Faculty leaders said they appreciate officials’ transparency in sharing the findings of the third-party investigation into the GW Police Department’s arming rollout but said acknowledging flaws within the process doesn’t assuage their concerns about the future of arming.
University President Ellen Granberg earlier this month released findings of a law firm’s investigation into GWPD, which confirmed reports of departmental gun safety violations and concluded that officials chose not to seek community input before trustees’ contentious April 2023 decision to arm GWPD officers because they anticipated opposition. Faculty leaders said they appreciated that Granberg took accountability for GWPD and the lack of consultation on the decision but some said officials should now solicit feedback on and reconsider arming officers in light of safety concerns.
Two schools announced tuition discounts for degree seekers impacted by President Donald Trump’s federal workforce reductions, officials announced earlier this month.
The Columbian College of Arts & Sciences and the College of Professional Studies are offering approximately 20 percent tuition discounts to “current and recently dismissed” federal employees who are now considering attending GW and seeking an advanced degree, officials said via the schools‘ websites last week. CCAS is accepting applications “beyond the normal” admissions deadlines, per the website.
“I appreciate that President Granberg came out and issued an apology. I think that’s a good first step, and she’s expressed interest in consulting better in the future,” Eli McCarthy, a peace studies lecturer and a member of the Campus Safety Advisory Committee, said. “But I don’t think that’s sufficient for the egregiousness of the situation where you have intentional deception and exclusion and disregard for the data.”
President Donald Trump’s plan to reduce the Department of Education’s workforce by nearly 50 percent and eventually dismantle it could delay and complicate GW’s financial aid distribution, experts predict.
As Trump works to dismantle the department by laying off employees and relocating the department’s core operations to other agencies, higher education policy experts said current and prospective students’ financial aid packages are subject to delays and inaccurate processing due to reduced staffing in the cabinet-level department. Since his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump has deemed the department unnecessary in a country where states and school districts primarily control public education, including who they hire and what they teach.
The department, which manages the $1.6 trillion federal student loan portfolio for college and postsecondary students, laid off roughly 1,300 of its 4,000 employees on Friday at Trump’s
GW retained Willkie Farr & Gallagher in October to investigate GWPD’s arming implementation, training protocols and “several new questions” raised after a September Hatchet in-
direction, per a release. An additional 600 staff also accepted voluntary resignation opportunities and retirement over the last seven weeks, the release states.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon said workforce reductions will impact “all divisions,” but student loans, funding for special needs students, competitive grantmaking and Pell Grants — a need-based federal grant — will not be affected.
“Today’s reduction in force reflects the Department of Education’s commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers,” McMahon said in a release.
University spokesperson Shannon McClendon said the University prioritizes students’ access to timely financial aid without delays and that students should continue to apply with support from GW’s financial assistance team.
She said the University will continue to share information through GW’s weekly federal update emails and the federal agency guidance
vestigation found undisclosed firearm safety violations and internal tumult, which appeared to spark former Chief James Tate’s resignation in October. The firm’s report confirmed the gun safety violations and echoed former officers’ reports of high turnover due to a poor workplace culture.
Granberg said in an email to community members announc-
website, while remaining in compliance with the law.
The University is as “steadfast as ever” and “unwavering” in its commitment to providing an inclusive and equitable environment for students including through its anti-discrimination policies, accessible reporting mechanisms, specialized educational programs on religious tolerance, investigative procedures and comprehensive support services, McClendon said.
“Above all, the University upholds its educational mission, ensuring every community member feels welcome, prepared and empowered to reach their full academic potential,” McClendon said in an email.
Officials said they have not scheduled meetings with the Trump administration since the Department of Justice antisemitism task force announced earlier this month that it will visit GW and nine other universities that they said have experienced “antisemitic incidents” following the onset of the war in Gaza.
ing the findings earlier this month that the law firm conducted the investigation under privilege and that certain findings, like those related to personnel matters, would remain confidential. She said only “select senior administrators” have seen the whole report.
CPS’ March 12 release states that all eligible individuals must apply by April 1 for both the summer and fall semester, and all applicants must provide a copy of a dismissal letter from an agency or an email dismissal from the agency.
“During this time of transition and uncertainty for those impacted by the administration’s downsizing efforts, this initiative signifies the College’s commitment to equipping the next generation of leaders, entrepreneurs and innovators with the skills needed to attain professional success,” the CCAS website reads.
won the NIT.
Men’s basketball Head Coach Chris Caputo was an assistant coach at the University of Miami when his team lost to Stanford University in the finals of the National Invitational Tournament in 2015.
The next year, the team earned a bid to the NCAA Tournament as a No. 3 seed and made the Sweet Sixteen, losing to the eventual champions, Villanova University. With a trip to the newly formed College Basketball Crown Tournament in Las Vegas on March 31 — the first time the team will play in a postseason tournament since 2017 — Caputo said he’s trying to emulate Miami’s “progression” in Foggy Bottom.
“In my experience, teams that do well in these tournaments, NIT and now the Crown, they’re poised to build some confidence for the future,” Caputo said.
In his third year at the helm of the program, the team finished more than .500 in overall play for the first time, going 21-12 ahead of their first Crown matchup against Boise State University. The 21 wins are the team’s most since 2016, when the Mike Lonergancoached team went 28-10 and
Caputo said competing in the Crown is a natural step in the program’s growth, especially considering the notoriety of the event, being nationally televised and containing reputable basketball programs, like Georgetown and Villanova universities.
This will be the first year of the Crown tournament, which Fox Sports created. The field of 16 teams includes automatic bids given to the top teams from the Big East, Big 12 and Big Ten who did not make the NCAA tournament and atlarge bids to teams from other conferences. Athletes will play all games in Las Vegas and the tournament will feature a NIL prize of $500,000 for semi finalists and finalists.
“To get invited by Fox to their event in Las Vegas, with a field filled with big, power conference brands and then somebody like Boise, who’s been a perennial NCAA team, we feel like we’ve gained some momentum behind some of the success of this year, given where the program was,” Caputo said.
