Vol-120-Iss-9

Monday, October 23, 2023 I Vol. 120 Iss. 9

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What’s inside

Halloween Guide pages 2-3

Granberg tackles shared governance, new partnerships while settling into presidency IANNE SALVOSA NEWS EDITOR

Ellen Granberg saw more than a beautiful view when she gazed out at the sunset from the plinth of the Washington Monument.

From her vantage point at the iconic D.C. landmark during a visit this summer with her wife Sonya, she said she realized the full potential of her new home in her role as the University’s 19th president.

Granberg started her term July 1 and is off to a busy start. She’s bolstered programs like the Global Food Institute and embarked on a national tour to speak with alumni and donors, while responding to tensions on campus around the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. For the remainder of her first year at GW, Granberg said she will work to end the Medical Faculty Associates’ debt crisis, boost alumni engagement and bolster GW’s academic medical enterprise, issues former GW presidents have grappled with but struggled to overcome.

“So many people I have talked to outside of the institution tell me how beloved GW is in this city, because of all the opportunities that we’ve created and the people

IANNE SALVOSA NEWS EDITOR

RORY QUEALY ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

TOM RATH | PHOTOGRAPHER

University President Ellen Granberg smiles in her office at 1918 F Street.

who have come through our doors and gone on to amazing careers in this town,” Granberg said.

The start of Granberg’s presidency kicks off GW’s third century and marks the beginning of more permanent leadership at the University after the close of former University President Mark Wrighton’s interim presidency and an eightmonth presidential search.

During Wrighton’s 18-month term, officials introduced the Revolutionaries moniker, revamped its dining system and announced the Board of Trustees’ decision to arm the GW Police Department.

Granberg said as president, she hopes to set the tone for shared governance — the participation of faculty, students and staff in decision making — and that she will provide oversight

to ensure that the appropriate constituents are involved in “critical” issues at GW. She said community members have expressed concern about the effective use of the University budget and difficulty figuring out which officials to contact to accomplish goals in meetings with the Faculty Senate, Staff Council and the Student Association.

See GRANBERG Page 5

Jewish student leaders express array of reactions to Israel-Hamas war, polarized community responses RACHEL MOON

CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR

RORY QUEALY

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

Jewish student leaders are struggling to grapple with the range of opinions and feelings shared within their communities and on campus sparked by the war between Israel and Hamas as they mourn those killed in the conflict.

Leaders of Jewish student groups at GW expressed feelings of fear, frustration and grief after witnessing polarized community reactions to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas among the GW community during rallies, vigils, conversations and gatherings across campus and D.C. in the weeks following its outbreak. Jewish students voiced a range of views re-

MFA will not break even by FY 2024, officials say

garding Hamas’ attacks and the Israeli military’s subsequent response, the government’s control over the region that includes Israel, the occupied West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, and expressed sorrow for the loss of innocent lives throughout the area.

On Oct. 8, Israel’s government declared war on Hamas — the Palestinian militant group that rules over Gaza, which the United States and European Union consider a terrorist organization — after the group carried out a surprise attack on Israel the day prior. Hamas’ invasion included rockets, mass kidnappings and the killing of at least 1,400 Israelis, and occurred the day after the close of Sukkot, a weeklong Jewish holiday that celebrates the fall harvest.

The next day, Israel’s gov-

KAIDEN YU | PHOTOGRAPHER Students light candles in remembrance of the Israeli lives lost to the IsraelHamas war during a GW for Israel vigil in Kogan Plaza earlier this month.

ernment responded with airstrikes and a “complete siege” of Gaza, cutting off water, fuel and electricity to the region. Thousands of Palestinians have been killed by ongoing Israeli airstrikes, including some in the process

Alumni scorn sunsetting of Elliott master’s program FIONA RILEY

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

Alumni of an Elliott School of International Affairs master’s degree program sent a letter to the dean this month, rebuking her reasons for sunsetting the program.

Thirty-seven alumni of the Latin American and Hemispheric Studies master’s program sent a letter to Dean Alyssa Ayres on Oct. 12 in response to officials phasing out the standalone degree program over the next two academic years. The letter denounces Ayres’ claims that fi nancial constraints, faculty hiring difficulties and low enrollment led to the program’s termination as she outlined in correspondence with faculty and students.

The letter expresses alumni’s frustrations with not being consulted about the program’s phaseout, given their fi nancial contributions and involvement in University boards, committees and initiatives.

Ayres first sent an email to faculty on Aug. 18 and then to current students Sept. 6, announcing the plan to phase out LAHSP and the European and Eurasian Studies program, according to emails obtained

by The Hatchet.

Ayres said in the email to professors that students already enrolled in the program can complete their degree or transfer into a master of arts in international affairs, or MAIA, but did not explain this option in the email sent to students.

Alumni said in the letter that officials offering a regional concentration in Latin America under MAIA as an alternative will eliminate specialized education that helps graduates stand out in their fields.

“Many of us chose to pursue graduate studies at ESIA already holding undergraduate degrees in international affairs and similar general studies fields,” the letter states. “Thus we chose LAHSP out of a competitive graduate admissions landscape, to differentiate ourselves in an employment market highly saturated with M.A. degree holders.”

University spokesperson Julia Metjian said the Elliott School is focused on “continued engagement” with alumni and that Ayres will talk to alumni about “issues raised” in the letter. She declined to comment on if officials will reconsider the decision or if they are concerned with a potential drop in alumni support and engagement for the school.

“Dean Ayres is in contact with the concerned alumni and looks forward to constructively engaging them on the issues raised in the letter,” Metjian said in an email.

Alumni sent the letter to Ayres and 17 other officials, including Benjamin Hopkins, Elliott’s senior associate dean of academic affairs; Laila Sorurbakhsh, the assistant dean of academic programs; and Diego Abente-Brun, the director of LAHSP.

of evacuating Gaza City after being warned of incoming bombings by the Israeli military. Israeli forces are also actively preparing for a ground invasion of Gaza.

See STUDENTS Page 6

Chief Financial Officer Bruno Fernandes said the Medical Faculty Associates likely won’t break even by the end of Fiscal Year 2024 at a Faculty Senate meeting Friday, walking back the University’s profit projections the second year in a row.

Fernandes said he doesn’t think the MFA — a group of physicians and faculty from the School of Medicine and Health Sciences and GW Hospital — will pay back its $200 million debt to the University by the end of FY 2024, projecting that the MFA would instead lose between $30 and $50 million this fiscal year. Former interim University President Mark Wrighton walked back officials’ projection that the MFA would break even by the end of FY 2023 in January, making Fernandes’ announcement the second consecutive year that officials have backpedaled on their forecast of the MFA’s finances.

“I’m not trying to sugarcoat the numbers and say that we’re going to break even at this point, just because I don’t believe that we’re going to break even in fiscal 24,” Fernandes said during the meeting. Fernandes did not specify the fiscal year officials project the MFA to break even.

Fernandes also said the MFA will pause its plans to sell their 2300 M Street building as they are “work through” bank loans and that he doesn’t know when the group would restart the process of the sale. Officials announced in No-

vember 2022 that they would sell the building in a “saleleaseback” process to prepare for future growth and expansion, which involves selling the facility to an outside buyer and signing a long-term lease to retain 100 percent of the workspace.

The University announced late last month that Robin Nichols would take over as the MFA’s chief financial officer.

Nichols previously served as CFO of Warbird Consulting Partners, a consulting firm for health care and financial institutions, and as CFO of WakeMed Health System. Fernandes said Nichols started last Monday and that she has to review information before providing a first quarter update for FY 2024. Nichols joined Barbara Bass, the MFA’s CEO and dean of SMHS, to head the MFA. Fernandes said the MFA was notified of a “calculation disagreement” with “mission support arrangements,” which impacted revenues and expenses. He said he expects officials to “favorably” resolve the disagreement in FY 2024.

Fernandes shared a presentation with faculty senators that said the MFA renegotiated terms with EagleBank, the MFA’s primary external lender, to be more “in line” with the terms of GW’s credit facility, a type of loan that allows businesses to borrow money over an extended period of time rather than reapplying for the loan each time it needs money.

Faculty senators probed Fernandes about the MFA’s first quarter results, what models of success the MFA is using and how long the University can sustain the MFA’s losses.

Faculty senators demand officials release data that informed GWPD arming ERIKA FILTER NEWS EDITOR

FIONA RILEY

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

Professors passed a resolution asking officials to publicize data and community feedback on the decision to arm GW Police Department officers before continuing the implementation process at a Faculty Senate meeting Friday.

Faculty senators passed the resolution 21-4, calling on the University to disclose community feedback to GWPD’s online form soliciting input on the decision and any changes to liability insurance and GWPD operational costs caused by the arming of officers with 9 mm handguns.

Senators said the seven requests outlined in the resolution, which was penned by eight faculty senators, will allow the senate to remedy the Board of Trustees’ alleged violation of shared governance principles after the body failed to properly consult faculty before the decision.

The shared governance principles, which senators approved in April 2022, outline expectations for communication and collaboration between the administration, trustees and faculty on Uni-

SAGE RUSSELL | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR Faculty senators mingle before a meeting earlier this semester.

versity issues. Senators argue the decision to arm GWPD represents a lack of shared governance because trustees only told the senate’s Executive Committee they were considering implementation in February before announcing their decision in April. The resolution follows a May letter signed by more than 230 faculty members requesting the Board reverse the decision to arm officers.

Jennifer Brinkerhoff, a signatory on the resolution and a professor of international affairs, international business, public policy and public administration, said the reso-

lution is not intended to reverse the Board’s decision but will help address its breach of shared governance.

“Here, too, the GW community was stymied, but it’s not too late to rectify these two glaring governance submissions,” Brinkerhoff said, referring to the lack of community input and knowledge on the decision-making process.

GWPD armed its two top police officers last month with 9 mm handguns and planned to arm four more by the end of the month, marking a shift to phase two of the University’s implementation plan to arm about 20 officers this fall.

The GW Hatchet’s

H allo w e en Guide

Tales from the crypt: Students share haunted campus experiences KIANNA GRAY REPORTER

SOFIA PAPARELLA

GW HATCHET STAFF

REPORTER

Bone-chilling, spooky and just bad vibes may describe that midterm you just took, but it can also describe some of the seemingly haunted places around campus.

