxes, but the Muslim students faced many challenges, including difficulty in raising awareness about the program since many Muslim students stop using social media during Ramadan. He said the program will allow students to spend more time praying and studying during Ramadan instead of preparing meals.

Abubakar said he believes the success of the initiative depends on whether enough students are aware of the program and if the meals are sufficient to sustain students during their time of fasting.

“One is how they get this link and how they get this registration out to students and how they handle the communication with the students to get that there. And the second thing is that are the meals that they are providing worth the effort of going to District and then, is it worth a meal swipe?” Abubakar said.

with another co-president on the early stages of a project that aims to reduce patient costs for hearing aids, she said. Khan said they plan to use the 3D printer to produce the hearing aids and to donate the devices. “It’s kind of the same idea as the prosthetics — it’s helping to design low-cost hearing aids,” Khan said. Innovation Center Lab Technician Phoenix Price said he helped Tripi produce prosthetics for BMES last spring. Print jobs on this scale require students to cover filament costs, about $20 in Tripi’s case, but the Innovation Center in the basement of Tompkins Hall could help

Tripi print the devices, Price said. “He came about two months early and we scheduled a time and made plans for how to print the items, we printed a couple prototypes for [Tripi] using our own filament just to make sure we got the sizing right, and the costs and filament usage estimated properly,” Price said. “Then he gave us a deadline, and we made sure the printer just got his pieces out in time.”

Price said the Innovation Center is a useful resource for students working on a wide variety of projects because of its many tools and materials like 3D printers for students to use.

Students, faculty reflect on GW’s acquisition of Corcoran, 10 years later

A decade after GW’s tumultuous acquisition of The Corcoran Gallery of Art was met with calls to “Save the Corcoran,” the Corcoran School of Art and Design has persevered through culture shifts, renovations and the loss of its art collection to expand its reach into the arts. The Corcoran Gallery of Art — D.C.’s oldest private art museum and college of art and design before its dissolution — had begun talks in the early 2010s with institutions like GW and the University of Maryland in an attempt to resolve the art school’s financial crisis. In February 2014, it was announced that GW would take ownership of the Flagg Building and the gallery’s College of Art and Design would integrate into the University.

Under GW, Corcoran has expanded to include performing arts majors and other fine arts studies as well as partnered with the National Gallery of Art to offer students opportunities for collaboration in performing and visual arts.

As part of the terms of the merger, the NGA became responsible for the examination and distribution of Corcoran’s 17,000 pieces of art. Most of the art was distributed to the Gallery post-merger and the rest was donated to museums around the country.

Corcoran and the NGA revised their agreement in fall 2023 after leadership

changes at both institutions and have begun renovating gallery spaces in the Flagg Building for collaborations on art exhibitions, performances and teaching exercises between academic departments and the two institutions. Faculty said the agreement, alongside Corcoran’s expansion to include other forms of art, are positive effects of the acquisition but have changed the fabric of the school.

Lisa Lipinski, an associate professor of art history who chaired Corcoran while it was an independent school, said folding the small school into GW was a “blow” to Corcoran’s tight-knit culture because they lost a college that was solely focused on the visual arts. She said students have tried to reignite the school’s visual arts community by forming student organizations centered around art.

“We had this small village, the tight-knit community,” Lipinski said. “Now we’re part of this big, big University and I think they lost the community spirit and students have continued to kind of revive it in various ways.”

At the time of the merger’s finalization, the Corcoran College of Art and Design brought about 180 fine arts undergraduate students to the University’s student population. As of 2023, there are currently 348 students who hold a primary major in Corcoran, according to the enrollment dashboard.

Lipinski also said the school only offers a Bachelor in Fine Arts in photojournalism after cutting the fine art photography major post-

merger, due to fewer students entering the fine arts because of concerns about job opportunities. Lipinski also said the school has added a minor in graphic design since the merger.

“Fewer people are trying to do fine art, so students are coming in, they’re worried about careers and jobs, and so they cut that program,” Lipinski said.

She said the school also expanded its faculty because the two schools’ faculty were combined, but later laid off 10 faculty members in 2016. The cuts were met with students and faculty calling for greater transparency from GW. Officials said they made the cuts after accounting for enrollment and the future operating budget.

Lipinski added that students were formerly able to have their artwork displayed in the Corcoran’s museum and that the loss of the art due to the merger is a detriment to students as they can no longer easily access it as a resource.

Lauren Onkey, the director of Corcoran and a professor of music, said after the acquisition, GW expanded fine arts at Corcoran by putting music, dance, art history and interior architecture under the school’s umbrella.

“GW took on the school and then said, ‘Okay, let’s, let’s put together this broader constellation of the arts at the University,’ which I think makes us stronger,” Onkey said.

Onkey added that Corcoran being a part of GW opens up opportunities for Corcoran students to study other fields outside of the fine arts.

SAGE RUSSELL | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR

Senior Alec Tripi, a member of the GW Biomedical Engineering Society, sits with a prosthetic hand that his team has produced.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY SAGE RUSSELL | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR

A student swipes their GWorld card at a dining kiosk.

Cherry blossoms to reach peak bloom from March 23 to 26, park service says

CRISTINA STASSIS SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Cherry blossom season is coming early this year, with peak bloom expected between March 23 to March 26, according to the National Mall National Park Service.

Usually, peak bloom — or the day that 70 percent of the Tidal Basin’s Yoshino cherry blossoms open — falls on the last week of March or the first week of April and can last up to one or two weeks. Due to unseasonably warm weather in January, the cherry trees never went dormant this year, which normally occurs during the winter when temperatures are around 45 degrees Fahrenheit.

“One of #WashingtonDC’s most anticipated events, the gorgeous blossoming trees produce a shortlived scene of splendor,” NPS said in a Thursday tweet.

NPS’s horticulturists look after the cherry trees and their predictions for peak bloom are determined by observations of the cherry trees, the weather and historical data. They examine the temperatures leading up to the typical bloom and use Growing Degree Days, a system that calculates the maximum daily temperatures leading up to the bloom, to see temperatures that will propel the trees from their dormant stage into peak bloom and predict peak bloom dates.

Global warming has warmed winter temperatures in the U.S. since 1980. In D.C., winters have experienced an 0.81 degree Fahrenheit increase in temperature per decade since 1980 and the tempera-

tures continue to rise, according to the Washington Post’s Climate Lab.

Last season, experts said the cherry blossoms bloomed early because of climate change in D.C.

Cherry trees bloomed as early as Feb. 17, with a peak bloom of March 23, which is around two weeks earlier than the usual bloom dates.