Their first-round opponent, Boise State, has a 44 NET ranking — the highest in the Crown field and currently above teams like those at Xavier and Vanderbilt universities who picked up at-large bids to the NCAA tournament.
Coming from the Mountain West Conference, Boise State has made the NCAA tournament three of the past four years, despite spending less than $5 million dollars annually on the program, on par with the last year of available data from GW’s spending. Every NCAA tournament team this year above a 10 seed spends at least $6 million annually on its basketball programs, according to Sportico. The NCAA men’s basketball selection committee named the 24-10 Broncos one of the first four teams out of the NCAA tournament field, picked over in favor of teams from tougher conferences but worse records, like the University of North Carolina, who entered the tournament 22-13.
Caputo said he’s trying to mirror the recent success from a mid-major program, like Boise State, at GW.
“That’s a program that has been to three NCAA tournaments in a row, that has competed at the very top of a great league in the Mountain West,” Caputo said. “It’s a measuring stick for us to see where we are against a program that is always competing and reaching an NCAA tournament.”
COLLAGE BY ARWEN CLEMANS
Head Coach Chris Caputo describes competing in the Crown as a natural step in men’s basketball’s progression.
ARWEN CLEMANS | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR
Professor Guillermo Orti has repeatedly shared concerns about GW Police Department’s arming at Faculty Senate meetings.
HANNAH
Students change, reconsider career paths amid cuts to federal jobs
ANNA MENNUTI
REPORTER
SAMUEL PEREZ
REPORTER
Students are wary about job security and considering prioritizing careers outside of the federal government as the Department of Government Efficiency continues to shrink the federal workforce under President Donald Trump.
More than 25 students said they are considering steering away from their desired fields in government and instead into the private sector as they worry the Trump administration’s shakeup will limit their ability to get federal jobs in the future.
DOGE — headed by entrepreneur Elon Musk — intends to reduce government spending by slimming the workforce behind agencies related to public health, foreign aid and education, suddenly leaving more than 105,961 government workers without jobs and canceling thousands of internships.
Milken Institute of Public Health graduate student Elizabeth LarkySavin, a member of the Health Policy Student Association, said she was selected as a semifinalist for the Department of Interior’s Presidential Management Fellows Program, an initiative launched by the late President Jimmy Carter, which aims to develop future federal government leaders. Trump eliminated the program last month in an executive order.
“I was excited about that but seeing how hostile the workplace has become across the executive agencies, which is where I probably would end up going because of my expertise area, it just isn’t a work environment that would be like mentally and physically safe for me,” Larky-Savin said.
Larky-Savin said before Trump’s second term, she was interested in doing health policy work within the federal government but now sees herself pursuing consulting in the private sector in the future. She said she’s still open to working in the government but would need to see reforms that make the workplace a safer environment for historically marginalized groups, like the LGBTQ+ community.
“It’s disheartening to see someone who is elect-
ed into office intentionally make the government less effective to prove that it cannot do what it is capable of doing to benefit his own means and actively harm the communities that I want to serve,” Larky-Savin said. “And if that changes based on his hand being forced or a new person coming into office, I’d love to be a part of that from a personal affected status.”
Gabriela Velandia, a first-year international student from Colombia studying economics and international affairs, said she switched from a bachelor of arts to a bachelor of science degree path to prepare for what she believes will be a more competitive job market under Trump due to the job slashes in the federal public sector.
“I felt like it was more competitive, and the job market is definitely going to become more competitive with the Trump administration and the lack of positions available,” Velandia said.
Andre Bochat, a sophomore majoring in biology, said the National Institute of Health last month canceled an internship he had applied for.
The NIH announced last month that it would limit the amount of indirect funding for research projects, which researchers argued that would cut essential lab space, researchers and supplies needed for scientific research. A federal judge blocked the planned policy change on Feb. 10 after multiple state attorneys general and universities — including GW — sued the agency.
“It was really a bum-
mer because I had already applied. I’d written all my essays, sent all my stuff in and got recommendation letters for it, and it just got axed,” Bochat said. “It has changed my attitude a little bit towards my major, not diminished it at all.”
Bochat said he feels “uneasy” about his research lab job at GW because it is experiencing funding issues associated with the NIH funding cuts but remains optimistic that the judicial system will repeal the funding pauses.
Arjun Rajan, a junior majoring in political science, said he saw himself working in Congress upon arriving in D.C. and was in the final rounds of a congressional internship application process. When Trump announced a federal hiring freeze on Jan. 20, employers said they couldn’t accept him as an applicant anymore, Rajan said.
Officials reported last month that about 20 GW Law students lost job offers and internships due to Trump’s hiring freezes.
Rajan said he is now considering careers outside of politics in places, like lobbying and consulting firms or going to law school. He said he sometimes wishes he didn’t study political science because of the fluctuating job market.
“Every day you could wake up and lose your job,” Rajan said.
But Rajan said he encourages those affected by the hiring freeze to not give up, keep searching for ways to pursue other passions and to do things that make you happy in these times of “uncertainty and despair.”
“I feel like when a door
closes, a window opens,” Rajan said.
Public Health Student Association President Allegra Mbwetshangol, a master’s student studying health care administration who is from the Democratic Republic of Congo, said she hasn’t been directly impacted by the downsizing of the federal workforce because most job opportunities are only available to U.S. citizens. She said she’s noticed “a shift” in job postings, especially for international students.
“The hiring process is already very difficult for us, with not a lot of employers willing to hire international students or even sponsor visas, and with the current government policies, that makes it even harder,” Mbwetshangol said.
Senior Manav Raval, the director of the Institute of Politics — a group that works to connect students to research, networking and internship opportunities — said the organization plans on hosting events later this semester with former U.S. Agency for International Development workers to learn more about the institutional shuffling occurring in the federal government.
He said the students will also learn how they can continue to pursue their career interests if working in the federal government isn’t a stable option.