While Georgetown and Alexandria get a lot of attention for their supposedly spooky sites, Foggy Bottom has its fair share of hauntings. This Halloween, keep an eye out for these creepy places around GW.

The Basement of Building JJ

Basements of residence halls across GW are used by students as gathering places, but Spencer Wilcox, a sophomore studying political science, said the basement of his prior residence hall — Building JJ — had some peculiar occurrences in regards to its motion-activated light.

“We would always see it go on and off even if there was no one walking over there, and things would just mysteriously go missing like the TV remote,” Wilcox said.

While an inconsistent light could be chalked up to sketchy wiring, Wilcox said he had a more chilling experience there. He and his friends would mostly use the space to watch sports, but one time while exploring the basement, they stumbled upon an abandoned room right by the bottom of the basement’s stairs.

“The ceiling had collapsed and there was crazy like red — we don’t know if it was marker or paint or what — writing on the wall,” Wilcox said.

He said the writing read something like “Get out.” Wilcox said that he still doesn’t know what this room is because later it was locked without any further explanation.

“It was really spooky,” he said.

West Hall Music Rooms

From “Silence of the Lambs” to “Candyman,” many scary movies set the mood with a haunting musical score, and in the piano rooms

KATELYN POWER | PHOTOGRAPHER A deserted alley beckons students to trek through its sinister shortcut — if they dare.

of West Hall, residents can feel the presence of a lurking supernatural energy. Avery Frank, an undecided first-year, said she enjoys playing piano but has noticed a deeply sinister feeling while playing in these rooms.

The setup consists of one empty central room with five connected rooms within. In order to enter, students need to scan their GWorld from the outside of each room.

“The doors always lock and unlock, and you can always hear the doors locking and being weird while you are in there,” Frank said.

Indeed, one time she said she had a strange feeling something was off and looked at her phone and saw the time was 2:22. Since 222 is commonly known as one of the angel numbers — a set of repeated numbers some think signal a spiritual message — Frank said she has a feeling there is something more than GW’s music students lingering in these rooms.

Ingrid Bergman Statue

While most people notice GW’s famous hippo statue on the corner of 21st and H streets, some detect a frightening aura looming over the area. Opposite the hippo statue and attached to the blue pole of a now-retired police call box is a sculpture of the face of Ingrid Bergman, a 1940s starlet.

“There are two sides to [the

sculpture] and on one side her nose is broken and she’s got this smirk on her face, and it is the scariest thing,” said first-year JJ Rozeboom.

Rozeboom said the history of the two faces without a body or any discerning features is unknown to most students on campus. With no plaque attached to the installation, he said the installation leaves students with more questions than answers.

1959 E Street Rooftop

While residence hall rooftops with great views of the city may be popular spaces for GW students, not all can be considered fun-filled and relaxing. Millie Wallach, a sophomore studying human services and communications, said she experienced a bone-chilling experience one night on the 1959 E Street rooftop.

“I was on the roof of the E Street dorm and there was a chair propping open the door,” Wallach said.

“It wasn’t windy or anything. We heard the door slam, and there was no one up there. And we couldn’t get back in, the door was locked.”

Ever since this potentially supernatural event, Wallach has avoided the E Street rooftop as much as she can.

Scour your wardrobes to put together these last-minute Halloween costumes ANNIE O’BRIEN STAFF WRITER

Though goblins and ghouls may make you turn white with fright, they pale in comparison to the terror of realizing Halloween is next week and you don’t have a costume.

Rather than turning to Amazon Prime or repurposing a costume you wore last year and wasting your limited college Halloweens by wearing the same costume twice, take a look in your closet. You might have the perfect tools to make these lastminute costumes.

Taylor Swift in the “You Belong With Me” Music Video

If you are the type to wear sneakers and stick to the bleachers rather than take center stage like a short-skirted cheer captain, you likely have all of the materials to create Taylor Swift’s look from her 2009 music video, “You Belong With Me.” All you need are glasses, a white T-shirt, a notebook, markers and pajama pants.

To really nail the b l a s t- f r o m - t h e - p a s t look in Swift’s video, write “Junior Jewels” on the front of the shirt, decorate the collar with multicolored triangles and get your friends to sign their names. Carry around a notebook with some of the phrases Swift writes to communicate to her boy-next-

The Hatchet’s staff discuss terrifying horror movie viewings

AN NGO | GRAPHICS EDITOR

door crush in the video, like “No, studying,” “You okay?” and “I love you.” Plus, this costume is a great pick-up line for any crush you’re nursing this semester.

Party Animal

From black cats to sexy, Elle-Woods-inspired bunnies, there are never any shortages of animal costumes at Halloween parties.

Combine parties and animals into one costume: a party animal.

Pick up some animal ears of your favorite creature, colorful noisemakers and carry some confetti in your pocket to bring the party everywhere you go. If you have make-up skills or access to face paint, decorate your face with some whiskers. These simple ingredients will make you the rowdiest

animal at the party.

Weird Barbie

It wouldn’t be a 2023 Halloween costume list without an option inspired by Greta Gerwig’s blockbuster, “Barbie.” And while there will be no lack of Stereotypical Barbies and Kens on campus, going as Kate McKinnon’s Weird Barbie allows you to participate in the trend while maintaining some individuality.

Slather your face in misplaced, obnoxiously colorful makeup, tousle your hair and reach for your Birkenstocks — something you’re more likely to stumble across in a college closet than a perfectly coordinated pink outfit. Decked out in Birkenstocks and clownish makeup, you are ready to ask any

Barbie you see if she wants to experience the real world.

Paddington Bear

If you would like to use this Halloween as an opportunity to immerse yourself in nostalgia but don’t have the accessories necessary to create a Barbie look, check across the pond for inspiration and go as the marmalade-loving movie star Paddington Bear. All you need is a blue coat, dress or sweater and a red bucket hat.

If you want to add a fi nishing touch, write “Please Look After This Bear” on a piece of cardboard and pin it to your coat. If anyone fi nds you after you’ve had one too many ciders, they’ll know to take good care to get you home safe.

Typically, when art imitates life, it doesn’t cause viewers to break into a cold sweat as their heartbeats thrum in their ears.

But separating fiction from real life can be difficult when viewers find themselves in the thick of bone-chilling scenes.

Whether it was through their own foolishness or sheer bad luck, several Hatchet staff members survived bonechilling experiences while watching classic horror movies.

T h e y lived to tell their stories:

Watching “Scream” in an Empty Theater

JACKSON LANZER | STAFF WRITER It was late at night, and a blizzard had struck D.C. The streets were empty, harsh winds tore into trees and every sidewalk glimmered with ice.

Weeks prior, my friends and I had purchased tickets to watch “Scream” opening weekend. We had no intention of letting what our weather apps called “severe weather” stop us from viewing a cinematic masterpiece.

When we reached the theater, its doors were ajar and every light was shining. But when we walked through the doors, no one greeted us at the box office, the concession stand was devoid of life and the only sounds in the normally loud theatre were our footsteps echoing through the empty hall.

We decided to enter the empty theater and check if our film was still being screened. As we got closer, we could hear the faint whisper of Nicole Kidman’s voice beckoning us into a world where we would be “not just entertained but somehow reborn!”

The entire auditorium was empty, affording us our own personal showing of “Scream,” the fifth film in the meta franchise that follows a group of teens trying to survive another crazed horror movie fan taking up the mantle of serial killer Ghostface.

About halfway through the movie, we heard footsteps in the hallway. We all glanced down toward the auditorium entrance as a shadowy shape emerged from the darkness. It moved forward slowly but then abruptly turned and disappeared. One of my friends, who may be the culture editor of this very publication, behaved like a fool destined for a beheading, following the shadow down the dark hallway.

Thankfully for The Hatchet, he was not brutally murdered that night, and we never even found who else was in the theater — for all we know, Ghostface might still be

lurking around Georgetown.

AMC

Seeing “The Cabin in the Woods” in a Cabin in The Woods

EMILY PEREZ | REPORTER After a nine-hourlong drive, my friends and I arrived at the cozy wooden cabin in the Poconos, where w e planned to spend our weeklong spring break. After making a quick dinner, we hunkered down around the TV in search of a fun, scary movie to watch just for the heck of it. We finally came across “The Cabin in the Woods,” and after giving each other slight smirks and glints in our eyes, we pressed play.

About halfway through the movie, we heard noises coming from in and around the cabin, the same sounds that preceded the characters’ deaths in the movie.

Soft tapping, slow creaks and scratching on window panes crept around us.

After taking turns checking to make sure the doors and windows were locked, my friends and I decided to call it a night mid-movie, lest we become the inspiration behind a potential sequel.

Experiencing “The Conjuring” During a Power Outage

LINDSEY SPAIN | REPORTER I’ve always been easily scared by the slightest hints of paranormal activity. When my mother sneakily suggested watching “The Conjuring” to commemorate the start of fall, I was wary.

It was a gloomy day marked by purple clouds, and heavy rain was on the way. My family settled upon the couch as rain pattered against the windows. The movie progressed minute by minute without eliciting anything more than a yawn from my family.

As the rain worsened, my anxiety increased as I tried in vain to prepare myself for the worst of the jump scares so as not to appear to be immature around my family.

Suddenly, a crashing boom of thunder shook us from the spell of the film. Having briefly taken our eyes off the screen, none of us were prepared for the jump scare in which the Annabelle doll came alive from a dimly lit corner of the room.

Moments later, the power went out, and all of the lights in our house went dark. The only light in the room came from my mother’s iPhone screen, creepily lighting the bottom of her face.

Needless to say, we have not watched “The Conjuring” since that fateful day.

JORDAN TOVIN | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR Reagan O’Brien and Varunavee Mohanraj give themselves a spook by watching The Shining.

Hal lo w e en G u i d e Get psyched for Halloween with these services and scares NICOLA DEGREGORIO REPORTER

Although ghosts and spirits are commonplace in Halloween celebration, the spiritual aspects of the holiday often go unobserved.

Carving pumpkins, cozying up with a pumpkin spice latte and meticulously debating what niche costume to wear to impress friends and strangers alike are typical October rituals. But rather than another year of dressing up as a mouse (duh), consider celebrating the land of the dead by engaging in some not-so-common rituals around D.C.