The Tidal Basin’s cherry trees have consistently reached peak bloom seven days earlier than the historical average peak bloom date of April 4 since 1921, according to the EPA. The Cherry Blossom Festival will be held March 20 to April 14, which is the same date range as last year’s festival before it was moved forward due to the early bloom in 2023.

The Cherry Blossom Watch has

reported that some parts of the Tidal Basin’s perimeter, sea wall and banks are underwater, which has become a regular occurrence due to rising sea levels and sinking foundations. After this season’s bloom, NPS will begin a restoration project set to begin mid-2024 and predicted to last two years. NPS is still determining how construction might affect cherry blossom events in the coming years.

Affecting a 1.2-mile stretch around West Potomac Park and a $112.8 million budget, the project is set to raise the sea wall by around five feet, improve drainage and widen walkways. Officials will cut down 300 cherry trees for the project, which will be replaced by 400 trees at the end of the project, according to NPS.

Despite repeated asks, faculty were left out of free speech plan development, senators say

From Page 1

University spokesperson Julia Metjian said officials have leaned on faculty for events connected with the plan like the School of Media & Public Affairs’ Sesno Series.

“The policy work underway seeks to clarify existing policies and ensure common understanding of how they are implemented and enforced,” she said in an email. “We are collaborating on this with the Professional Ethics and Academic Freedom Committee, and any substantive policy changes would go through a formal Faculty Senate process.”

As it stands, the University’s academic freedom guidelines state it is not GW’s role to “shield” individuals from views

they find unwelcome, disagreeable or deeply offensive and that mutual respect does not justify stifling expression protected by academic freedom and freedom of speech. Those guidelines were developed and reaffirmed by the senate in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

Some pro-Palestinian students have accused school officials of silencing their views on campus, citing incidents like the suspension of Students for Justice in Palestine at GW in November, followed by reported disciplinary proceedings in February against student organizations that participated in events hosted by the Student Coalition for Palestine at GWU.

The Friday measure is also an official response to bubbling concerns among the faculty senators over academic freedom and

free speech policies at GW, an issue they’ve repeatedly brought to officials at senate meetings since the war in Gaza began.

During a November senate meeting, faculty senators said Granberg has the appropriate committees at her “disposal” when making decisions centered on academic freedoms.

“I just encourage that as part of a shared governance emphasis that we’re here as a resource and many of us have direct insight into some of these complex discussions,” Sarah Wagner, a faculty senator and co-chair of the Educational Policy and Technology Committee, said at the November meeting.

In the senate’s February meeting — after the plan was released, reportedly without the consultation of faculty — sena-

tors expressed concerns over who would review academic freedoms and free speech policies and what they would do to clarify those policies going forward. At the time, Bracey said GW’s Office of the General Counsel and Dean of Students Colette Coleman were leading the review.

Bracey and Granberg said at the February meeting that faculty would be included in decisions relating to the academic freedoms policy.

“Obviously, we would want to bring in the appropriate Faculty Senate committee, whether it’s [education] policy or some other committee, to take a look at that in connection with the administrative team to ensure that what we’re doing makes sense for the entire University community,” Bracey said at the meeting.

CRIME LOG

SIMPLE ASSAULT

Off Campus Reported 2/26/2024 – Multiple Dates and Times

Closed Case

A female student reported being the victim of a simple assault by an ex-boyfriend.

Referred to outside agency.

THEFT II/OTHER

Private Property within Campus Bounds

2/26/2024 – 2:35 p.m.

Open Case A male student reported his bluetooth speaker stolen.

Case open.

DESTRUCTION OF PROPERTY/VANDALISM

Private Property within Campus Bounds

Reported 2/27/2024 – Unknown Date and Time

Open Case

An unknown subject sprayed graffiti saying “Free Gaza” on an exterior wall across from Amsterdam Hall.

Case open.

SIMPLE ASSAULT

Off Campus 2/28/2024 – 10:30 a.m.

Closed Case

A female student reported being the victim of a simple assault by a female subject. GW Police Department and Metropolitan Police Department officers canvassed the area but could not find the subject.

Referred to MPD.

DISORDERLY CONDUCT

Green Plaza

2/28/2024 – 6:30 p.m.

Closed Case

A female student reported being chased by a non-GW affiliated male subject. GWPD officers made contact with the subject during a later reported incident and barred him from campus.

Subject barred.

TRAFFIC ACCIDENT: HIT

AND RUN University Student Center Garage 2/28/2024 – Unknown Time

Open Case

A female staff member reported her parked vehicle struck.

Case open.

DRUG LAW VIOLATION

Shenkman Hall 2/29/2024 – 11:59 a.m.

Closed Case GWPD officers responded to a report of area coordinators discovering drug contraband during a room inspection. Officers took the items to the Academic Center for testing and stored them as evidence.

Referred to the Division for Student Affairs.

—Compiled by Max Porter

South Asian student organizations to celebrate storytelling, tradition in March

ANNA FATTIZZO STAFF WRITER

BROOKE FORGETTE STAFF WRITER

South Asian students will celebrate storytelling and tradition this month for GW’s 11th-annual South Asian Heritage Celebration.

Approximately four student organizations will host events that showcase multi-regional diversity and welcome attendees to share their childhood memories during the month of March. Student leaders said this year’s celebration with the theme “Once Upon a Time: Weaving the Threads of Tradition, Diversity, and Resilience Through the Art of Storytelling” will prompt students to embrace the lived experiences that shape the culture of South Asian communities.

Hundreds of students, many dressed in traditional South Asian clothing, attended Mock Shaadi — a mock South Asian wedding — to kick off the month in the University Student Center on Friday. The night began with the baraat, or grand entrance, of the bride and groom Farina Khan and Ramiz Rahat. The South Asian Society capped off the night with dance performances to Bollywood songs like “You are my Soniya” by Sandesh Shandilya, Sonu Nigam and Alka Yagnik as well as “Mujhse Shaadi Karogi” by Sonu Nigam, Sunidhi Chauhan and Udit Narayan.

Saher Mir, the celebration’s cochair for the Pakistani Students Association and a Hatchet videographer, said this year’s Mock Shaadi captured the storytelling theme because the organizers based the mock wedding on Heer Ranjha,

a Punjabi folk tragedy similar to Romeo and Juliet, where the bride and groom die after eating a poisoned dessert. “It’s not like a full-fledged skit, but we try to incorporate parts of the story into our programming,” Mir said. Mir said Mock Shaadi is one of the PSA’s biggest events of the year, and to mimic a real wedding, the organization got catered food and hired a professional decorator. “Having a fake wedding, being able to dress up in traditional attire, it’s kind of a practice for real life,” Mir said.