“The biggest takeaway is so students can hear directly from people who are in the government or were in the government, exactly what they should be doing to create the change that they want to see,” he said.
CRIME LOG
DRUG LAW VIOLATION
District House
3/13/25 – 2:28 p.m.
Closed Case
GW Police Department officers responded to a male student’s room in District House because an administrator discovered a bong and rolling papers during inspections. GWPD officers transported the contraband to the Academic Center for processing and inventory. Referred to the Division of Conflict Education & Student Accountability.
THEFT II/FROM BUILDING
G W Campus Store
3/13/25 – 4:14 p.m.
Closed Case
GWPD officers responded to the GW Campus Store for a reported theft in progress after the suspect fled the area. GWPD officers swept the area and found the male subject, whom officers arrested and barred from campus. Metropolitan Police Department officers arrived on scene and transported the man to the Second District Police Station. Subject arrested.
TRAFFIC ACCIDENT: HIT AND RUN
2000 Block of H Street
3/17/25 – 3:20 p.m.
Closed Case
During routine patrol, GWPD officers observed a hit and run accident. MPD officers arrived on scene and made contact with the male subject who was hit. Referred to MPD.
THEFT II/FROM BUILDING
GW Campus Store
3/18/25 – 1:30 p.m.
Open Case
A female employee reported that a man attempted to snag two phone chargers from the store. Case open.
THEFT II/FROM BUILDINGMadison Hall 3/18/25 – Between 11 p.m. and 11:45 p.m.
Closed Case
GWPD officers responded to Madison Hall for a reported theft in the lobby. The female student who reported the theft said a case of water had been stolen from Madison’s delivery shelf. Case closed.
—Compiled by Ella Mitchell
SGA vice president pleads guilty to campaign violations
MOLLY ST. CLAIR ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
Student Government Association Vice President and aspiring presidential candidate Ethan Lynne on Sunday pleaded guilty to five counts of violations for campaigning in restricted zones, facing a penalty just shy of disqualification from the election on April 10 and 11.
Joint Elections Commission Chair Michael Ubis said the body received the indictment against Lynne on Thursday after an authorized agent — students approved to act on a candidate’s behalf in conducting campaign activities — collected signatures in the basement of Phillips Hall in an attempt to “advance the candidacy of Ethan Lynne.”
The authorized agent collected signatures from five students in an academic building, which violates JEC regulations, accumulating Lynne one penalty point for each signature received.
Following a violation of JEC regulations, the JEC chief investigator conducts an investigation into the indictment and invites all involved parties to a hearing where candidates can give testimony. The commission decides penalties during hearings and publishes them to the JEC website.
The JEC website outlines the 2025 regulations and all prohibited activities for candidates, which includes campaigning on the interior of residence halls, academic buildings and dining facilities. Any failure to comply with JEC regulations results in a certain amount of penalty points determined by JEC commissioners. Any candidate who accumulates six or more penalty points during the election period is disqualified from the race, according to the SGA bylaws. If Lynne violates any further JEC regulations, the commission will disqualify him from the race. Lynne’s five penalty points will appear next to his name on the official SGA election ballot distributed to the student body on April 10 and 11. The JEC initially published the name of the authorized agent along with photo evidence of the student collecting signatures in the basement of Phillips Hall. Lynne told The Hatchet that the photo was taken and used as evidence without the agent’s consent. Lynne said he admitted to having violated JEC regulations when his agent collected signatures in Phillips Hall and that the agent “misunderstood” instructions about where signature collection was permitted.
NICHOLAS WARE | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Students walk between employer booths at GW's Career Expo in September.
JERRY
Sophomore Corinne Porada plants American and French flags at 1st Lt. Donald Alexander's gravesite at the Normandy American Cemetery.
ACLU DC urges GW to protect speech amid executive pressure
HANNAH MARR NEWS EDITOR
The American Civil Liberties Union of D.C. urged officials to ensure free speech is protected on campus in a letter Thursday, as President Donald Trump threatens crackdowns on universities that permit “illegal protests.”
The letter, which ACLU D.C. sent to the District’s eight higher education institutions, states that the Trump administration’s recent executive actions — including the order that the government “quickly cancel” student visas issued to all “Hamas sympathizers” on college campuses — reflects the executive branch’s attempts to “enlist university officials” in the “censoring and punishing” students. The letter comes as the Trump administration increases pressure on higher education institutions, including threats to pull funding from institutions that they allege failed to protect Jewish students during pro-Palestinian demonstrations last spring.
ACLU D.C. wrote in the letter that universities are required by The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act to protect the confidentiality of personally identifiable student information, including for noncitizen students, against “unwarranted disclosure” to the government or private parties.
“These executive orders and threatening communications violate the First Amendment,” the letter reads. “Protected political speech and association alone—no matter how offensive to the president, members of his administration, or members of the campus community—cannot be the basis for discipline, nor should it lead to immigration consequences.”
They also highlight that public universities are bound to the 14th Amendment’s guarantee that all people have equal protection under the law and that both public and private universities are bound by the Civil Rights Act’s Title VI, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color or national origin by institutions that receive federal funding.
The letter comes after the Trump administration earlier this month arrested and is attempting to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia University who led some of the university’s pro-Palestinian protests and is a permanent legal resident of the United States.
The Department of Homeland Security also detained and is trying to deport Georgetown University Professor Badar Khan Suri last Monday, accusing him of harboring ties with and spreading Hamas propaganda online. The ACLU of Virginia — who is representing his case — said the government is retaliating against Suri for his and his wife’s support for Palestinians and for the couple’s ties to Gaza.
University spokesperson Shannon McClendon said the University received the ACLU’s letter and “appreciated its support” for First Amendment rights and academic freedom, adding that GW is committed to fostering a safe academic environment that respects the debate and discourse of differing points of views, even when controversial. She said officials “at the same time” will continue to follow all applicable laws to support and protect the community from unlawful discrimination, including on the basis of religion, national origin and shared ancestry.