Samhain

A modern form of Paganism, Wicca is an Earth-centered Western religious movement recognizing the breadth of spirit beings. One of the eight major Wiccan Holidays, Samhain marks both the end of summer, the harvest and the beginning of winter. In the Pagan belief, the start of winter marks the day when the veil between the living and dead is especially thin. If you are looking for a community to connect with the deceased or celebrate Samhain with, the District offers events like traditional celebrations and lessons on grieving.

D.C.-based Pagan group Connect DC is hosting a ritual celebration of Samhain on Saturday, Oct. 29. Formed in 1999, the group says their goal is to heal and transform the city through magic and celebration. The event involves a potluck and a reading out of names of those who have either passed away or been born in the past calendar year, reflecting the belief that the holiday represents a liminal space between summer and winter,

life and death.

The Firefly House, another of the District’s most popular Pagan groups, is hosting an event to dissect how and why we grieve and ways to manage such feelings.

On Oct. 26 — just before Samhain — Firefly Dialogue: Grief and Grieving, is an alternative way to prepare for the holiday ahead. The event involves a guided discussion about all forms of grief, be they related to death or not.

Occult Experiences

Not always sporting a pointy black hat, some witches, mediums and the mystic have found a home in the District.

Indulge in some witchy pleasures this season through tarot readings and metaphysical mementos.

An occult destination in Georgetown for the past 50 years, The Chakra Room has serviced the Washington community through spiritual sessions with Mrs. White, the shop’s long-standing psychic and astrologer.

Simply stop in after calling to confirm the mystic is there for guidance on love life, career or an exploration into your past and present.

But, if unearthing the future is too unsettling even during the Halloween season, perusing the shop is just as thrilling.

Showcasing one-of-akind finds such as handmade wands and witchy offerings, The Chakra Room is a shopping destination to rival the retail craze of M Street.

Haunts

If engaging with the spiritual side of the holiday isn’t your vision for the most fulfilling Halloweekend, but you still want to feel the full range o f

RASTAFF PHO-

emotions the scare-filled holiday promises, venture out into the District and get your heart rate pumping with some real-life scares.

With options for the horror fanatic and the faint of heart, make the most of the hauntings offered this season.

The critically acclaimed horror attraction Field of Screams in Olney, Maryland, features two haunted trails with a combined 55 attractions. The trails are like an outdoor haunted house, with actors dressed up as ghouls and goblins jumping out to scare the poor souls wandering their way through the woods.

The newest haunted trail follows the narrative of summer camp gone wrong, while the original features 29 haunted houses scattered along the wooded trail. Riddled with actors ready to jump out, sound effects and animations, the immersive experience makes for quite the thrill.

Reachable with a little less than two hours of public transit, escape the city for the night and enjoy an eerie experience within the woods of Maryland. Open from Thursday to Sunday, be sure to reserve tickets ($54) online and in advance, as they are not sold on site.

If jump scares and chainsaws are not the way you go about celebrating Halloween, but you still want a scare, delve into the eerie history of Georgetown via the Ghosts of Georgetown tour. Aside from the infamous “Exorcist” steps, discover other hauntings and spirits looming in the historic neighborhood.

One of the 90-minute tour’s stops is the historic Halcyon House. Built by the first U.S. Secretary of the Navy Benjamin Stoddert, the street lights are said to flicker as his spirit haunts the property to this day.

AN NGO | GRAPHICS EDITOR

JORDAN TOVIN | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR A bushel of apples wait to be plucked at the FRESHFARM Foggy Bottom Market.

Fall for these only-in-DC Halloween happenings NICK PERKINS CULTURE EDITOR

There’s only so many ways to celebrate Halloween.

By the time one gets to college, they’ve done most of them — everyone’s gone trick-or-treating around their neighborhood and carved a pumpkin from the grocery store. But while D.C. may not be known for its fabulous autumns, it still offers plenty of things to fall for this Halloween.

Whittaker Chambers’ Pumpkin Farm

Carving pumpkins is a Halloween tradition as old as the holiday itself, but let’s face it: It’s really hard to do in college. Cramped residence hall rooms guarantee the stench of pumpkin guts will linger in the air for weeks to come, and if you actually want to light the jack-o’-lantern with a candle, you may have to take it up to the roof to limit the fire hazard. But as someone whose first-year roommate left a pumpkin he carved up on the roof of Munson Hall to rot for months after the holiday, trust me when I say that’s not much of a solution either.

I n stead, to get your

PHAEL KELLNER | TOGRAPHER

pumpkin fix, journey about an hour north into Maryland at the Whittaker Chambers Farm, the least popular National Park Service site in the country. Chambers, the farm’s namesake, was the star anti-communist witness in one of a dozen so-called “trials of the century” in the 1900s, and he hid the documents essential to his case inside pumpkins at his farm.

The site was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1988 but now stands basically ignored, just an unmarked pumpkin patch in the middle of rural Maryland. While you can’t go on the farm, which is now privately owned, it can still be viewed from the road. The farm is a truly bizarre slice of American history, and a one-of-a-kind way to take advantage of the District’s proximity to political history while also scratching your Halloween pumpkin itch — as long as you’re not a Communist, that is.

East Saw Mill Road, Westminster, Maryland.

Free to view.

Capital Candy Jar

While trick-or-treating on Embassy Row and collecting sweets from the nations of the world is a time-honored tradition among D.C. college students, there’s no need to go international to indulge in sweet treats

this Halloween. Capital Candy Jar, a Kingman Park-based confectionary shop, makes inhouse candies like chocolate truffles and peanut butter cups.

Plus, the shop will soon start selling what they admit is a “frightful” mix of candied blackberry and orangeflavored popcorn for Halloween. The unholy mix of sweet fruit and savory popcorn flavors is sure to expand your Halloween palette while staying true to local flavors.

201 15th St. NE. Open Tuesday through Sunday noon to 7 p.m.

ANXO Cider

It’s hard to find a sober college student on Halloweekend — but with Halloween falling on a Tuesday this year, a break from cheap vodka mixed with CVS-brand juice after nearly a week of partying may be welcome news.

ANXO Cider offers the cure for such ails.

With a tasting room located in Brightwood, the local cidery gives you the chance to keep the party going while also satisfying your taste buds with a more seasonally appropriate beverage.

711 Kennedy St. NW. Open Tuesday through Thursday and Sunday noon to 9 p.m., and Friday through Saturday noon to 10 p.m.

Staying young at heart, students discuss their Halloween costume evolutions BROOKE SHAPIRO

The difference between a mouse and a rat

REPORTER

SHEA CARLBERG STAFF WRITER

Halloween in college is a whole different story from the holiday of people’s childhoods — and changing costume trends are a major part of that evolution.

The scare-centered holiday revolved around getting as much candy as could possibly fit in a plastic jack-o’-lantern while growing up but turns into a weekendlong extravaganza once students hit campus.

Whether they put a new spin on a childhood favorite ensemble or dressed up as something entirely different, students across GW have seen their trickor-treating getups change as Halloween has morphed into Halloweekend.

Getting crafty with homemade horrors

For Honey Fair, a junior studying marketing, Halloween means going all out with DIYs. Fair said their favorite costume as a kid was one their mom threw to-

gether using the vampire fangs, witch hat, spider web neck piece and fairy wings already in the closet to create a mashup of common childhood getups.

Fair said as they became responsible for their own costumes, they stuck with their mom’s idea of getting creative. Since high school, Fair has turned to DIY-ing all of their Halloween looks not only as a creative outlet but also as a way to avoid the often expensive costumes sold in stores.

Fair’s favorite homemade costume is from their first year when they dressed as Emily from “Corpse Bride,” using only pieces she was able to gather on and around campus such as a white dress, veil, corset and frilly necklace.

“I also do a costume for every single day of Halloween, and you will never see me in that same costume twice,” Fair said.

In her childhood trick-ortreating days, senior Sarah Freeman said she donned a mouse onesie, which she still looks back on fondly.

Freeman kept it in the rodent family last year, printing out a photo of fictional chef Auguste Gusteau’s renowned “Anyone Can Cook” cookbook from the Pixar movie “Ratatouille,” slapping it on her textbook and sporting Remy’s ears on a headband.

She said although she put zero effort into the costume, she enjoyed people instantly recognizing her character.

“They were like, ‘Hey, it’s Remy the rat’,” she said.

It’s all in the ingredients

Maddie Daggett, a sophomore studying speech and hearing sciences, said she enjoys adding a bit of spice to her costumes, literally. In both seventh grade and her senior year of high school, Daggett sported the Huy Fong Foods emblem of the iconic chili Sriracha sauce.

“I wanted to end senior year with a bang,” Daggett said. “No one else is going to have the Sriracha bottle, it’s

sitting at the bottom of my closet, and I might as well bring it out again, cause some controversy, block people during class.”

Some of Daggett’s other childhood costumes include a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a paired outfit with her twin sister, and a mermaid.

Hair first, wear second

Kylenn Drake, a sophomore studying public health, said each Halloween she has used her hair as the inspiration for her costume planning as she has in the past dyed it red, blond and brunette. Her first memorable costume was in elementary school while her hair was curly and blond, so naturally her mom helped her pick a poofy blue Cinderella dress complete with a tiara.

Drake said she appreciates the opportunity to dress as elaborate as she wants to without standing out too much from her peers. For Drake, costumes allow her to express herself more than she would on a given day, including this year in which she is going as a to be determined character from “Total Drama Island.”

COURTESY OF SARAH FREEMAN

COURTESY OF HONEY FAIR

NEWS

October 23, 2023 • Page 4

News

THE GW HATCHET

THIS WEEK’S

EVENTS

GEORGE TALKS BUSINESS

Tuesday, Oct. 24 | 6:30 p.m. | Smith Center Attend a conversation with Microsoft Vice President of Mission Systems William Chappell and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Deputy Director Nitin Natarajan about technology and national security.

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY Oct. 24, 1985

CRIME LOG

SACHINI ADIKARI

UNLAWFUL ENTRY

REPORTER

Disciplinary referrals for liquor law violations spiked between 2021 and 2022, while reports of fondling decreased by more than half, according to GW’s Annual Security & Fire Safety Report released last month.

The annual report — which officials are required to submit under the federal Clery Act, legislation that aims to provide transparent crime data for college campuses that receive federal funding — includes data on crimes reported to the GW Police Department, like liquor law violations, domestic violence, stalking, dating violence and robbery. Criminology experts said the 2022 data in the report align with the increased activity resulting from a return to campus after the COVID-19 pandemic but that it’s difficult to extrapolate crime trends from the small data set.