Parisa Aziz, the competition director for GW Garmi, a competitive Bollywood fusion dance group, said the group’s performance at Mock Shaadi evoked the dances to upbeat and romantic music that family members often perform in traditional South Asian weddings. She added that she appreciates gathering with people of different South Asian cultures to stay involved because the D.C. area has a small Bangladeshi community.

“It’s so important to embrace that we’re all part of very similar cultures, but not exactly the same one,” Aziz said. “We’re learning

from each other and just building a very strong community.” Anjana Murugan, a secondyear and the secretary for GW Chamak, a women-centered multicultural dance team, said the group’s three-part dance performance at the event began with a Latin-style dance using the song “Suavemente” by Elvis Crespo, followed by “Dilbar,” a North Indian style and “Maari Thara Local,” a South Indian style dance. The different experiences and personalities of Chamak’s members blend together during their performances to form a story, Murugan said.

“We have members from all sorts of backgrounds and ethnicities and cultures,” Murugan said. “We really like to highlight that, show what each of us has to offer, and the cultural diversity that we bring in our dances reflect that as well.”

Senior Prerna Polepally, the vice president of programming for SAS, said the group will host a keynote event March 23 in the Jack Morton Auditorium and a campfire event for students to tell stories from their childhood March 30, which will close out the month and help students learn about familial and religious traditions in South Asia.

“There’s different countries, different cultures, different diasporas and we encompass an extremely large region,” Polepally said. “Storytelling is a massive part of the culture.”

Sophomore Aditi Venkateswaran, the programming chair for the Indian Students Association, said the group hosted a Stranger Project event Saturday at The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum, where more than 70 students displayed personal stories, artwork and poems about their experiences in the South Asian community. Venkateswaran said the group started collecting submissions in February through tabling and online submissions, inspired by a similar exhibit in New York City of the same name.

“Every South Asian has their own experience depending on their various identities and the intersectionalities of those identities,” Venkateswaran said. “It’s really interesting and cool to see what it’s like to be with other people.”

ARWEN CLEMANS | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

The silhouette of the Washington Monument peeks through a bough of cherry blossoms.

JENNIFER IGBONOBA | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Students pose for a photo during this year's South Asian Heritage Celebration.

GW ranks as fourth-largest District employer, report says

ELLA MITCHELL STAFF WRITER

SACHINI ADIKARI STAFF WRITER

GW was the fourth largest employer in the District in 2023, according to an annual D.C. financial report released last month.

The 2023 Comprehensive Financial Report, a yearly report by the District’s Office of the Chief Financial Officer, listed GW as the fourth largest employer in the District for the second consecutive year. Georgetown University, Children’s National Medical Center and Washington Hospital Center ranked as the first, second and third largest D.C. employers in 2023, respectively.

GW placed as the second largest employer in the District between 2010 and 2017, except for 2014, when it was the third largest D.C. employer. Since 2017, GW has gradually dropped in the employment rankings, falling to third in 2018, fourth in 2019 and fifth in 2021.

An Ngo | Graphics Editors

American University, Howard University and Catholic University of America were the fifth, 10th and 12th largest employers in the District in 2023.

The report states there were 773,400 total employees in D.C. in 2023, which marks an increase

by about 12,300 in comparison to 2022. D.C. has steadily grown in employment since 2021, when the District hit a 10-year low with 729,000 employees.

Keith Waters — the assistant director of the Stephen S. Fuller Institute, an economic development research center, at George Mason University — said GW

may not have shrunk in its number of employees and that other organizations like Children’s National Medical Center and Washington Hospital Center, which both bested GW in employment size, may have grown more in employment than the University.

“Even if GW had stayed

Officials to prioritize staff morale to improve retention

From Page 1

“The strategy that we’re embarking upon now is to focus on trying to improve conditions of the staff that we have, and better compensate the ones that are high performing and doing great work for us now so that they don’t leave,” Bracey said.

Benefits-eligible staff can receive additional merit pay based on their performance ratings, but staff said employee recognition is limited due to a small fund for performance pay.

Sarah Wagner, the cochair of the Educational Policy and Technology Committee and a professor of anthropology, said she hopes University administrators and the Board of Trustees prioritize retention and staff morale.

“We’re bleeding our best talent, our irreplaceable talent,” Wagner said during the meeting. “But when we look, there are opportunities in this very city that don’t have those same constraints, and you’re demoralized. It doesn’t make for a very happy base.”

University spokesperson Julia Metjian said “unprecedented” financial headwinds contributed to staff layoffs in 2020 but staff turnover has decreased with the rise in staffing in the past two years, dropping from 28 percent in 2022 to 16.8 percent in 2023. She said officials strive to improve benefits to appeal to and retain staff.

“We examine our recruitment, compensation, hybrid scheduling, and promotional structure consistently,” Metjian said in an email.

She said the Staff Council, which staff formed to advise administration on GW’s staffing policies in July, has played a vital role in collective feedback on potential staff recruitment and benefits.

Nicole Mintz, the chair of the Staff Council’s Staff Experience Committee, said staff across the University are frustrated by the delay in hiring and lack of communication from officials about the process to onboard new employees.

“We are gathering more information from staff because we really want to have the voice of all staff and then help prioritize so we can have conversations so we can better understand what we need to understand,” Mintz said in an interview. “We just need more transparency to understand the process.”

AN NGO | GRAPHICS EDITOR

constant, those two could have just grown slightly faster and pushed GW’s rank down,” Waters said.

John Thelin, research professor emeritus at the University of Kentucky’s College of Education, said the presence of an academic medical center is the biggest factor in determining a

university’s number of employees.

GW Hospital and MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, which ranked 13th and sixth in employment, respectively, operate as separate entities from their universities.

“This will be dominant in the local economy and will dominate the university-wide employment trends,” Thelin said in an email about academic medical centers.

GW has tried to boost employment through programs like the Employee Referral Bonus Program formed in January 2022, which rewards eligible employees who refer “exceptional” people to fill vacant positions. In April 2022, the Board of Trustees launched a search for 44 new tenure faculty members, prioritizing female and underrepresented minority candidates.

Leah Brooks, the director of the Center for Washington Area Studies at GW, a University research center that conducts “policy-relevant” studies of urban areas in and around the District, said D.C. has experienced slower employment growth than surrounding areas like Northern Virginia. She said companies are more likely to move their operations outside of cities as they grow.

“This holds for big cities of all stripes, not just D.C.,” Brooks said in an email.