“The University maintains robust policies on free expression and offers resources for our students through the GW Division for Student Affairs and the GW International Services Office,” McClendon said in an email.
ACLU D.C. Legal Director Scott Michelman, who penned the letter, said in an interview that he recognizes University administrators are currently being “squeezed on all sides,” but officials have the legal tools to “stand up for themselves” and hold a line between protected speech and “unprotected harassment” that denies its students access to educational benefits.
“The University should take a strong stand in refusing to conflate policy disagreements with the administration and speech on critical matters of foreign policy with harassment of particular groups of students,” Michelman said.
He said history will remember which universities stood up for individuals’ rights and protected their students from the Trump administration’s “bullying” and those who capitulated and cut deals with an administration that seems “hell-bent” on eviscerating American’s constitutional freedoms.
Michelman said the ACLU has not received a response from University officials as of Friday morning but that the organization “welcomes” discussing how to protect students.
Foggy Bottom leaders fear DC will forgo homeless encampment protocol under Trump
BRYSON KLOESEL STAFF WRITER
Foggy Bottom community members worry that President Donald Trump’s mounting demands for D.C. to abruptly clear homeless encampments will heighten displacements and stifle resources for the District’s unhoused community.
Two days after Trump pressured D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser to clear “unsightly” encampments by the State Department and White House in a Truth Social post earlier this month, District officials on March 7 abandoned typical protocol to evict five unhoused individuals living next to the E Street Expressway with a one-day notice. Local homeless advocates and neighborhood officials are concerned the District will forgo encampment eviction protocol under the Trump administration as part of a broader submission to intensified federal authority.
D.C.’s standard encampment closure protocol requires officials to post signs alerting residents of a clearing two weeks in advance.
“Any decision to clear an encampment must be made, after careful consideration and only after ensuring the welfare of the unhoused, by the duly elected governing in the District, in accordance with the District’s laws and policies,” Jim Malec, a member of the Foggy Bottom and West End Advisory Neighborhood Commission, said in a message. “The president has no role in this process, and the mayor should have ignored his social media tantrum.”
The morning after Trump’s post, Bowser said in a news conference that District officials had already planned to clear the encampment at the E Street Expressway — which is about a block from campus — before his post. Bowser said she’d discussed the encampments with Trump’s staff but denied that the administration ordered her office to “do anything,” characterizing Trump’s call as a “notice.”
Bowser has cooperated with Trump’s administration on some of his demands for D.C. so far in his second term, marked by her announcing that crews would
ANC passes public health resolutions at first official meeting of term
one short of the required amount for a meeting to count toward satisfying the District’s mandate that the commission hold at least nine per year.
A local governing body held its first meeting with a quorum in three months, approving two resolutions and electing officers.
The Foggy Bottom and West End Advisory Neighborhood Commission elected officers for the 2025-26 term. Five out of six commissioners voted to elect 2A03 Commissioner Trupti Patel as chair and unanimously elected 2A09 Commissioner Keaton DiCapo as vice chair, 2A04 Commissioner Ed Comer as secretary and 2A09 Commissioner Sean Youngstone as treasurer. Patel and Comer also served in their respective roles in the previous term. The ANC could not conduct official business, like passing resolutions, when the term started in January until Wednesday’s meeting because the ANC could not reach a legally mandated quorum. The Foggy Bottom community elected only four commissioners in the November election,
Courtney Cooperman, a member of the Community Advisory Team overseeing The Aston unhoused shelter on New Hampshire Avenue, announced that Friendship Place, the shelter’s operator, will host a second walkthrough of the building on March 31 at 6 p.m. Commissioners voiced concern at its February community meeting that D.C. officials didn’t adequately provide notice of the first walkthrough they held on Feb. 13 allowing community members to tour. Here are some of the meeting’s highlights: D.C. Councilmember Brooke Pinto updates commission on D.C. budget, Aston unhoused shelter Ward 2 D.C. Councilmember Brooke Pinto told commissioners about budget requests and the impacts of federal policy changes on Foggy Bottom. Pinto said the priori-
ties in her budget request include “public safety,” “economic resiliency” and “increased support for our young people.” Her request, which she said reflects a tight budget caused by a combination of losing federal workers and falling property values, contains multiple items for Foggy Bottom focused on boosting access to the neighborhood.
The request asks for $50,000 to be earmarked for improving signage between Foggy Bottom and Georgetown — specifically for directions to the Foggy Bottom-GWU Metro Station. $1.9 million is asked to be put toward a “motor coach and bus parking facility.”
The ANC approved two resolutions requesting information from D.C. agencies on recent public health crises in Foggy Bottom. Both resolutions passed with nearly all commissioners voting in favor, with one abstention.
paint over the large yellow “Black Lives Matter” lettering on 16th Street, one block from the White House, after congressional Republicans threatened to cut D.C.’s federal funding if the city didn’t remove the words.
Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Wayne Turnage said in a statement that the District previously planned to close the E Street Expressway encampment that Trump posted about but postponed the cleanup due to weather.
Web archives show that on Feb. 27, eight days before Trump’s post, officials had not posted their intention to clear the E Street Expressway encampment on D.C.’s encampments web page, which listed evictions scheduled as far in the future as March 12. A version of the web page from March 7 shows the newly scheduled eviction, scheduled for the same day.
Only one sticker sign had been posted at the E Street Expressway encampment notifying residents of an imminent cleanup by March 6, according to Street Sense Media, a street paper covering D.C. homelessness.
Street Sense also reported that a DMHHS spokesperson has referred to the eviction as an immediate disposition, contradicting signs posted at the scene indicating a “scheduled full cleanup.”
While the District’s encampment engagement protocol — a set of rules for city workers to follow as they carry out evictions of
unhoused people — requires the District to post signs two weeks before a “standard disposition,” DMHHS, the agency responsible for encampment evictions, can also issue an “immediate disposition” for emergencies and risks to security, safety and health.