University spokesperson Julia Metjian said the reopening of campus in 2022 led to “increased activity” compared to 2020 and 2021.

“GWPD prioritizes the safety of our University community and continues to employ all necessary resources to address issues as they arise,” Metjian said in an email.

“GWPD will continue to strive to meet the evolving needs of the GW community and foster a safe campus environment for all.”

Officials reported 271 disciplinary referrals for liquor law violations on the Foggy Bottom campus in 2022 after 50 in 2021 and 132 in 2020 — the jump in liquor law violations coincided with students returning to campus following COVID-19. Disciplinary referrals occur when GWPD refers individuals to the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities, per the report.

In the five years of available data on GWPD’s website, disciplinary referrals for liquor law violations were highest in 2022 at 271.

Disciplinary referrals for drug law violations on the Foggy Bottom Campus plummeted from 105 to 29 between 2020 and 2022, and referrals for drug law violations on the Mount Vernon Campus climbed from five in 2020 to 30 in 2022. Over the last five years, disciplinary referrals for drug law violations were highest in 2018 at 167.

Reports of fondling on the Foggy Bottom Campus decreased

Amsterdam Hall (Garage) 10/13/2023 – 5:30 p.m.

Closed Case GW Police Department officers responded to a report of a non-GW affiliated male subject roaming the Amsterdam Hall garage. On arrival, officers barred the subject and escorted him off the property.

Subject barred.

THEFT II/FROM BUILDING

Mitchell Hall Reported 10/14/2023 – Unknown Date and Time Open Case A female student reported personal items stolen from her room.

Case open.

AN NGO | GRAPHICS EDITOR

The director of Disability Support Services stepped down from her position last month after former DSS staffers said they were “overburdened” under her leadership.

Officials are seeking a replacement for Maggie Butler, the former director of DSS, according to a job posting for the position. Butler led DSS since 2021 after serving as the director of the Office on Disability Issues in Psychology at the American Psychological Association.

HARASSMENT

George Washington University Hospital 9/30/2023 – 12:23 a.m.

10/15/2023 – 1:45 a.m.

Closed Case A female student reported being harassed by a male subject while waiting in the GW Hospital emergency room.

No identifiable subject.

THREATS TO DO BODILY HARM, SIMPLE ASSAULT

Kogan Plaza 10/16/2023 – 6:44 a.m.

Closed Case GWPD officers responded to a report by two male contractors who reported a male subject had thrown a water bottle at them and threatened them. Officers made contact with the subject and issued him a bar notice.

AN NGO | GRAPHICS EDITOR

from 20 in 2021 to eight in 2022, while reports of rape increased from eight in 2021 to 12 in 2022.

GW directs students to the Office of Advocacy and Support and the Title IX office to report cases of sexual violence.

Reports of on-campus stalking on the Foggy Bottom Campus rose from four in 2020 to 16 in 2021 to 27 in 2022. Last year, Tate said more student awareness and education about campus crime reporting may account for the rise in stalking reports.

Officials received three reports of burglaries on the Foggy Bottom Campus in 2022. Reports of burglaries have remained relatively consistent since 2020 at two and four in 2020 and 2021, respectively.

GWPD received 14 reports of burglaries on the Foggy Bottom Cam-

pus in 2018 and 13 reports in 2019, per the 2020 report.

There were zero reports of murder or negligent manslaughter in 2022, 2021 and 2020 on the Foggy Bottom and Mount Vernon campuses. Officials began to arm some GWPD officers with handguns this fall in response to gun violence on college campuses across the U.S. and because officials think GWPD officers are better equipped to respond to campus threats than other local authorities.

The report states that there were 10 fires on the Foggy Bottom campus in 2022, all causing less than $10,000 worth of damage.

Experts said other D.C. schools saw fewer reports of crimes, possibly due to their smaller populations and removal from the city center.

DSS director steps down after staff complaints NEWS EDITOR

Thursday, Oct. 26 | 4 p.m. | Elliott School of International Affairs Join the Elliott School Office of the Dean and the Leadership, Ethics and Practice Initiative for a discussion with Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) about challenges he faces as a senator.

Callie Flipse became the first woman in GW history to compete on a men’s varsity team in a NCAA-recognized sport when she joined the men’s water polo team.

Liquor, drug law violations jump after COVIDrelated drop: annual report

IANNE SALVOSA

A CONVERSATION WITH SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN

Butler began a position as an “Accessibility Consultant” at GW in September, according to her LinkedIn. Butler deferred comment to University media relations in accordance with GW staff media policies.

University spokesperson Julia Metjian said officials will ensure that DSS service and support for students will remain “uninterrupted” during the transition from Butler to the new director. She said officials have prioritized the search for a new DSS director.

Metjian declined to comment on why Butler is step-

ping down, when Butler officially left her position and what her new responsibilities are as an accessibility consultant.

“GW is grateful to Maggie Butler for her leadership of the Disability Support Services office and wishes her well on her next endeavor,” Metjian said.

About half of DSS’s 11 total employees left the unit over the past four years due to staffing shortages and an expansion of responsibilities. Two American Sign Language interpreters worked part-time at GW for at least eight years before de-

parting in 2022, leaving no permanent ASL interpreters at the University for the 2022-23 academic year.

A former ASL interpreter said she left the University in 2022 after working at GW for 17 years after Butler extended her nine-month job to a yearlong responsibility.

Officials posted a parttime ASL interpreter position on the University’s online job bulletin in June, but the listing is no longer available. GW does not currently employ any ASL interpreters, according to the DSS website.

Subject barred.

THEFT II/FROM BUILDING

Mitchell Hall (7-Eleven Store) 10/16/2023 – 7:33 p.m.

Closed Case GWPD officers responded to a female store clerk’s report that a male subject had stolen a fountain drink. Officers canvassed the area but didn’t find anyone.

No identifiable subject.

DRINKING IN PUBLIC

District House 10/17/2023 – 11:01 p.m.

Closed Case GWPD officers responded to a report of a food service contractor drinking an alcoholic beverage while on duty. Officials terminated the contractor ’s employment shortly thereafter and officers issued him a bar notice.

Subject barred.

THEFT II/OTHER

Public Property on Campus (900 Block of New Hampshire Avenue) 10/19/2023 – 6:59-7:24 p.m.

Closed Case A female student reported her bike stolen from a bike rack located near the Milken Institute School of Public Health.

No identifiable subject.

THEFT II/FROM BUILDING, UNLAWFUL ENTRY

Mitchell Hall (7-Eleven Store) 10/16/2023 – 7:33 p.m.

Closed Case GWPD officers responded to a report of theft and made contact with a previously barred male subject who was given an updated bar notice.

Subject barred.

—Compiled by Max Porter

SA initiative to ease creation of graduate student governing bodies HANNAH MARR

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

JENNIFER IGBONOBA

CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR

The Student Association Senate passed a bill earlier this month that will make it easier for graduate students to form governing bodies under the SA. Student leaders across the SA and the Student Bar Association said the Graduate Student Support Act will bolster graduate student involvement and ensure their student organizations have greater control over fund allocations to their organizations. Graduate and professional students who support the initiative said the bill will allow for greater graduate student representation in leadership and reduce fears that the SA won’t appropriately represent their voices.

Under the current system, the SA allocates funds to all undergraduate and graduate student organizations, except the SBA,

which is the only chartered graduate student governing body. For the 2023-24 academic year, the SA gave the SBA $194,997 for the SBA to allocate to law student organizations in a separate allocations process.

The bill’s sponsor, SA Senate Chairperson Pro Tempore Amy Cowley, said she created the bill because she heard the School of Business’ MBA Association — an organization that represents Master of Business Administration students — is hoping to represent all GWSB graduate students. She said the MBAA tried to expand its representation last year, but the MBAA organization’s formation stalled the process because it lacked the authority to change its structure.

Cowley said the new legislation creates a road map for the MBAA to expand to begin governing the entire business school.

“They were kind of the drivers of us realizing this is a major blind spot that we don’t know because

all these umbrella orgs were set up in a way that doesn’t give them the ability to change themselves,” Cowley said.

Cowley said 5 percent of the 1,473 GWSB graduate students — or 74 people — must sign a petition by January or February requesting the change to a schoolwide governing body. Once they reach the signature threshold, GWSB graduate students will vote on a referendum on the SA 2024 election ballot on whether to finalize the change.

Cowley said the GWSB graduate governing body will create its charter under the SA after the SA Senate and the dean of GWSB approve the measure. She said the GWSB is the only graduate school that has already taken steps toward creating a governing body, but she has also reached out to the governing body of the Elliott School of International Affairs’ graduate students to make them aware of the new bill.

“Right now, it’s only the School

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY AUDEN YURMAN | SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR The Student Association Senate's Graduate Student Support Act.

of Business that’s been actively pursuing it,” Cowley said. “But I think once we get the word out, that could change.”

SBA President Shallum Atkinson said he would like to see more graduate schools have graduate

governing bodies under the SA like the SBA. He said the SBA can better direct SA funds to law student organizations than the SA Senate because those senators are removed from the law student experience.

NEWS

October 23, 2023 • Page 5

THE GW HATCHET

Undergraduate Moot Court Team hosts first-ever national competition EMMA KHODAVERDIAN REPORTER

ZAINAB RENTIA REPORTER

Students from across the nation flocked to Foggy Bottom to compete in the Undergraduate GW Moot Court Team’s first-ever national invitational Friday and Saturday.

GW’s undergraduate moot court team failed to reach the semifinals but spent several months organizing the competition, which gathered 30 teams from nine universities to argue the constitutionality of contraceptive bans in a style that mimics appellate court proceedings and oral arguments presented in the Supreme Court. One of two student teams from California State University, Fullerton won the competition.

The participating teams hailed from Buffalo State, Cornell and Duke universities, The Universities of Maryland, Virginia, California State University, Fullerton, Boston University and The College of Wooster. GW fell short of further advancing on the second day of the competition — shrinking the semifinals pool to one team from Boston and Duke universities and two from CSUF, who duked it out in the finals on Saturday.

“The outcome doesn’t really

matter,” said Hannah Lytle, a junior and a member of GW’s team who received an honorable mention for her performance in one of the trials. “This is a big win for our team in general because this is a platform we haven’t had before.