Former CFO consults GW on medical enterprise finances, officials say

From Page 1

Philip Wirtz, a faculty senator and professor of decision sciences and psychological and brain sciences, asked University President Ellen Granberg if former Chief Financial Officer Mark Diaz is still affiliated with GW after a discussion with other faculty about Diaz’s involvement with the Medical Faculty Associates’ restructuring in 2018. Granberg said she wasn’t aware of Diaz doing work for GW since his departure, but CFO Bruno Fernandes said GW pays Diaz for consulting on arrangements with Universal Health Services, which owns GW Hospital. Wirtz said faculty are confused because officials led them to believe that Diaz is not affiliated with the MFA.

University spokesper-

son Julia Metjian said in an email that Diaz is not involved with GW’s day-today operations, but officials kept Diaz as a consultant to maintain consistency in the management of the “complexities” in the restructured agreement between the MFA and UHS. She declined to comment on how much officials pay Diaz for his consulting services.

Senators also approved an addendum to the Code of Academic Integrity that temporarily revised the composition of academic integrity panels. Senators approved a measure during the meeting that defines a full academic integrity panel as three members — one must be a student and one must be a faculty member — from the pool of trained members. Before the change, a full panel consisted of two faculty and three students.

The Student Government Association also

passed the temporary change at their meeting last Monday, meaning the addendum has been officially adopted into the code.

Granberg said she traveled to Florida twice in the past month, once to attend a Milken Institute session on the future of higher education where she discussed the future of higher education with the university presidents of Miami and Brandeis universities, the University of Utah and one of the founders of the University of Austin. She said there were “a number of efforts” to provoke the University leaders into various statements which they “successfully avoided.”

“There is still broad recognition of the importance of higher education and also questions around how we can make sure that we’re maintaining the environment of free and open discussion,” Granberg said.

Students studying across schools drop by 30 percent after decade of growth

DYLAN EBS STAFF WRITER

JACKSON RICKERT STAFF WRITER

The number of students studying across multiple schools dropped by about 30 percent this year after growing by 136 percent over the last decade, according to the University’s annual core indicators report.

The report, presented at a Faculty Senate meeting Friday, states that 1,315 students studied across GW’s schools in 2023 compared to 1,870 in 2022 — a drop from 18.8 percent to 13.1 percent of undergraduates — marking the lowest proportion of undergraduates studying in multiple schools since 2016. Students and experts in higher education said increasing tuition costs and limited class enrollment for classes prevent students from pursuing multiple majors or minors.

“It’s signaling that students are perhaps becoming a little bit more narrowly focused when they think about their education and training,” Provost Chris Bracey said at the meeting.

The report states that 3.9 percent of students pursued two majors in different schools in 2023, a slight drop from 4.3 percent in 2022. About 9 percent of students had one major and one minor across schools in 2023, compared to 14.5 percent in 2022, according to the report. The number of students studying across two or more schools increased by 136 percent from 2012-22.

Bracey said officials may need to adjust curriculum requirements to ensure students studying in one school are still “well-rounded” academically and learn interdisciplinary skills that incorporate multiple areas of study.

“We may have to start thinking more intentionally about including quantitative coursework in the liberal arts and social science curriculum and including some social science and humanities work in the

science curriculum,” Bracey said at the meeting. Experts in higher education administration and interdisciplinary studies said high tuition costs and a STEM focus could contribute to the recent drop in students pursuing majors across schools.

Jordan Emely, an academic advisor at George Mason University’s Costello College of Business, said the rising cost of tuition makes students less inclined to study multiple subjects because they worry they will need to pay to take additional credit hours in order to graduate on time. He said classes like labs have individual course fees that discourage students from trying out another field.

Students who register for more than 18 credits are charged $2,080 for each additional credit hour.

“The cost of higher education isn’t getting any cheaper and students have to take more classes inherently to get two degrees, or to double major,” Emely said.

Emely said he is seeing a “societal change” in higher education in which students are more focused on pursuing one degree to prepare them for a specific job. He said students also realize studying across schools requires multiple skill sets, which deters them from taking on the additional work.

“Some people are like ‘Oh, I’ll just double major in finance and econ, or I’ll just double major in education and biomechanical engineering,’” Emely said. “Those are two vastly different fields and so you need to be in two vastly different mindsets to be able to complete the requirements for those specific degrees.”

Paul Williams, an assistant director of admissions at Vermont State University, said the interdisciplinary studies program at VTSU, which allows students to explore multiple fields, has grown in the last two to three years, even as the university has struggled to increase overall enrollment. He said universities with a more “techni-

cal” focus like STEM are likely to see fewer students interested in interdisciplinary studies because students want a career-oriented, as opposed to a general, curriculum. Students double-majoring across schools said interdisciplinary education is rewarding but they are concerned about securing a seat in all the courses they need to take to graduate.

Athena Rodrigues, a senior studying international affairs and data science, said it has been easy for her to complete two majors in separate schools because some of her data science courses also fulfilled requirements within her Bachelor of Science in international affairs.

She said despite the two majors’ differing focuses on liberal arts and STEM, she has learned technical and hands-on coding skills for data

FILE PHOTO BY KAIDEN YU | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

science and analytical skills for international affairs that will prepare her well for post-graduation.

Rodrigues said her experience double majoring across schools has mostly been straightforward but she often has to complete registration transaction forms to get a spot in required classes for her majors that she needed that semester but were already full. She said she mapped out her schedule so she could take the required classes for both majors but there is no flexibility with when she can take them.

“That was a big struggle because there’s so many requirements that you have to do and you have to get to the certain classes for it,” Rodrigues said.

Sydney Boyd, a sophomore studying international affairs and public health, said her interdisciplinary studies have increased her

interest in protecting reproductive rights on a global level. She said she is learning interdisciplinary analysis and comprehension skills but has to take 18 credits almost every semester to graduate in four years.

“When it starts getting closer to senior year, that 18 credits will be a little hard,” Boyd said.

Boyd said she has emailed professors a few times to request a seat in their class because they were full and she needed to fulfill the requirement that semester. She said public health classes are difficult to register for and require certain prerequisites to continue on her four-year graduation track.

“I had to email a professor because especially public health courses are so hard to get and obviously the registration process is by credit,” Boyd said.

Kogan Plaza's Trustees Gate on H Street.

Editor’s note: This article contains references to sexual violence and suicide. If you have faced sexual or dating violence on or off campus, call GW’s Sexual Assault & Intimate Violence (SAIV) Helpline at (202) 9947222. If you or someone you know has experienced suicidal ideation, call the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or reach the Student Health Center at (202) 994-5300 and ask to speak to a counselor.

On Sept. 22, I recruited interested students to The Hatchet at a University Yard org fair and then attended a recruitment event for Beta Theta Pi, looking ahead to my final year of college. Later that night, I would be sexually assaulted.