Immediate dispositions are the only type of eviction that can be conducted without notifying the residents and the chair of the Interagency Council on Homelessness at least 48 hours before the eviction, according to the protocol. Immediate dispositions require the deputy mayor to articulate the reason.
DMHHS did not return a request for comment on why the city cleared the E Street Expressway encampment as an immediate disposition.
District officials also cleared an encampment at 27th and K streets on March 14, a scheduled clearing, and planned nearly a dozen more in the coming weeks.
City officials offered residents evicted from the E Street Expressway rooms at The Aston — a homeless shelter on New Hampshire Avenue that currently hosts 82 people — according to Sakina Thompson, who cochairs the Community Advisory Team overseeing the facility.
Trump said in his March 5 Truth Social post that if Bowser “wasn’t capable” of cleaning up the encampments, then federal officials “will be forced to do it for her,” an apparent reference to his campaign promise to “clean up” the District.
College Democrats president announces bid for SGA’s top role
ST. CLAIR ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
Emily-Anne Santiago, the president of GW College Democrats, announced her candidacy for Student Government Association president Friday.
Santiago, a junior studying political science and accounting, said if elected she will expand the grocery stores that accept GWorld card payment, bring back tuition lock — a policy that prevents universities from raising tuition fees for a specific period — and open housing registration earlier in the year. An outsider to the body, Santiago said her experience leading the largest student organization on campus, GW College Democrats, and two years spent working in GW’s Campus Living and Residential Education as a community engagement advisor has prepared her to efficiently communicate with students and address their needs.
Santiago said at the beginning of this school year she could not have imagined running for SGA president, but when she saw the applicant pool and the lack of female presidential candidates, she wanted to run to provide female Latina representation.
“I decided that I wanted to be the voice,” Santiago said. “I’m going to be graduating next year, I’m a junior and next year will be my senior year, and I don’t want to just graduate GW, I want to leave it better than I found it. And I think a big part of that is being represented.”
Santiago said she also wants to make it easier for students with dietary restrictions to opt out of GW’s dining plan. She said she has faced difficulties obtaining an exemption from the meal plan from GW, and it wasn’t until she had a severe allergic reaction that the University permitted her to opt out. “That shouldn’t be happening on campus, we
should have more flexibility in listening to students that when they say, ‘I don’t feel safe in this food,’ they can be exempted,” Santiago said. She said she would work with dining to expand the number of grocery stores that accept GWorld dining dollars to include locations like Whole Foods, Trader Joes and H Mart. Students can currently use GWorld at the Safeway on Wisconsin Ave in Georgetown.
Santiago said she would like to “streamline” the Disability Support Services application into a single portal so professors can access all of a students’ accommodations in one location. She said the current process requires students to email and meet with each of their professors at the start of the semester, which can make students feel embarrassed and abandoned by their University.
“It makes it easier for professors even, because when they’re trying to find which of their students have a DSS letter, they can just look at a portal instead of having to scroll in their email and see which of their 200 students have these letters, because then what happens is accommodations get lost,” Santiago said.
She said she would advocate for a commitment from GW to match the Pell Grant — a federal grant largely funded by the U.S. Department of Education for low-
income students — for all student recipients in the event that the scholarship is defunded by the Trump administration. With Trump’s recent executive order to dismantle the Department of Education, funding for the Pell Grant is facing significant budget cuts.
“I would advocate for that commitment by GW, that if the Pell Grant were to go, that the University would match it so low-income students don’t have to fear having to find a new university at the last-minute drop of the hat,” Santiago said.
If elected, Santiago said she would create an “advisory board” of graduate students she would meet with once a month to hear concerns from GW Law School and medical students who do not have the time to commit to a full SGA senator position.
Graduate student participation in the SGA has been low in previous election cycles, with only four graduate students running for senate seats last year.
Santiago has collected the needed 379 signatures and will appear on the official ballot for the April 10 to 11 SGA election following Joint Elections Committee certification. The signature collection period will close Tuesday at 5 p.m. when all candidates must submit their petitions to the JEC for certification.
NICHOLAS WARE | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
D.C. Deputy Administrator for Homeless Services Anthony Newman talks about The Aston in February.
MOLLY
KRIS PARK | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Emily-Anne Santiago poses for a portrait in Kogan Plaza.
BRYSON KLOESEL | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Workers clear a homeless encampment along the E Street Expressway.
Muslim student groups celebrate Ramadan with charity events, DSA support
The Muslim Students’ Association partnered with the Center for Interfaith and Spiritual Life, Division of Student Affairs officials and other organizations to coordinate their annual programming to observe Ramadan this month with events surrounding charitable initiatives and iftars.
MSA hosted iftar — the fastbreaking meal during Ramadan — gala fundraisers for people in Muslim-majority countries and themed nights in collaboration with cultural and religious student organizations. The MSA’s president, who requested anonymity due to concerns of doxxing, said this year’s programing is more “fleshed out” than previous years in part because of financial support from the Center for Interfaith and Spiritual Life, which opened last fall.
“Something that we’ve been really focusing on this year is setting in motion different processes and programs and stuff that can be replicated in the years to come and also have a longer lasting effect,” the MSA president said. Ramadan, the ninth and holi-
est month on the Muslim calendar beginning and ending on the sighting of the new moon, is a period of reflection and includes fasting from sunrise to sunset, with five daily prayers.
Officials launched the Center for Interfaith and Spiritual Life in fall 2024 as a part of the University’s “Strengthening Our Community in Challenging Times” plan, which officials released in January 2024 to review campus free speech policies and religious programming in response to campus tensions related to the war in Gaza.
The MSA president said the center will host a celebration for Eid alFitr expected to take place April 1.
The MSA president said the meals for iftars cost about $10 per person, and because they anticipate 150 to 200 people attending, they usually spend about $2,000 per iftar. They said the center and the Division of Student Affairs catered two iftars in the student center, saving MSA approximately $4,500.
“If we didn’t have them paying for those iftars, we wouldn’t have been able to have them at all,” the MSA president said.