It was really great to see our teammates come together as a team and help host the tournament.”

Members of GW’s moot court team said they appreciated the opportunity to compete and host the competition because GW and the American Moot Court Association — the team’s umbrella organization — have been working toward authorizing the team to compete in AMCA-administered tournaments for about three to four years. The AMCA changed its requirements to make universities liable for the conduct of the team and its participants, which has kept the GW chapter from competing in association’s official tournaments and led them to host the invitational as an alternative.

Three teams of GW students competed including Lytle with Bridget Tost, Priya Moran with Allie Robinson and Adam Galland with Isabella Reed, who filled in for Kevin Berman. Each team participated in three trials and argued for the petitioner and respondent sides at least once, each for a total allocated time of 40 minutes excluding transitions and feedback from judges.

Competition judges, includ-

ing local lawyers and current and former law students, interrupted the students throughout the process with questions about their arguments before scoring the two teams at the end of each trial. Competitors were limited to using about 20 prior Supreme Court cases like Dobbs v. Jackson and Obergefell v. Hodges as precedent in their arguments, after the AMCA chose the constitutionality of contraceptive bans — and the right to privacy and the free exercise clause, which protects an individual’s right to practice their religion — as the subject of this year’s competition.

In their first trial, Galland, a sophomore and an opinions writer for The Hatchet, argued that a ban on contraceptives would violate one’s right to privacy, which he referred to as “the spirit of American law.” Reed, a junior, argued contraceptives were protected under the law because of a person’s right to free exercise.

In the second round, Lytle and Tost represented the petitioner, the state and responded to two main arguments including the right to privacy and free exercise of religion. Tost said the government’s narrowly tailored compelling interest supported the ban.

“The government interest in promoting morality and culture of life, responsibility and protecting against an STI crisis in the fictional state, and saving money

JENNIFER IGBONOBA | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER The moot court competition garnered more than 30 participating teams from nine universities on Friday and Saturday.

are all compelling government interests and that through banning all noncondom contraceptives, the act is narrowly tailored to those interests,” Tost said.

In the third round, Robinson and Moran argued for the respondent, the fictional woman suing the state for its contraceptive ban.

Robinson argued the right to privacy exists in the Constitution and that the court should apply the due process clause. Moran argued that the law violated the respondent’s freedom of religion because the compelling interest of the state was too broad and that the policy did not promote said

interest.

Senior Madison Freeman, the chapter’s treasurer, said members began preparing for the competition over the summer by summarizing the precedent cases and developing their arguments in August. Freeman said she practiced by asking questions that forced her to prepare for the variety of questions judges may throw at them.

“One thing that we’ve always prided ourselves on is, even if we can’t be like the biggest name school, we do really, really prep for these competitions,” Freeman said.

REPORTER

GW student team wins DC public health challenge

OLIVIA EARLEY

CRISTINA STASSIS

Staff councilmembers discussed ways to facilitate collaboration with faculty and staff at a Staff Council meeting Friday.

Staff Council President Bridget Schwartz presented Faculty Senate Executive Committee Chair Ilana Feldman to the council, who said the council will be a formal mechanism for faculty and staff collaboration, which she hopes to bolster going forward. Feldman said in the Faculty Senate, the body’s “strongest” work occurs in their standing committees — which brainstorm policies that they then bring to the rest of the senate to spur change in the University — which the council could replicate as a staff governing body.

“They are spaces where there is ongoing collaboration, both in the sense of actually just building communication, knowledge of each other, relationships and therefore some trust but also really working in concrete ways to develop policies,” Feldman said at the meeting.

Feldman said members of the senate and council should reach out to faculty and staff who are not participating in their governing bodies because she’s noticed that some faculty do not engage with the senate. She said staff councilmembers should remind other staff about the governing body’s existence, so they can provide suggestions on what they want the council to accomplish.

“For a new organization like yours, I think as people kind of see begin to see what it is that that comes out of having this people will get more engaged, but some people

JENNA LEE

Staff councilmembers discuss budding relationship with Faculty Senate JERRY LAI

SENIOR STAFF WRITER

REPORTER

REPORTER

LILY SPEREDELOZZI | SENIOR STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER A student strolls through Kogan Plaza's Trustees Gate on H Street.

won’t and that’s just you know, that’s got to be okay,” Feldman said.

The council is in the process of recruiting staff for five committees that focus on diversity, equity and inclusion; service; communications; staff development and recognition; and staff experience.

Each committee chair pitched their committee at the meeting, encouraging faculty to reach out if interested. Staff Council Vice President Kim Fulmer announced members of each committee at the council’s July meeting.

Human Resource Management and Development officials also delivered a presentation on their “compensation philosophy” and said market data, employee performance and equity in compensation determine employee salaries.

Annie Hess, the director of compensation, said the University is a “paper performance” institution in which high performers are paid high salaries or wages. She said officials also determine pay based on at least 10 federal regulations on compensation.

Hess added that factors like labor availability, special certifications and skills can also influence pay.

“GW is a business,” Hess said. “Our jobs, and what we pay them, should be anchored and influenced based on GW’s business needs and the impact we have and then they should be aligned with our budget planning process.”

Hess said employees can use the Career Path website to explore jobs at GW and managers can use the site to see how employees fit into their organization. She said the site groups jobs together across departments and schools by roles, so employees can understand where other positions stand in the University.

“When we look at our job families and subfamilies, you’ll notice that they’re not departments, they’re not schools, they are functional areas, and they often span multiple schools and divisions, and that’s intentional,” Hess said.

Jennifer Lopez, the associate vice president of

total rewards, said HR uses compensation, benefits and a “feedback-rich environment” to retain employees at GW. She added that officials are preparing for new D.C. pay transparency laws to become effective in 2024.

Five D.C. Councilmembers proposed an ordinance that requires employers to disclose the minimum and maximum salary or hourly wage and potential employment benefits.

Michael Kern, a representative for GW Information Technology, said in a comment in the Zoom chat during Lopez’s presentation that it’s “paradoxical” that many of the lower-paying University positions also require transport to campus, compared to positions that pay more but offer virtual work.

“We want to reemphasize certainly providing a meaningful, fair base pay is critical,” Lopez said.

“And then also having incentive tools for leaders to be able to consider when an employee does go above and beyond that role.”

A GW team won first place in a contest that challenged participants to improve the health of women experiencing homelessness with a proposal that focuses on improving the mental health and safety of unhoused LGBTQ+ youth.

The team won the 2023 D.C. Public Health Case Challenge, in which teams from D.C.-area universities competed with a hypothetical $1 million budget and presented proposals to a panel of public health and D.C. homelessness expert judges who evaluated the feasibility, practicality and creativity of their solutions addressing unhoused women’s health. The GW team won with their proposal titled “& Every Woman,” which outlined an increase in mental health resources, physical and psychological safety in shelters and policy-related advocacy for 18- to 24-year-old LGBTQ+ unhoused youth.

Wendy Post, a firstyear doctoral nursing student, said the team’s proposal had a three-pronged approach: mental health resources, mentor connections and community connections. She said the team focused on LGBTQ+ youth because they are the largest group of youth in need of housing and safety interventions in the District and many of them experience anxiety and depression that revolves around coming out to their families and grasping their sexuality.

“We’re talking about people who are experiencing anxiety and depression because they have come out to other peo-

ple about their identity throughout their lives and are continuing to be stigmatized and isolated in having social othering or self-isolation and physical violence or housing instability,” Post said.

GW’s team of students included Post, Nick Jennings, Soukeyna Sylla, Fatima Elgarguri, Shawn Bayrd and Anna Hochberg, with two faculty advisers.

LGBTQ+ youth account for 30 to 40 percent of unhoused youth nationally and 24 percent of unhoused youth in the District, according to D.C. data from 2017. LGBTQ+ youth are more likely to experience homelessness due to familial conflict and are at a greater risk of sexual exploitation, sexually transmitted diseases and mental health problems, according to the data.

Post said the proposal’s mentor connections prong involves hypothetical LGBTQ+ mentors who connect with unhoused youth through social media apps like Discord and help them transition into housing. She said LGBTQ+ youth experiencing homelessness could use social media as a space to post concerns, connect with their community and allow the team to locate them geographically to pair them with a mentor.

Post said the community connection prong involved publishing a map of anxiety and depression resources relevant to unhoused LGBTQ+ women.

Post said physical and mental health resources are in place for LGBTQ+ unhoused women, but they’re inaccessible because of the lack of knowledge the population has of the resources, driving the team to connect unhoused women to these services.

Granberg hopes to remedy MFA finances, grow medical enterprise From Page 1 Granberg said she’s had small groups formulate ideas for strategic planning that are dispersed to the wider community for feedback at her previous institutions and will conduct a similar planning process for GW. The University has lacked a strategic plan, an institutional guide for carrying out the University’s mission, since 2020 following officials calling former University President Thomas LeBlanc’s plan “obsolete” due to the COVID-19 pandemic after critics of the plan said it lacked community input.

Faculty said in January they were “optimistic” about Gran-

berg’s presidency because her background as the former provost of Rochester Institute of Technology makes her qualified to create a strategic plan that promotes shared governance. Granberg also served as a sociology professor, department chair, associate provost for faculty affairs and senior associate provost at Clemson University prior to working at RIT, according to a University release.

“You want to gather all that feedback, you want to give opportunities for people to react to things, but then in the end, part of my job is to make the very best choices I can on behalf of the institution,” she said.

Granberg said she’s prioritiz-

ing the MFA, a group of physicians and faculty from the School of Medicine & Health Sciences and GW Hospital, making progress on repaying their $200 million debt to the University. She said the MFA hired a new chief operating officer and chief financial officer who will renegotiate MFA contracts with more “favorable” terms for the University.

Officials said in October 2022 that the MFA would break even from their $200 million debt by the end of fiscal year 2023 but Wrighton walked back the projection in January, predicting that the group would break even by the end of FY 2024 instead. CFO Bruno Fernandes said at a Faculty Senate meeting

Friday that he did not think the MFA would reach Wrighton’s goal.

MFA CFO Robin Nichols joined the organization last month after working as a financial executive for Warbird Consulting Partners, LLC for a decade.

“It’s inch-by-inch kind of operational work, but cumulatively it’ll make a difference over time,” Granberg said.