Anastácio Community Relations Director

For the past five months, I’ve remained silent about my assault, but this silence hasn’t been wholly voluntary.

There were more than 200 reports of sexual and dating violence filed with GW’s Title IX Office over the past

Atwo academic years. That’s more than 200 people who have each had to survive the unbearable, often with those around them unaware of the pain they’ve faced or will continue to face. The real number is likely larger. Nearly one-fifth of undergraduate students said they had personally experienced sexual and dating violence while at GW in a 2014 survey. However, only one-tenth of undergraduate students reported improper behavior to an authority figure, and those who did report their experiences were more likely to find GW’s response inadequate than adequate.

In 2018, nearly four out of five GW students believed that sexual and dating violence was happening either often or somewhat often on campus, but only 39 percent felt University officials were doing enough to provide a campus free of sexual and dating violence.

Since then, the surveys and other sexual assault prevention efforts on campus have gradually faded from GW’s consciousness.

As a result, the University community is largely unaware of the experiences

Strengthening

s a student of the American gay rights movement, I have been trained on the phrase that “silence equals death.” Therefore, I have publicly, loudly and frequently condemned the violence that Hamas unleashed Oct. 7.

Dwayne Kwaysee Wright Guest Contributor

However, it has been disheartening not to see my colleagues likewise condemn the slaughtering of thousands of Palestinians after Oct. 7. To date, more than 30,000 Palestinians have died, nearly 27 times the number of Israelis who died Oct. 7.

What is happening in Gaza is a series of public executions to re-

WHAT THE UNIVERSITY WON’T TALK ABOUT THIS WEEK

semester.

of survivors and the effects trauma can have on one’s daily life. Instead, due to stigma and misguided ideas on recovery, survivors are expected to dwell on their trauma and isolate themselves from the rest of society, losing out on education, professional opportunities and socialization.

Survivors are called such not simply because of the individual experiences we’ve faced but because of our fight

GW’s

mind Palestinian people — not just Hamas — to stay in their “proper place.”

I say this not to downplay Oct. 7. I have empathy for the Jewish people who faced annihilation while the world acted like nothing was happening until it was far too late. Humanity’s failure to recognize what was happening to Jews during the Holocaust is a stain on our history. If society is to truly learn from the mistakes of our past, “never again” must be a reminder to all that it is too easy to give into our darkest instincts.

To be fair, University President Ellen Granberg has come out against “all forms of antisemitism and Islamophobia.” Simple enough. She deserves some applause — some college presidents won’t even go that far. But she did

to survive in the aftermath of what we’ve faced.

Survivors of sexual assault are three times more likely to experience suicidal ideation and five times more likely to attempt suicide than those who haven’t throughout their lifetime.

Surviving is difficult when your productivity is stifled, your safety is put into question, your trust is broken and your motivation is eradicated,.

But how can we solve this

problem on campus if we can’t fully see it?

Following my assault, I knew that I wanted to report at some point later on, saving evidence under my bed and undergoing a forensic exam. But I was reminded of past cases where survivors were either mistreated or punished by authorities.

In the months following, staying silent provided me temporary comfort but made me believe that what happened to me wasn’t wrong enough. And if I can’t report mine, how can I wait for other survivors to come forward about theirs?

And so, I reported it.

I reported my assault to the Metropolitan Police Department on Dec. 16. However, as of the writing of this piece, I cannot be found within MPD’s crime statistics. So, I also reported my assault to GWPD in January and the Title IX Office in February.

I decided to report because what happened to me was wrong and because I refused to give in to the pressure that silences survivors from coming forward. Though I recognize survivors have no obligation to publicly discuss their assaults, I find it my

responsibility to be open about mine.

The silence that survivors are expected to assume has hindered any substantial attempts to mitigate sexual and dating violence on college campuses and in greater society. When survivors can’t discuss their experiences openly, evidence of systemic failures goes unmentioned.

Furthermore, sexual and dating violence awareness should not be relegated to prevention trainings and consent workshops. Awareness should extend to educating the public on the effects sexual and dating violence can have on society and promoting greater empathy for survivors. The first step in fighting against sexual and dating violence is quashing the stigma that inhibits its progress. We must have open conversations to develop solutions that both protect and support our community. When survivors suffer in silence, society suffers in silence.

—Nicholas Anastácio, a senior receiving double degrees in political communication and data science, is The Hatchet’s community relations director.

community requires moral courage

so after specifically condemning “acts of terrorism” against Israel.

Denouncing the Oct. 7 attacks while not similarly condemning the ongoing loss of life in Gaza has led members of our community to believe that, at GW, Palestinian lives matter a bit less than others’ lives.

Some may say Granberg need not make any statement on the ongoing war. However, one would then need to explain why she so easily labeled the actions of a student group as “antisemitic,” while failing to label the continued killing of innocent Palestinian children as Islamophobic and anti-Arab.

What does it say about this space that words projected onto a building receive a more forceful condemnation than dead children in mass graves? I cannot be silent when faced

with the massacre of children. So I join my colleagues in once again asking GW’s leadership to condemn the ongoing murder of innocent Palestinians by Israel. No plan to “strengthen our community” will be effective until GW officials summon the courage to provide the victims of the ongoing slaughter in Gaza the same empathy and dignity that they extended to the victims of the Oct. 7 attacks. So this is an invitation for GW leadership to say what might be uncomfortable but morally necessary. I know there may be some backlash to my words. We have too often in the last five months seen antisemitism weaponized to silence those who dare to speak against the moral atrocities being conducted in Gaza. But my conscience will not allow me to be silent as men,

women and innocent children are dying.

Last month we celebrated Black Americans, whose national anthem calls us to “lift every voice and sing.” All I have is my voice and I believe it is my obligation to share that voice with those under siege in Gaza. I hear your cries, even as others seem intent on ignoring them. I hope that more will lend their voice to your cause before it is too late. Their names were Maryam, Laila and Youssef. All children who should be alive today. Now that you know their names, will you still turn away?

After all, silence equals death.

—Dwayne Kwaysee Wright is an assistant professor of higher education administration and the director of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives at the Graduate School of Education and Human Development.

Plans for GW’s future should address its present

The GW community may not have a crystal ball, but officials are asking faculty, students, staff and alumni to predict the University’s future.

These “future-focused conversations” are the fi rst step in creating a strategic framework for GW in the coming years, the fi rst long-term plan since the tenure of former University President Thomas LeBlanc. But as we collectively ponder the state of GW — and the world — five to 10 years from now, let’s not lose sight of the issues currently facing the University.