The MSA president said the renovated musalla, completed in Au-
Researchers highlight disparities in AAPI worker representation in health care
GW researchers found disparities in the representation of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander ethnic groups in the United States health care workforce in a study published early this month.
Researchers from the Milken Institute School of Public Health, Fitzhugh Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity and the School of Medicine & Health Sciences found that Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders are often underrepresented in many health care professions. Emmeline Ha, an assistant professor of family medicine and the study’s lead author, said the results highlight the need to individually study different AAPI ethnic groups and avoid grouping them together into a monolith to understand the different barriers each group faces.
“There’s so many nuances to this overall category of our race, and unfortunately, by grouping everyone together, the individual lived experiences of each community becomes eradicated,” Ha said.
Ha said researchers analyzed data between 2018 and 2022 from the American Community Survey, a demographic survey released every year by the U.S. Census Bureau, to analyze how many members of each AAPI group work in different fields of medicine.
She said the AAPI community has been advocating for individual disparities in these professions to be highlighted “for decades” to policymakers and researchers, but there is a lack of data that individually studies groups because of a tendency to group all Asian populations together in research.
For the study, researchers calculated a diversity index for each ethnic population in 15 health care occupations, including physicians, dentists and pharmacists, the index being the percentage of that group represented in the occupation divided by the percentage of the group represented in the working-age population in the United States.
A diversity index under one indicates the ethnic group is underrepresented in a given profession.
The study indicates that many South Asian and East Asian American populations are represented in positions like physicians, pharmacists and dentists, with 10 out of 12 groups having a diversity index above 1.00 for physicians, as well as 11 groups for pharmacists and nine for dentists.
Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander populations were more likely to be underrepresented in these professions, with the diversi-
gust, gives the organization more space to host nightly prayers.
The charity gala on March 17 in the Continental Ballroom was cosponsored by Islamic Relief USA, a nonprofit humanitarian organization that aims to provide relief and development to communities in conflict or poverty.
Senior Specialist for Public Affairs, Research and Advocacy at Islamic Relief USA Muhammad Ali gave a short speech at the gala about the moral reasoning behind donation during Ramadan. Ali said Ramadan is not just a period of looking inward but an opportunity for those who observe the holiday to be their “best selves.”
MSA also collaborated with the Afghan Student Association throughout Ramadan to raise money for Afghan families through the Aseel Foundation with a goal of $3,000 via Venmo. The MSA president said participating in charity during Ramadan is a core aspect of the holy month.
“From a religious perspective, it’s one of the most important things,” the MSA president said. “Supporting and advocating for our Muslim community abroad, where there’s so many different
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groups of people facing hardship, is something we really prioritize during Ramadan but also throughout the year.”
MSA also held a “Night in Solidarity with Students for Justice for Palestine” on Tuesday in support of SJP, after officials banned the organization from hosting on-campus events after the group prevented Division for Student Affairs officials from attending the group’s programming.
ty index for the group in physicians falling at 0.47, and in dentistry, 0.12.
Those designated “Other Southeast Asian populations,” including Malaysian, Burmese and Thai populations, were also underrepresented in positions, like nurses with a diversity index of 0.44 and physicians’ assistants with a diversity index of 0.51.
The data shows a high variance in representation across ethnic groups in certain professions. The highest diversity index score for physicians was 9.41 for Pakistanis and the lowest was 0.47 for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders.
Similarly, the highest diversity index for dentists was 8.89 for Koreans and the lowest was 0.12 for Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders.
“Each subpopulation has such unique experiences that can define overall health inequities and contribute to social economic barriers that contribute to health disparities, and so understanding the differences and focusing on those nuances so that we could better improve the health of all these populations is why it’s so important,” Ha said.
Ha said the research found that across all AAPI populations, there was underrepresentation in the behavioral health workforce — psychologists, counselors and social workers — which reflects the fact that mental health is often “stigmatized” in these communities.
The study found that out of all studied populations, only Japanese populations in the counselor profession and the Japanese and Korean American populations who work as social workers and psychologists had a diversity index above one.
“If we don’t have ethnic concordance and language concordance to better support [AAPI populations], then we are not going to be able to address many health needs,” Ha said.
Ha said the “next big step” in this work is how to use this data to inform policy decisions that can facilitate better health care representation for AAPI populations. The data highlights the need for health provider outreach to communities underrepresented in the workforce and for the current health care workforce to implement things like better translation services to encourage more AAPI individuals to break into the field, she said.
“We now finally have the data to support all this advocacy efforts that many individuals and many organizations and groups have called for,” Ha said. “To disaggregate the data to show the difference that we can go forward. So the next big step is to use that information for policy.”
Officials placed MSA on disciplinary probation last August until the end of fall 2024 because of its alleged involvement in the pro-Palestinian encampment last spring. The MSA president said the lift of the probation and restrictions at the end of the fall semester “helped a lot” with the stress of planning events and meetings because the group is no longer required to meet with their student organization adviser on a weekly basis.
tax credit expiration could lead to billions in losses: report
The potential expiration of health insurance premium tax credits at the end of 2025 will have an adverse effect on the U.S. economy, according to a report from researchers at the Milken Institute School of Public Health published March 3.
The study, led by professor of health policy and management Leighton Ku, showed the expiration on Dec. 31, 2025, of the COVID-19-era enhancements to premium tax credits — first introduced in the Affordable Care Act in 2010 to reduce health insurance payments — will lead to significant economic strain in the United States if Congress lets them expire. The study states that the credits’ expiration could cause GDP to fall by an estimated $34.1 billion, economic activity to fall by $57 billion and national employment to decline by 286,000 due to the health care sector losing revenue from the expiring tax credits.
“State economies will take a fairly big hit because of this,” Ku said. “They will lose a lot of their gross domestic product. We will have more than a quarter of a million people lose their jobs, about half of them in health care, about half of them outside of health care, and state and local tax governments will lose tax revenue.”