She said she aims to expand the size or amount of the 14 endowed professorships funded by the sale of GW Hospital within the next 18 to 24 months. She added that GW has the potential to house a nationally renowned center for cancer care after SMHS recruited a leader for cancer operations.

Lekhaj Daggubati, a former neurosurgical oncology fellow at the University of Miami, joined the GW Cancer Center last month as the Director of Surgical NeuroOncology.

“As the medical enterprise grows, then you get into a lot of amazing opportunities for faculty all over the University to collaborate, and I did a lot of this kind of work as a faculty member so I understand what it’s like,” Granberg said.

Faculty and staff said Granberg has expressed a desire to listen to staff, faculty, students, alumni and community members’ input on the direction of the University during her first few months at GW.

NEWS

October 23, 2023 • Page 6

THE GW HATCHET

Jewish students reckon with conflicting community views

Local businesses adjust to new DC law requiring cash payment option HANA MANAYE REPORTER

MAGGIE RHOADS

From Page 1

REPORTER

A law requiring D.C. businesses to accept cash went into effect Oct. 1, forcing some local businesses to adjust operations.

The D.C. Council passed the Cashless Retailers Prohibition Amendment Act in 2021, but it did not go into effect until the beginning of this month due to COVID-19 and a lack of funding. Businesses on and near GW’s campus must accept cash if they did not already, with some local business owners and managers saying the law helps their businesses welcome those without access to a bank account or credit cards.

Former D.C. Councilmember-at-Large David Grosso initially introduced the bill in 2018, with adjustments from Chair Phil Mendelson. Mendelson authored the law in 2021, saying it would promote equity for people without stable banking.

“It’s surprising, but a substantial number, percentage of the population is unbanked or underbanked, and so this is really about equity,” Mendelson said earlier this month.

Eight percent of D.C. residents are unbanked, meaning they do not have a checking or savings account, and 21 percent of residents are underbanked, meaning they have an account but use check-cashing or payday loans, according to Bank On DC, the D.C. chapter of a national nonprofit connecting residents to finan-

SAGE RUSSELL | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR Students and community members pass through Foggy Bottom's Western Market to peruse a range of global cuisines.

cial resources.

More than half a dozen local businesses said accepting cash will make them more accessible to customers without bank accounts.

Chabrina Williams, the director of retail at the George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum’s Artisans Gallery, said when the museum first opened in 2015, it accepted cash as a form of payment. She said the museum’s finance department ordered the museum to stop accepting cash a few weeks later because it was impossible to make a bank deposit and do a financial report before the museum closed at 7 p.m.

“In terms of those reports, I believe that those kinks have been worked out,” Williams said.

She said when the Textile Museum stopped accepting cash, some visitors still assumed they ac-

cepted cash and needed to use another form of payment. Williams said she likes how the new law stops businesses like the museum from excluding those who can not pay with a credit card or who are traveling internationally.

“It’s really awesome to just offer people from all walks of life the opportunity to make a purchase with whichever, whatever their economic status is, or whatever form of currency that they have is accepted,” Williams said.

She said more people in 2015 paid with cash, but since then, fewer customers have tried to pay in cash.

Crystal Fernandez, the manager of Captain Cookie & the Milkman in Western Market, said the business wasn’t fully cashless before the new D.C. law.

“We went cashless for safety reasons during the pandemic because [there

was] a lot of theft that were happening,” Fernandez said. “We thought it was safer to do cashless, but if a customer did come in with cash, we would take their payment if they gave exact change.”

Fernandez said since the law’s passage, the business has transitioned to fully accepting cash and hasn’t had security issues.

She said the business tries to keep some change on site for customers who do not have exact change.

She said the business changed its training so register operators remember to accept cash even if customers do not have exact change.

“It’s really just getting everyone used to saying, ‘Yes, we do take cash,’” Fernandez said.

Fernandez said Captain Cookie employees have noticed more customers using cash, between $40 and $75 through cash transactions daily.

TWEETED I love staring at absurd bird’s 20 rotisserie chickens spinning in the machine it’s hypnotizing Annabelle Manzo on 10/18/2023 @ANNABELLEMANZ0

Twenty trucks carrying food, medical supplies and medicine entered Gaza on Saturday through the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza.

Axios reported that Israel has resumed water service to southern Gaza last Sunday after pressure from the White House.

In the days following Hamas’ attacks and Israel’s declaration of war, Jewish students have participated in off-campus and on-campus demonstrations, vigils and gatherings, including two rallies Oct. 8 in downtown D.C. Jewish student organizations at GW also hosted conversations and provided spaces for Jewish students to unpack their reactions to the conflict.

Senior Dina Grossman, the president of Kehila GW — a student organization for LGBTQ+ Jewish students — said she’s found it difficult to be exposed to varying opinions within the Jewish community surrounding the ongoing war and to find a community of people she agrees with.

She said she is frustrated because people haven’t had the chance to grieve and instead feel they have to jump to explain, defend and attack different views following Hamas’ attack.

“There is so much infighting and so many people on all the sides you could possibly think, within my own Jewish community, within the Jewish community at large,” Grossman said. “That’s really, really hard because you don’t know where to find the community of people who you trust and who you agree with and who you know you can share in that grief without having to get all up in arms about it. And I feel at a loss.”

She said she feels pulled in several directions because different communities, like her synagogue at home and circles at GW, have contrasting views on the conflict.

“It’s hard also to reconcile the grief of individuals,” Grossman said. “And like the Jews that have been taken hostage and murdered and assaulted and the grief of all of the Palestinians who are being bombed beyond belief and who are really vulnerable.”

Ari Patinkin, a junior

and the president of Chabad GW — a network of Jewish student organizations that provide social and religious programming — said he couldn’t focus on studying and classes during his midterms after the war’s outbreak. He said he instead had to figure out how to support Jewish students and provide them with the spaces they needed as a community like having an Israeli embassy official come to campus to speak to community members.

Patinkin said it was hard to put his phone away after the beginning of the war because he was keeping in touch with family and people he knows in Israel.

“That’s all my mom was talking about, that’s all I was talking about and that’s all we could think about and it happened during midterms,” Patinkin said. “And it really hurt me personally, academically because that’s all we could focus on. That’s all I could focus on.”

Patinkin said the Jewish community as a whole and as individuals will stay strong in the face of hostility and antisemitism.

Patinkin added that seeing violence and death in livestreams of the war on social media has affected him because of how personal the issue is to him.

“It’s like you’re trying to unravel such a situation and it’s just terrible on all sides, and just the fact that it was livestreamed too is pretty insane,” he said.

Sophomore Celia Little — the president of J Street U at GW, a chapter of a national Jewish organization that promotes a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — said the polarization among communities on campus about the conflict has become more apparent since the war’s outbreak, with vigils and gatherings to support both Israeli and Palestinian people and a slew of social media posts shared by students advocating for different sides.

She said she feels a need to create a space where students can acknowledge two truths in the wake of Hamas’ initial attack — that there are many Jewish students who want to mourn their Israeli family members and that there is context that should be acknowledged, including the lived experiences of Palestinians in Gaza.

Rachel Maddow talks history, rise of authoritarianism in United States CADE MCALLISTER EVENTS EDITOR

Political commentator Rachel Maddow discussed antisemitism and the rise of authoritarianism in the United States at Lisner Auditorium on Wednesday.

Maddow, the host of “The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC, said former President Donald Trump ushered in a form of right-wing politics that is “fundamentally undemocratic.” D.C. bookstore Politics and Prose hosted the discussion with Maddow and Susan Glasser, a staff writer at the New Yorker, about Maddow’s new book, “Prequel: An American Fight Against Fascism.”

Provost Christopher Bracey delivered introductory remarks highlighting GW’s partnership with Politics and Prose, which has yielded conversations with prominent figures like former presidential candidate and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2019, former Secretary of Defense James Mattis in 2019 and actress Kerry Washington in September.

Bracey said the University is thrilled to host Maddow, who is at the forefront of some of the “most critical” national conversations in her role as a journalist.

Maddow said there are four cornerstones that indicate a country is becoming more undemocratic: the loss of the “literal art” of democracy — if people

can vote and if their votes count — scapegoating, or when people blame a “disfavored” or minority group for the country’s issues, violence entering the political sphere and disinformation. She said all four cornerstones were in question in the U.S. during the years leading up to World War II, which is the period her book focuses on.

“I feel like when those things start getting wobbly, any one of those things starts getting wobbly, heads up,” Maddow said.

“When they all start getting wobbly, it’s all hands on deck. We had a moment like that in the lead up to World War II that is a very, I believe, under-told story and that’s why I wrote this book.”

Maddow said there is “no brighter red flag” for the declining health of American democracy than increased antisemitism in the U.S. She said antisemitism is evil but also a “politically operational” way for political factions to sow discord among Americans.

“I started to understand that that’s a political tactic that is attacking not just Jews, but the whole country, so that we don’t ever think of ourselves as groups that can work together as one people and make decisions together,” Maddow said.

Israel declared war on Palestinian militant group Hamas — long designated

as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and European Union — on Oct. 8 after the group launched a surprise attack against the country the day before. Israel responded with airstrikes in Gaza, the region of Palestine ruled by Hamas.

Maddow referenced the results of an Oct. 16 Reuters/Ipsos poll which showed 41 percent of Americans favor the U.S.’ support of Israel — nearly double the number of supportive survey participants compared to the 22 percent of Americans in 2014. She said the poll also indicates 78 percent of respondents said U.S. officials should help civilians fleeing Gaza.

Maddow said government leaders need to resolve the conflict in a nonviolent manner, in an effort to preserve the civilian lives caught in the crossfire.

She said she doesn’t know if President Joe Biden will have further success resolving the conflict beyond the “small but important things” he announced Wednesday — a deal for Israel to allow food, water and other supplies from Egypt into Gaza.

Maddow said government leaders need to resolve the conflict in a nonviolent manner.

“Ultimately, where we have to get to in this country and around the world with this issue is a place where things are

LEXI CRITCHETTE | PHOTOGRAPHER Political commentator Rachel Maddow discussed the dangers of declining democracy and the rise of authoritarianism in the United States during her moderated talk at Lisner Auditorium on Wednesday.

settled through politics and through discussion and not through the gun,” Maddow said. “It’s a harrowing time.”