Historically speaking, officials’ yearslong strategic plans tend to outline priorities that are as ambitious as they are abstract. Look no further than “globalization” and “interdisciplinary innovation” in 2012’s strategic plan, or “world-class faculty” and “high-impact research” in 2019.

As buzzword-y as they sound, these plans can radically transform the University if, or when, they come to fruition. From constructing new buildings to hiring new faculty to admitting new students, strategic frameworks shape the course of GW’s history.

And to their credit, officials are garnering feedback from faculty, students, staff and alumni. But how will the questions they’re asking help craft a concrete vision for GW’s future?

Ask students what frustrates them about the University, and answers will

range from the eye-watering cost of attendance to stomach-churning dining options to not feeling supported on campus. That can’t be reduced to a one-word objective, and neither can concerns about

pay rates and promotions, tenure, departmental funding or the various day-to-day issues facing GW. By their nature, strategic plans miss the minutiae in favor of overarching goals.

That shouldn’t stop GW from dreaming big — officials didn’t select University President Ellen Granberg because she’d keep everything the same. But those ambitions can only go so far when GW faces pervasive, ongoing challenges.

If GW becomes a world-class research center or commits to the principles of shared governance, for instance, it still faces the same problems both large and small. How can GW retain talented and dedicated faculty and staff, provide students with a job-ready education and contribute academic research to the wider world?

While officials aren’t directly asking these questions about the workforce, higher education and knowledge, they offer a clearer way forward than guessing about the future. It’s not strategy but tactics, not what GW should be but how it can get there.

Reinventing the University every five to 10 years is an impossible task, especially when circumstances beyond its control, from COVID-19 to global confl icts, can dash even the most thorough plans. So, why not strive to make the University a little bit better each year?

Officials — and faculty, students, staff and alumni — can only guess where they and GW might be years from today. But they can and should discuss the challenges they face and the solutions they need to implement now, not in some far-off future.

Nicholas

GIA KALYANI | CARTOONIST

Culture

NEW TV SHOW: “THE

My big fat GW wedding: Shakespeare master’s student elopes on campus

Every Shakespearean comedy ends in a wedding — and the past year has been as chaotic as any comedy for Andrew Mitakides.

Mitakides, a master’s student in GW’s Shakespeare Theater Company Academy, lived out his starcrossed lovers dreams Thursday night when he tied the knot on campus with fellow “book nerd” and genealogical researcher, Riki Wells. The Leap Day wedding, held in a small courtyard just outside the Academy for Classical Acting on G Street, culminated an emotional year for Mitakides.

“I lost my father, had a daughter, got married, got my master’s and turned 40 within 365 days,” he said.

Like Romeo and Juliet, Mitakides and Wells met by chance, and only after some persistent determination on Wells’ part did the couple end up together. Mitakides said they first connected at a boozefilled event called Bourbon and Bubbles in Dayton, Ohio, where they both lived at the time. Mitakides said Wells was working the event as an advertising researcher for the Dayton Art Institute and caught his eye as she handed out free blue champagne.

Mitakides said while the couple hit it off, they parted with sweet sorrow at the end of the night. But he said Wells wasn’t satisfied with that being their last act. Mitakides said he was working as the host of a late-night talk show called Gem

City Tonight, and Wells used it to reconnect with the Antony to her Cleopatra, becoming a producer on the show.

He said after his talk show wasn’t renewed in 2020 he made a career pivot. He said he had wanted to teach acting since he was in college and chose to apply to GW since it’s one of only two programs in the country that focuses on classical texts and Shakespeare.

He said he started in the program last fall, just one part of his

CROSSWORD

By Auden Yurman and Isabella MacKinnon

climatic year. He said he wanted to share the wedding with the Revolutionary community he’d formed.

Wells said though her initial plan with Mitakides was to get married this upcoming December, she suggested they get married in the District, not wanting to wait a whole year.

“‘Why don’t we just get married on Leap Day?’” Wells said she asked him. “‘Let’s just elope and get it over with.’”

The leap date wasn’t a coinci-

DOWN

1. The ___ Knight, starring Christian Bale

2. Thick Japanese noodle

3. Barden Bella Chloe underwent surgery to remove these

4. You’ll learn to wield these in a fencing LSPA

6. Casual throw

ACROSS

1. ___: Part Two, starring Timothée Chalamet

5. “___, don’t shop!”

7. It’s probably not your first one

8. “You’re the bee’s ___!”

9. Snake’s sound

dence — Wells said she initially proposed to Mitakides in 2020 because it was a leap year and “that’s when the girl is supposed to propose.” She said she was confident that she wanted to be with Mitakides, and since he is fluent in American Sign Language, she decided while bored at work one day to learn the basics of the language to personalize the proposal.

“I was like, you know, ‘I should just propose to him, see what he says,’” she said. “So I learned the

song ‘Walking in Memphis,’ because for whatever reason, that’s like our song. I learned the whole thing in sign language. And at the very end of it, I learned how to say, ‘Will you marry me?’ in sign language. And I did it in a B-Dubs.”

Thursday, years after that fateful wing date, guests strolled down a cobblestone path lit by electric candles to an empty courtyard decorated with string fairy lights. The groom and the wedding party were still in rehearsals for their upcoming performance and would not arrive for over half an hour after the ceremony was set to begin.

The small scale of the wedding wasn’t a mistake — Mitakides said it was both his and Wells’ third marriage, so they didn’t feel the need to do anything dramatic.

Once the curtain called, the wedding party rushed over, donning dresses and suits in the first floor of the classical acting building, whisking their outfits out of their assigned lockers.

Surrounded by a troupe of friends and found family, Wells and Mitakides professed their undying love for one another in a short but sweet ceremony.

“Call it fate, call it luck, call it karma, I believe everything happens for a reason,” Wells said. “I believe we were destined to be.”

After Mitakides vowed to share their life as a family, the couple’s son Sebastian handed Mitakides the wedding rings out of a hollowed-out copy of “As You Like It.”

“With this ring, I promise to be yours forever,” Mitakides said. “Know that it encircles my love forever and ever until you say goodnight, sweet prince.”

GW a capella groups belt out tunes in competition

Bit by bit, the Sons of Pitch trickled into the University Student Center Grand Ballroom on a Thursday evening, the final practice before The Varsity Vocals International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella Mid-Atlantic Quarterfinals. Standing in the corner of the empty ballroom, the singers began warming up by going through vocal exercises.

The group first sang through their set with only vocals. As they were running through the 10-minuteslong set, a member walked through the circle, waving their arms and saying, “Come on, come on,” a reminder to keep up their vocal endurance.