The enhancements, which were established by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, introduced in February 2021 in the House of Representatives by Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY), reduced monthly premium costs for marketplace health insurance by an average of $85 per policy, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and were initially planned to expire at the end of 2022.
Congress extended the enhancements to 2025 by the Inflation of Reduction Act of 2022, and they will now expire at the end of the year without further congressional extension.
According to the study, with the expiration of pre -
mium tax credits, millions of Americans will become uninsured because they will no longer be able to afford their insurance. The study states this will cause a loss of revenue for health insurers and in turn cause the insurers to cut payments to hospitals and health care providers.
The study concludes the cut in payments will lead to a loss of revenue in the health care sector overall, causing massive job cuts and cuts to services for consumers, hurting state economies because job loss will decrease consumer spending.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (DNH) and Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) introduced legislation in September of 2024 to permanently codify the enhancements to premium tax credits, however, the bill has yet to be voted on as of this month.
Ku said the Republican majorities in Congress are likely ignoring the codification of the enhancements due to their main focus on extending the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which she said primarily reduced taxes for “high income people.”
“I have not heard a great deal of discussion about this particular provision,” Ku said.
Ku said to model the impact of the expiration of the enhancements, his team used data estimating economic losses from the Urban Institute, a think tank based in D.C. His team then inserted the collected data into IMPLAN, an economic modeling software, which they used to find their results by changing inputs of funding and seeing how it impacts revenue.
In addition to modeling the economic consequences of the enhancement’s expiration, the team’s research also found that the expiration of the tax credits would cause 7 million Americans to lose their Medicare insurance because they can no longer afford it. Ku said of these 7 million, an estimated 4 million would be unable to find coverage and would be left completely uninsured. He said this widespread loss of insurance coverage would cause millions of Americans to lose access to basic medical
services, like regular checkups and vaccines.
“Now, what that means is they have a harder time paying their medical bills,” Ku said. “We know that in general, when people don’t have health insurance, they can’t afford to go to the doctor as much, so they don’t get their preventive services. They don’t get things like vaccinated.”
The model showed that rural residents in states that have not expanded Medicaid eligibility — like Kansas, Tennessee and Wyoming — are potentially at the highest risk of losing their health insurance. Alee Lockman, a professor of health policy and management at Texas A&M University, said lower income levels in rural communities make it harder for residents to afford health care without the aid provided by the tax credit enhancements.
“Typically, rural communities tend to be older and poorer than more suburban and urban communities, which means often a higher percentage of rural residents are lower-income or seniors,” Lockman said. “And so if you’re 65 plus, you qualify for Medicare, which is great, but if you’re a lower-income adult in a rural community, and perhaps you’re self employed or working for a very small employer, like a farmer or a mom-and-pop grocery store, that doesn’t offer health insurance to their employees, you’re out of luck.” Lockman also said the lack of resources among lower-income Americans in rural communities could make it difficult for organized opposition to form against the expiration of the enhancements.
“If you’re a lower-income American, you’re possibly working several jobs to make ends meet,” Lockman said. “You don’t have a lot of disposable income, and so the opportunities to become as politically mobilized as higher-income seniors who have both time and perhaps some disposable income is a little bit more limited, and so that’s a challenge when we think about possible mobilization.”
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The Milken Institute School of Public Health located along New Hampshire Avenue.
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A Qur’an guide atop a table at an iftar hosted by the Muslim Students' Association.
Health care reporter talks public health mistrust during COVID-19 pandemic
ELIJAH EDWARDS
A health policy journalist presented a keynote address about the origins of public health mistrust and its impact on health care public opinion in the United States at the Elliott School of International Affairs on Wednesday.
Sheryl Gay Stolberg, a health policy and politics correspondent for the New York Times, discussed her experience reporting during the COVID-19 pandemic and how national skepticism of public health has grown over time. The “Rituals in the Making” research team — a GW-led project on misinformation and the consequences of the pandemic — hosted the event, which was co-sponsored by the anthropology department and the Institute for Data, Democracy and Politics.
Stolberg said her forthcoming book, titled “Contagion of Mistrust,” explores how Americans reacted and adapted to various public health crises throughout history, like polio and the COVID-19 pandemic. She said public health officials used to be viewed as “heroes,” like Jonas Salk, a virologist who developed the first polio vaccine, but now are demonized, like Anothony Fauci, one of the top U.S. health officials during the pandemic.
She said a 1959 Gallup survey ranked Salk above President Harry Truman on a list of “the most outstanding personalities” in the last 10 years. She said in December 2021, a Gallup poll of Fauci found that only 19 percent of Republicans approved of him, similar numbers to politicians, like former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
“How did we get from Salk the hero to Fauci the hero turned pariah and now to Kennedy, who’s waging war on the very institutions, like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the FDA, the Food and Drug Administration, that he oversees,” Stolberg said.
Lynn Goldman, dean of the Milken Institute School of Public Health, introduced Stolberg and said March marks the fifth anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic. She said the pandemic was a “test” of science, compassion and “our collective trust” in public institutions.
“It’s essential to have trusted, well-equipped public health institutions that can translate science into action,” Goldman said. “As time went by, COVID also laid bare the challenges of doing so in an environment where public health itself had become deeply politicized.”
Holden Thorp, a professor of chemistry and the editor in chief of Science, a series of academic journals published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said during the pandemic scientists should have let politicians take more blame for strict lockdowns and mandates than health officials.
“Scientists have an enormous responsibility to carry ourselves, carry out our work as carefully as possible and to be as careful communicating it as we possibly can be,” Thorp said.
Stolberg said a study conducted by the Global Health Security Index in 2019 ranked the United States as the country “most prepared” to respond to a pandemic, which was proven wrong by the high number of deaths America had during the pandemic.
She said skepticism of public health officials among far-right Republicans during the pandemic flowed in part from a “social media ecosystem” that “breeds mistrust” and rewards the people who spread misinformation.