Maddow said her book focuses on the stories of the “good guys,” or Americans who stood up against American proNazi groups like the German American Bund in the U.S. before and during WWII. She pointed to attorney and GW alum Leon Lewis, who led efforts to expose plots by the Nazis to carry out violent antisemitic attacks in Los Angeles throughout the 1930s and ‘4os.

Lewis, whom Nazis called “the most danger-

ous Jew in Los Angeles” for his efforts, also helped found the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish nonprofit organization dedicated to combating antisemitism and extremism.

“It was Leon Lewis, an American hero, an incredibly brave man who did that and he not only has been lost until recently to history, but even in his own time was not appreciated for having done this singly important thing, I think, for U.S. history,” Maddow said. “It wasn’t even mentioned in his own obituary when he died.”

Maddow said she talks about international news

on her show to analogize issues in other countries to the U.S. She said one of these issues, authoritarianism, is rising around the world, including in the U.S. Thirty-eight percent of the world’s population live in “not free” countries — countries with a low degree of political rights and civil liberties — the highest proportion since 1997, according to a 2022 Freedom House report.

“All fair observers would say we’re having another authoritarian moment in global politics right now,” Maddow said.

“And again, those winds blow across our borders as well.”

OPINIONS

October 23, 2023 • Page 7

Opinions

THE GW HATCHET

WHAT THE UNIVERSITY WON’T TALK ABOUT THIS WEEK Why former Disability Support Services Director Maggie Butler stepped down from her position p. 4 FROM GWHATCHET.COM/OPINIONS “Everything is bigger in the United States — even water bottles.”

NOVA SPIER on 10/19/2023

Taking a closer look at CAPS amid high demand for mental health services STAFF EDITORIAL From world events to personal challenges, therapy can be a vital lifeline for navigating the complexities of modern life. And as messages from University President Ellen Granberg and the Student Association frequently remind students, GW’s Counseling and Psychological Services is here to help.

While CAPS may be the default response in times of crisis, it’s falling short amid unprecedentedly high demand for mental health care nationwide. CAPS’ free services should be an easier alternative than finding a therapist who accepts your health insurance. But with limited staff and appointment availability at CAPS, some of GW’s 26,000 students are slipping through the cracks.

Under CAPS’ “stepped care” model, students can attend brief counseling sessions to address a variety of emotional and academic concerns. Depending on their specific situation, CAPS might refer a student out to a different provider in D.C. to continue therapy. And while counseling sessions with CAPS are free, its psychological services cost $80 for a psychiatric diagnostic interview examination and $50 for medical evaluation and management.

So, despite CAPS’ insistence that “no problem is too big or too small to address in counseling,” it’s not necessarily equipped to help students who need assistance throughout their education at GW. Exploring one’s identity, addressing anxieties and phobias, and achieving wellbeing — let alone building trust with a therapist — can take weeks, months, years or even a lifetime.

CAPS does offer longer-term counseling through AcademicLiveCare, free telehealth provided through GW. But virtual therapy appointments can’t always substitute face-to-face care. Students who benefit from in-person counseling deserve to feel seen and heard, which requires finding a time to meet with a member of CAPS’ team. That may be easier said than done.

CAPS offers walk-in appointments be-

JENNA BAER | STAFF CARTOONIST

Call out racist costumes this Halloween

I

t’s almost Halloween, but ignorant people will be the scariest thing of all this season.

Nyla Moxley Opinions Writer When October rolls around each year, I dread seeing certain “costumes” that perpetuate biases and reinforce stereotypes. Any holiday, and especially Halloween, is not a free pass for mockery, racism or cultural appropriation.

Like many high schools in the United States, my high school in Seattle had a “spirit week” in late October where students would dress up to fit a different theme each day. Rapper “costumes,” complete with tinfoil “grills” and oversized clothing, were a hit for the 1990s on decades day.

However, not a single one of the students who dressed up as these unnamed rappers were Black, and most of the people who did were white. Multiple students wore durags or wigs that attempted to emulate Black hair.

I watched the same peers who said anti-Black racial slurs and who remained silent when a Black student was arrested on campus imitate their favorite Black rapper. It is dehumanizing to witness someone dress up as you — the power of your representation is in their hands.

Native American “costumes” are prime examples of cultural appropriation, when someone exploits an aspect of another group’s culture in

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an offensive or inauthentic way, and you cannot simply “try on” being an Indigenous American. It is someone’s identity that leads to oppression and marginalization, and the same people who wear this “costume” would never dare acknowledge that the land they are on is stolen.

These outfits ignore the incredible diversity of Indigenous tribes, their attire and their customs, conveying the makers’ and wearers’ ignorance about Indigenous cultures — cultures they want to profit from, not honor.

Other costumes, like clowns, have distinctly racist origins in the United States — even if they may seem far removed from it today.

In 1874, “theatrical actors” James McInyre and Tom Heath created a character called the “tramp clown,” which was intended to grossly depict Black people who had been displaced after emancipation and the end of the Civil War. The infamous white mouths on clowns are also derived from minstrel shows.

Both blackface and minstrel shows were commonplace forms of comedy that perpetuated derogatory caricatures of Black people. While clowns and clown costumes have evolved over time, you should question the origins of the curly wig and exaggerated features.

And if you decide to dress up as a police officer, be sensitive to the system you’re representing and how you act. The police force in my hometown of Seattle is notoriously violent and has a long history of egregious

tween 12 and 4 p.m., when many students have back-to-back classes. Even if they find time to sit down for a 30-to-60 minute meeting, there’s no guarantee a student will be able to meet with someone who meets their quality of care and representation needs.

CAPS has a combined 16 people on its psychiatric and counseling teams, slightly below the International Accreditation of Counseling Services’ recommendation of a student to certified counselor ratio of one staff member for every 1,000 to 1,500 students. But it’s unlikely such a small staff can see every student who might need care — or relate to the needs and experiences of every student on campus.

Students navigating their religion, culture, sexuality, gender and other facets of their identity deserve to speak with someone who can truly understand what they’re going through. There were 2,739 student appointments with CAPS in the 2021 school year. That’s a broad spectrum of need, and it requires an even larger spectrum of staff to accommodate every student.

Stepped care might allow GW to assist students quickly and effectively with as few resources as possible. But students need consistent, individualized, easy-toaccess care — not triage. Short-term, limited counseling sessions may work for some people, but not all of them.

Ultimately, the burden of finding mental health support can all-too-frequently fall upon students, and seeking out help when you’re struggling is already hard enough as it is. In the aftermath of the pandemic, finding a therapist in D.C. can take a substantial amount of time and money — especially if they don’t accept your health insurance.

There’s no simple answer here, and we’re not asking for one. But the first step would be to hire more staff clinicians to bring GW in line closer to that 1 to 1,000 ratio. Students need professional, psychiatric and physiological care — and a CAPS equipped to assist them.

crimes against marginalized people. If you’re inclined to say “not all cops,” I’d ask why you feel the need to dress up as someone from a group known for abusing their power.

As a Black girl who has grown up in predominantly white spaces, I’ve been told I cannot protest these “costumes“ — my complaints were too menial or I was “nitpicking.” But small acts of racism allow systemic racism to function at the all-encompassing level it does, and anyone who speaks out against these smaller acts of racism is not “sensitive” or “dramatic.”

Letting people get away with cultural appropriation and racism in costumes sends the message that both these things are socially acceptable and pushes the notion that minorities are not valuable until their existence lends value to that of a privileged party.

You shouldn’t be allowed to reap the benefits of another’s culture whilst ignoring and contributing to the oppression of their people — just think of the big corporations who sell these “costumes.”

This Halloween, call out and boycott “costumes” that perpetuate stereotypes about marginalized groups. Even better, write a letter to the higher-ups of respective costume stores to advocate for the removal of such “costumes.” It takes a small amount of effort to ensure you’re not being disrespectful — a costume is not always a costume.

—Nyla Moxley, a first-year majoring in journalism and mass communication, is an opinions writer.

I

Moving to a big city is daunting.

Here’s what I’ve learned

knew since childhood that I would one day live in a big city, swapping my acutely suburban central Jersey hometown for an epicenter of vitality and opportunity.

Carly Cavanaugh Opinions Writer I moved to D.C. this year, finally fulfilling that dream.

And while my childhood hopes have come to fruition, my eagerness to live and learn here distracted me from what I’ve left behind — my ties to home have been difficult to move past.

When my family went on trips to Manhattan, I felt tethered to the city like the endless songs sung about it. I worshiped its constant noise, the luminosity of its street lights and its overwhelming sense of hope. The strip malls that lined my town’s streets seemed insignificant compared to the expansiveness of the city.

In August, I moved into Thurston Hall. I met my roommate in person for the very first time, and we spent countless hours decorating our dorm. We attended orientation activities, where we enthusiastically introduced ourselves to people we’d never speak to again and feigned shock after meeting yet another person from New Jersey.

But moving to D.C. meant I lacked my usual support from friends who lived close by. Constant activity during orientation kept me occupied enough not to overthink the foreignness of my situation, but fear and uncertainty

started plaguing me once classes began and I had more time to myself.

I felt isolated and missed my hometown friends and family despite making new friends, and I suddenly felt very far away from the people and places who meant the most to me. I have always been sentimental, attaching myself to people and places, looking at old photos and birthday cards and loving the nostalgia that comes with watching childhood home videos.

That is why I feel so drawn to cities — there are so many opportunities for connection. I had a feeling that I’d struggle at first to get acquainted with a new city and community — after all, I had lived in the very same town for 18 years, and this was the biggest transition I had ever experienced.

But the feeling was still overwhelming and more sudden than I expected.

Everybody talks about the importance of making friends in the first couple weeks of college and how easy it is to meet people on your floor or in your classes. But many of these “friendships” are feeble, and it can be uncomfortable to put yourself out there. I spent so much of my time with these people, but we didn’t even know each other’s names. It was all a bit disorienting.

During this period, I did the things I had always valued and made me feel the most at home: I rewatched one of my favorite movies, “Lady Bird,” letting myself cry over its relevance; while walking to class, I listened to some of my favorite albums — “Wish” by The Cure and

“Blue” by Joni Mitchell; I journaled often; I had phone calls with my best friend and my mom, reminding myself that they would always be there.