Once the vocals were set, they added the choreography. First running through the entire number, then fixing certain moves that not everybody had perfected. A member reminded the rest that stepping on beat automatically gives them purpose, helping everyone to get in sync. That weekend, they would be one of three GW a capella groups to perform on the international stage — the same set as the one seen in “Pitch Perfect.”

“I think Saturday is going to be a great moment,” said Sam Schwartz, a member of the group.

On Saturday in Oakton, Virginia, it was time to see if

the great moment Schwartz wanted would materialize. The audience was in store for an afternoon of beatboxing, vocal belts and dancing. 10 teams went on stage in random order — one after another — in a face-off where they’d be judged on their vocal and visual performances.

The first of the GW groups to perform was the all-male Sons of Pitch. Fresh off an all-member trip to IHOP to let off steam before the competition, Sons of Pitch President Max Wiener said tensions stirred among the group as members tried to hype each other up before going on stage. Dressed in a variety of simple black and white pants and shirts, the group made their way under the lights.

The number began with “Zombie” by The Cranberries, with identical twins Sam and Luke Schwartz singing to each other, creating a mirror-like effect on stage. The group mimed out the motions of hooking objects and calling to each other as the crowd went crazy for their next song “Buzzcut Season” by Lorde, as the all-male group sang their hearts out to the feminist anthem.

“Are you DTF?” asked the emcee. “Down to Funk?”

As the crowd roared and the lights rose, the Mother Funkers stepped onto the stage. The energy was high on stage, as the singers flew via a group airplane

formation while singing about cross-Atlantic travel in Estelle and Kanye West’s “American Boy.” When they began a Lady Gaga medley, the Funkers lifted a soloist into the air — but the acrobatics didn’t excite the crowd as much as when the performers started singing Gaga’s “Born This Way,” and the audience erupted into cheers.

The Pitches, GW’s all-female a capella group, started their Saturday by getting coffee from Peet’s at 10 a.m. before making their way to Oakton. Trinity Estelle, the president of the group, said leading up to the performance, members were doing breathing exercises and encouraging each other.

The group’s set included “Control Freak” by Flo, “In the Kitchen” by Reneé Rapp and “Dead to Me” by Kali Uchis. The group’s vocals and dance moves were bold. At one point, during “Dead to Me,” they drew their arms across their necks like they were using a knife to cut someone’s throat vengefully.

Unfortunately, none of the GW groups received special awards or placed in the top three and will not advance to the Mid-Atlantic Semifinals. But that didn’t stop them from living out their aca-fantasies.

“The entirety of the experience, from beginning to end, was so unforgettable and SO pitch perfect,” Estelle said in a message.

JENNA BAER

PHOTO BY DANIEL HEUER | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Master’s student Andrew Mitakides says “I do” to Riki Wells during a wedding ceremony outside the Academy for Classical Acting.

DIANA ANOS STAFF WRITER

LEXI CRITCHETT | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

The GW Pitches harmonize during their set at an international a capella competition.

Sports

Men’s basketball falls to La Salle amid injury woes, extends losing streak to 12

KRISTI WIDJAJA STAFF WRITER

Men’s basketball (14-15, 3-13

A-10) was unable to snap their losing streak, falling to La Salle (15-15, 6-11 A-10) 66-72 on the road Saturday, stretching their losing run to 12.

Only six Revs played in the game, with redshirt freshman guard Garrett Johnson and redshirt sophomore guard Maximus Edwards nursing injuries.

Redshirt freshman forward Darren Buchanan led all scorers with 21 points on 7-16 shooting to go along with six rebounds and two assists. Fifth-year senior guard James Bishop contributed 18 points and freshman guard Jacoi Hutchinson scored 15 points on 50 percent shooting.

The Revs shot 47.1 percent from the field in comparison to the Explorers’ 43.1 percent. However, the Explorers’ dominance on the offensive glass and success stealing the ball allowed them 65 attempts from the field compared to GW’s 51. La Salle brought down 13 offensive boards and collected eight steals compared to GW’s six and one, respectively.

The Explorers’ senior guard Anwar Gill opened the game with a 3-pointer a minute in. Bishop was fouled on the Revs’ first offensive possession, connecting on one of two free throws. Graduate student center Babatunde Akingbola made a fastbreak shot in the paint of a steal, quickly tying the game 3-3 just three minutes into the first half.

Buchanan hit a jumper and the Explorers responded with a 3-pointer just under five minutes in. Buchanan immediately fired back

with a 3-pointer of his own to tie the game 8-8 with under 13 minutes to go in the first half. Off an Akingbola block the following possession, Buchanan facilitated the fast break, dishing the ball off to Hutchinson for a layup to give the Revs their first lead of the game with a score of 10-8.

The Explorers broke off multiple runs in the first half, including a 7-0 run that gave them a 5-point lead with 11 minutes remaining in the half. Bishop immediately responded with a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 2, but the Explorers responded with a 3-pointer of their own, making the score 18-13 halfway through the first half.

With four minutes remaining in the half, freshman guard Trey Autry connected a 3-pointer, cutting the deficit of 12 points to 9, making the score 23-32. The Explorers continued their scoring barrage, pushing their lead to 13 points, with just under three minutes left in the half, their largest lead of the game.

To close out the half, the Revs scored 5 straight, with Hutchinson and Buchanan each scoring. Buchanan ended the quarter with one successful free throw out of two, cutting the first-half deficit to 8, 30-38.

To start the second half, Hutchinson hit a 3-pointer, cutting the La Salle lead to just 5. The Revs then outscored the Explorers 15-8 to take a 48-46 lead with just over 12 minutes remaining. GW’s secondhalf comeback was aided primarily by Bishop, who contributed twoconsecutive 3-pointers to give GW a momentary lead.

The Revs were unable to extend their lead past two, with a turnover

from Trey Autry allowing the Explorers to hit a 3-pointer with just over 10 minutes remaining to take a 53-52 lead. Two free throws from sophomore guard Benny Schroder gave GW a 56-55 lead with just over nine minutes left, in what would end up being their last time ahead.

The Explorers quickly took back the lead as senior guard Jhamir Brickus hit a three on their following possession. The Revs were still within reach as Bishop scored in the paint with 6:51 left, bringing

Lacrosse looks to improve under second-year head coach

SYD HEISE STAFF WRITER

Lacrosse sits at 2-4 early in its 2024 campaign, with a revived squad of five new freshmen and four transfers.

Last season, the team placed fifth in the Atlantic 10, going 6-12 overall and 5-4 in conference play. The Revs fell to Davidson 15-5 in the A-10 Championship semifinal during the 2023 postseason.

GW took down Howard 21-7 in this season’s Feb. 9 home debut. Seven players scored for the Revs as the squad outscored the Bison by double digits just 20 minutes into the game.

The Revs then met Canisius College at Mount Vernon Campus Field on Feb. 11, falling 11-6. The loss catalyzed a four-game skid, with other defeats coming at the hands of UMBC, American and William & Mary. GW has since righted the ship, beating Robert Morris 16-9 Saturday.

While the team added five freshmen and four transfers, it lost star player Kerry McKeever who graduated last season. McKeever led the team with 48 goals and 53 points. McKeever started all 18 games in her last season playing for the Revs and commanded both ends of the field as a midfielder.

“With graduation, we lost five of our top six goal-

scorers from last year,” Head Coach Colleen McCaffrey said. “So we definitely had openings on offense. So what we did was a little bit of a change offensively to continue to play to each other’s strengths and our current players’ strengths.” McCaffrey said returning junior attacker Everly Kessler is a leader on the attack. Kessler started in nine of the 14 games she played in last season where she put 22 of 32 attempted shots in the net.

“In terms of leadership within the offensive end, Everly Kessler, she’s also a junior, she stepped up big time from last year,” McCaffrey. “She’s one of the returning offensive players.”

GW also added graduate transfers Emma Nowakowski from High Point University and Desiree Kleberg from Quinnipiac University to their roster. Kleberg has filled an offensive position on the team, adjusting quickly to her new environment as a captain on the team.

“She is a transfer from Quinnipiac and has really stepped into a role of a dodger on our team and a goal scorer,” McCaffrey said. “So she stepped up in that, in a leadership role as a captain as well. But Desiree and Emma have been two great additions, in terms of anchors on the offense

and really stepping into a goalscoring role.”

Senior Phoebe Mullarkey leads the team in goals and points with 15 and 16, respectively. Mullarkey suffered an injury that took her off the field for most of last season, returning to the field against Howard this year. Junior midfielder Haley Bolton tops the team as a feeder, tallying five assists.

The Revs implemented a new offensive set this season, looking to attack the net in ways different from what opponents saw last year. McCaffrey also places a strong emphasis on winning draws and maintaining possession.

“Our strength right now is our defensive unit,” McCaffrey said. “So our defensive unit essentially all came back and they’re playing really strong and really well together right now.”

GW will face off against St. Bonaventure in their first conference game of the season March 8. The Revolutionaries will then face off against their local A-10 opponents, George Mason, on March 30 and VCU on April 6. The Revs beat the Patriots 13-11 in their last matchup but have an all-time record of 6-15 against the Patriots.

For now, GW looks to hit their stride on the road against Old Dominion on March 5 at 1 p.m.

the Revs within 2, 58-60. The Revs were able to keep the deficit within 2, with free throws from Buchanan and Hutchinson responding to two made jumpers from La Salle. With 1:28 left, a Brickus jump shot extended the Explorer lead to four. Buchanan was unable to respond this time, missing a shot in the paint the next possession. The Explorers extended their lead to 70-62 with just 12 seconds remaining, with GW missing two 3-pointers during La Salle’s run. Four late points from

Bishop and free throws from La Salle brought the final score to 7266. Bishop scored twice in the final seven seconds of the game, but his efforts were not strong enough to make a dent in the Explorers’ widened lead over the Revs, ending the game 66-72. The Revs will return to the Smith Center for their last home game of the season to face St. Bonaventure on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Swimming and diving secures

NCAA championship appearances

GRANT PACERNICK REPORTER

At the start of the season, fans had high hopes for the reigning A-10 champions. With swimming and diving’s threepeat conference championship performance complete, they now have their eyes set on loftier goals.

Men’s redshirt senior Djurdje Matic and women’s sophomore Ava Topolewski are almost certain to be invited to the NCAA championships to compete in their respective events next month. Matic is currently ranked 21st in the nation in the 100-yard butterfly, while Topolewski is ranked 24th in the 1,650yard freestyle.

The program started off the season with a series of dual meets against some of the top teams in the nation. Their first meet was against Virginia Tech, whose men’s and women’s teams are both ranked in the top 25 in the nation.

Up until the Revolutionaries demolished Georgetown on Jan. 20, Senior Night, the only team victory came from the women defeating Pitt in a Nov. 4 dual meet, 171-128.

“The dual meet win against Pitt for the women is probably the biggest dual meet victory we’ve had at GW,” Thomas said.

Pittsburgh’s Trees Pool is a long-course pool,

meaning it is a full Olympic length of 50 meters, while The Smith Center’s pool, set to be destroyed before next season, is only 25 meters. For the swimmers, this meant turning half as much as they normally do in their home pool.

“By the time we get to conference, it’s easier,” said sophomore diver Olivia Paquette. “You get better and you become a better athlete and a better competitor by competing against people who push you and I think that has led to our success at A-10s.”

This season, the team finished strong, setting 17 conference records at the A-10 championships. Both coaches won Coach of the Year awards and junior Connor Rodgers earned a co-Performer of the Year Honor from the A-10.

“The record board is completely blank on both sides, almost,” said Rodgers. “We’re sending, for the first time, a guy and a girl to NCAAs. So it’s really cool to be a part of a program that’s still peaking and improving every year.”

On top of Matic and Topolewskis’ likely appearances in NCAA championships, six GW divers qualified for Zone A championships, a qualifying event for the National Championships. A handful of top-scoring divers from each event in Zone A will make it to

NCAAs. The Zone A championships will be held from March 11 to 13 at the Denunzio Pool in Princeton, New Jersey. Sophomore Olivia Paquette and junior Dara Reyblat qualified for all three boards (one-meter, three-meter and platform).

Paquette will look to expand upon her success this season, in which she won both one-meter and three-meter dives at the A-10 championships. She now holds program records in both dives, after breaking the one-meter record this past weekend.

“This year I set records that surprised myself,” Paquette said. “I think I’ve really learned that I’m taking my performance to the next level. With the onemeter record this week that was a really exciting one. I’ve kind of been eyeballing it since I got here.”

The men are sending a 400-yard medley relay team to the Bulldog Invitational Last Chance meet in Athens, Georgia, this weekend to attempt to qualify for NCAA championships.

Junior Ava DeAngelis is just on the border of earning an invite to NCAAs in the 100-meter breaststroke. DeAngelis will be the lone women’s swimmer still attempting to qualify in Athens, where the NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships will be held later in March.

Baseball Head Coach Gregg Ritchie’s career wins after Friday’s game, the most in program history

LEXI CRITCHETT | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Graduate transfer Desiree Kleberg fights off three RMU defenders.

FILE PHOTO BY DANIEL HEUER | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Redshirt freshman forward Darren Buchanan Jr. attacks the rim against a Richmond defender.