So while the advice to “put yourself out there” is important, take time to reflect and to do the things you enjoy. Doing so grounded me and gave me a sense of familiarity that is easily lost in times of transition. Even the most extroverted people need some time without strangers surrounding them, and meaningful connections are even harder to make if you’re only focused on meeting as many people as possible. I find that I made my closest friends at GW with a clear head — not during chaotic orientation activities.

In my first months at GW, I’ve finally experienced what I’ve always dreamed about.

Beyond the wonderful people who share my interests I’ve met and the interesting classes I’ve taken, I’ve learned to become more independent.

D.C. is my home, and I’m dedicated to making it feel that way, whether through familiarizing myself with the streets and landmarks, finding a favorite park or attending events around the District like at the Kennedy Center and the Brookland Arts Walk.

I still miss home, days with my hometown friends and the beaches of the Jersey Shore — but I can miss them while still enjoying my time here.

—Carly Cavanaugh, a first-year majoring in journalism and mass communication, is an opinions writer.

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October 23, 2023 • Page 8

Sports

SPORTS

THE GW HATCHET

GAMES OF THE WEEK

WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL

WOMEN’S ROWING

vs. Dayton Friday | 6 p.m.

Women’s volleyball faces off against A-10 foe Dayton at the Smith Center.

NUMBER CRUNCH

2

Head of the Schuylkill Friday Women’s rowing heads to Philadelphia to compete at the annual regatta.

Men’s swimming senior Djurdje Matic is ranked No. 2 in the A-10 by SwimCloud, a swimming database

Men’s soccer breaks winless streak against A-10 rival La Salle MARGOT DIAMOND REPORTER

The Revolutionaries (3-9-4, 1-5-1 Atlantic 10) took home a 1-0 win over La Salle (5-7-3, 1-4-2 A-10) in a conference game Saturday evening.

The Revs traveled to Philadelphia to take on La Salle Saturday at 7 p.m. and topped them with one goal, giving them their first A-10 win of the season.

The win comes off of nine losses and two ties, marking a potential turnaround for the Revs.

Graduate student midfielder William Turner was responsible for the winning goal, his third strike of the season, with the assist coming from freshman midfielder Nico Medina. Medina forced a turnover coming from midfield and delivered a pass over La Salle’s backline to Turner, who fired his goal past La Salle’s goal keeper Filip Sabatti on the near side. The assist was the first point of Medina’s GW career.

Turner’s game winning goal was the Revs only shot on goal, which happened in the 32nd minute of the match. The Revs had an additional six shots throughout the game, with La Salle taking 19.

This win marks the Revs’ redshirt senior goalkeeper Duncan Wegner’s second shutout of the 2023 season and his third win. His first shutout of the season came against Iona on Sept.

5. La Salle fired 19 shots over the two periods, but despite this, the Explorers were only able to land two shots on goal, both of which were saved by Wegner.

Other noticeable standouts from Saturday evening’s win were senior midfielder Carter Humm, Medina, freshman defender Colin Prendergast and junior midfielder Sean Vaghedi playing the full 90 minute game.

The Revs committed 11 fouls, nine of them taking place in period two while La Salle had six. Additionally, GW’s shutout was made more impressive by the Explorer’s 11 corner kicks, compared to only one for the Revs.

This win marks a turning point for the Revs as they wrap up their season. The Revs have lost or tied the past 11 games, and despite 150 shots being taken this season, only 14 have made it past the opponents’ goalkeeper.

Although the Revolutionaries are out of the running to compete

FILE PHOTO BY JAMES SCHAAP | PHOTOGRAPHER Graduate student midfielder William Turner chases after the ball in a match against Delaware in early October.

in the A-10 tournament, they have a chance to continue their

conference winning streak against George Mason (4-6-3, 2-4-

1 A-10) on Saturday, Oct. 28 at 3 p.m. at GW’s soccer field.

Golf takes fifth at two-day Elon Phoenix Invitational, extends solid streak of play KRISTI WIDJAJA REPORTER

SYD HEISE REPORTER

Golf finished fifth out of 16 teams at the Elon Phoenix Invitational in Burlington, North Carolina, hosted by Elon University Monday and Tuesday.

The Revolutionaries ended the two-day tournament with a combined score of 559 through 36 holes, making the impressive finish their third-best in program history.

The Invitational took place at Alamance Country Club, a lengthy and complex course where no two consecutive holes have the same layout.

The Revs competed through narrow fairways and rolling greens to find themselves near the top of the leaderboard at the end of the tournament. The entire team posted competitive scores that contributed to their fifth-place standing, but fifth-year Jakub Hrinda walked off the course a standout, leading the way shooting 70 in his first round Monday morning. He finished the tournament six under, tying for 10th place overall in individual play.

Sophomore Rodrigo Barahona and graduate student Hugo Riboud both shot 68s in the first round, making Monday morning’s team score the Revs’ best of the season and fifth-best in program history.

Head Coach Chuck Scheinost said Riboud has been putting his best effort forward, attempting to close out his time at GW on a high note. Scheinost applauded Riboud’s consistency of performances in tournaments this season.

“I think he’s poised to break out one of these next few events,” Scheinost said.

“He’s playing great but just kind of needs that breakout round to kind of set him off.

So hopefully, we can get that out of him.”

Despite Barahona putting up a 68 in the first round, he said there were rounds he could have played smarter in.

“We’re good enough to where we can be winning more than half of the events we play,” Barahona said. “So I think we are doing okay. But our potential is way higher than where we are at.”

Although the team couldn’t match their record round of the morning, they ended their first day of play one under 276. Hrinda scratched a 69 on his scorecard after the second match, once again piloting the team at the conclusion of Monday afternoon’s play.

On Tuesday, Hrinda continued to lead the Revs in the final round as he shot 68 to tie for 10th with a 6-under 207 to end the tournament. Sophomore Jed Dy put up a 68 in his final round as well, solidifying his spot in 28th place overall, 1-under 212.

Scheinost also commended Dy’s breakout performances this season. He played strongly in September at the Virtues Invitational hosted by Miami University.

Dy tied for ninth in a field of 88 opponents, finishing 6-under 210, a result that earned him the title of A10 Golfer of the Week.

“Jed finally broke through his kind of floor,” Schenost said. “And just kind of broke through some individual barriers for him and he’s getting a lot more comfortable being part of the lineup and being comfortable with shooting some lower scores.”

Dy’s play helped lead the team to a secondplace finish at the Virtues Invitational, five shots better than their previous score at the Virginia Commonwealth Shootout. The Rev’s VCU Shootout score (6-under 858) was the team’s best group finish before this week’s tournament.

The Revs seem to be on a run with the season coming to a close. Their last three

HATCHET FILE PHOTO

A golf ball sits teed up before a match.

tournament scores have set record after record for the program, with a handful of players contributing to their decisive victories.

Two younger teammates pulled ahead on Tuesday afternoon, guiding GW to their top-five placement. Hot off the tee, sophomore Leo Xu carded nine birdies in the tournament’s final round. Xu was smooth and consistent on the course, even going on a six-birdie streak at one point.

Xu finished 64th, 8-under 221. He tied alongside the Revs’ freshman Aksel Moe, shooting 69 in the last round with 8-under 221.

Moe is the only freshman and newcomer to join this year’s squad. Scheinost said Moe

has great potential to grow more confident in himself during his time on the team.

“He is a really good kid and I think will be a really good player for us over the coming years,” Scheinost said. “He’s just got to get a little confidence back and I think he’ll hopefully be pushing for a spot in the lineup along with other guys that we have.”

Stakes are high for the Revs as they host their final event of the season in Barahona’s hometown.

The Revolutionaries look to continue their exceptional play south of the border next weekend at the Monterrey International Invitational in Monterrey, Mexico.

Volleyball drops two matches to Fordham on the road in New York MARGOT DIAMOND REPORTER

RYAN JAINCHILL REPORTER

This weekend, the Revolutionaries traveled to the Bronx, New York to take on Fordham University, coming off a split weekend against Duquesne.

Their win against Duquesne bumped GW to 4-7 in conference play.

The Revolutionaries have seven conference games remaining in their season as they attempt to secure a spot in the Atlantic 10 tournament in mid-November.

Last season, the Revs split their weekend series with the Rams, taking the first by a score of 3-0 and losing the second 1-3.

The Rams are tied for fifth place in the A-10 standings, while the Revs are tied for seventh.

Despite the Revs putting up a strong fight, they fell short in both matches at Fordham. The Revs lost 2-3 Friday evening after falling in and out of the lead of the Rams before finally falling short in the down-to-thewire fifth set.

Fordham came out strong in the first two sets, winning the first 25-19 and the second 25-22, despite the Revs managing a 15-10 lead midway through the

second set. The Revs took sets three and four, accumulating 35 kills in those two sets alone.

Despite the Revs’ fierce efforts, Fordham jumped to an 8-3 lead early in the decisive fifth set, allowing them to settle and eventually win the set by a score of 15-9 for a game victory.

Saturday afternoon, the Revs looked to turn their weekend around and take home a conference win but fell short again with a final score of 0-3.

The Rams took down the Revs in three sets, taking the lead for the majority of the first and third set and leaving GW in the dust in the second set, where the Revs lost 25-16.

Despite the loss this weekend, many career records were broken for the Revolutionaries, who displayed powerful offensive and defensive efforts.

Junior outside hitters Brittany Myers and Salem Yohannes both tallied career highs, Yohannes with 26 kills Friday and Myers recording 18 kills Saturday.

Sophomore Maeve Loughran also accomplished a season-high on Friday, dishing out 55 assists, breaking her previous career high of 51 assists achieved two matches prior.

With the Revs tied for the seventh seed in the A-10 with Saint Louis, the team is looking to stand out during the upcoming

Maeve Loughran embraces her teammates during a mid-game huddle.

matches. Six out of the ten teams in the conference will make the A-10 tournament where they will have the opportunity to compete for the A-10 Championship.

“I think the team is pretty hungry to finish this regular

FILE PHOTO BY RILEIGH REPOVICH | PHOTOGRAPHER

season play on a high note and really prove what we can do,” Reifert said. “Hopefully we will play at our best at the end of the season, which is what you want to do and hopefully prove that that’s what we’re doing at this

point in the season.”

Up next, the Revolutionaries will travel just across the Potomac to Fairfax, Virginia, where they will face conference rival George Mason on Wednesday, Oct. 25 at 6 p.m.