Stolberg said the rise of mistrust in public health is partly due to the Biden administration’s strict vaccine mandates for large employers in 2021 and the social media crackdown on COVID-19 misinformation. She said leading figures
opposed to the requirements, like current Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who felt “canceled” and “angry,” giving him a platform to fight back.
“He incorporated these themes into his presidential campaign: themes of freedom of speech, of government telling people what to do,” Stolberg said. “And I would argue that Kennedy’s rise was fueled by really a singular sentiment, and that is the sentiment of mistrust.”
Stolberg said now Kennedy is “leading the very agencies he’s at-
tacked.” She said some lawmakers and Kennedy himself have argued that it takes a “skeptic” to restore trust in public health.
She said public health experts have “always depended” on partnering with the government, which is in “mortal peril” due to the spread of misinformation in public health.
“Kennedy, who rose to prominence by sowing mistrust, says that he is the man to restore trust in the system,” Stolberg said. “Like the rest of you, I’m on a journey to find out if he can.”
Trump’s education department cuts may delay financial aid processes: officials
Officials also said the University has also not received details or communication on the Trump administration’s recent orders and actions, adding that there are “currently no indications” that the layoffs and potential dismantling of the department will impact core federal aid programs, like the Pell Grant, Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant or federal work-study.
Antoinette Flores — the director of higher education quality and accountability at New America, a left-leaning think tank — said Trump’s proposal to dismantle the department is “deeply unpopular,” with only one in four Americans in favor of its elimination, according to the organization’s February polling.
Flores said Trump’s executive order he signed on Thursday that directed McMahon to take “all necessary steps” to facilitate the closure of the department was “symbolic in nature.”
Trump needs approval
Officials
from the majority of Congress to pass an act to dismantle the department, and any effort to abolish it would likely be challenged by Democrats in the slimly Republican-controlled Senate, which requires 60 votes to overcome filibusters.
For such an act to pass, Republicans would have to flip at least seven Democrats, but the party has denounced Trump’s order due to concerns that the dismantling could impact low-income families who rely on federal funding in schools.
“Yes, the administration needs Congress in order to formally get rid of the department, but it is already taking steps to do that with or without Congress,” Flores said. “It’s hard to say what the path forward looks like from here, and it makes it even harder to say when you have an administration that disregards and doesn’t follow the law.”
Flores said funding for college students through grants and student loans covers almost 70 percent of the department’s budget, and
the layoffs impact one of its “most critical functions.”
Preliminary reports of the department show many Federal Student Aid Office staff, who manage the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, lost their jobs.
“When you cut that amount of staff and the staff cuts occurred across every single office, you are putting all of that at risk,” Flores said. “There could be impacts on students’ ability to access federal financial aid, to be able to repay their loans, to file their FAFSA. Those are some of the biggest potential impacts from students at a school like GW.”
Felecia Commodore, an associate professor of education policy and organization and leadership at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, said the layoffs will hinder the department’s ability to disperse federal funds and process financial aid applications because there are fewer people to process requests.
She said this delay will reduce universities’ enrollment because students will
be less likely to afford college and pay for any outstanding tuition bills if the department doesn’t process their applications in time.
Hundreds of users reported issues with accessing FAFSA the day after Trump announced cuts to the department. Students must complete the form by June 30 to receive federal financial aid at colleges and universities. Students have submitted more than 8 million 2025-26 FAFSA forms — a 50 percent increase from the number of applications submitted this time last year, the department said in a press release last Monday.
University officials said GW’s Student Financial Assistance office can create estimated financial aid packages to ensure students receive timely information about their eligibility if FAFSA is delayed, as the office did in 2024, but there are no current signs that such contingency measures will be necessary.
“Just because something is open does not mean that it’s operating in a way that is efficient and effective,” Com-
modore said. “You need a certain level of workforce. You need certain level professionals and service providers in order for the department to function at its optimal peak.”
Commodore said the department’s decision to lay off staff will not fix the bureaucratic challenges the department has faced, but there are methods for “better optimizing” the department’s resources.
David Blazar, an associate professor of education policy at the University of Maryland, College Park, said community members should pay attention to which departments programs are housed under, if the programs continue to exist and the amount of funding they continue to receive.
Trump announced on Friday that the federal student loan portfolio, which was housed under the department, will move to the Small Business Administration, which is responsible for helping small business owners and entrepreneurs succeed by providing counseling,
capital and contracting expertise.
Trump also announced he was moving “special needs” and nutrition programs out from the Education Department and moving it under the Department of Health and Human Services. Blazar said it’s “reasonable” to assume it will be “challenging” for the department to execute its core functions, like overseeing the federal student loan program, after laying off more than 1,000 staff members. Blazar said universities could be indirectly impacted by the Trump administration, which has withheld funding from institutions that have implemented policies it disagrees with — including what the administration see as failures to protect Jewish students from antisemitism.
Blazar said Trump can withhold funding through indirect rates on research grants, which are “critical” mechanisms for supporting higher education institutions because GW has contracts with the federal government.
should revisit trustees’ decision to arm GWPD, faculty leaders say
Three days after she released the report, Granberg said at a Faculty Senate meeting that the Board is “not inclined” to revisit its decision to arm police.
Officials are considering implementing recommendations for GWPD issued by the law firm, including moving campus security services under GWPD and adding a mental health response team, rapid response unit and dedicated training officer, Granberg said. McCarthy said the findings of the investigation highlight repeated “breach[es] of honesty” among officials, pointing to how former interim University President Mark Wrighton supported arming and brought it to the Board, according to the report, despite telling him and other faculty in spring 2023 that arming was solely trustees’ decision. He said officials also weren’t honest when they said they reviewed all relevant data, as the report revealed officials didn’t consult subject-matter experts in the Milken Institute School of Public Health. Community members repeatedly called on officials to publicize the data used to inform the arming decision, including in a Faculty Senate resolution in October 2023 and in a letter signed by more than 450 Milken community members.
McCarthy said the report emphasizes an ongoing toxic workplace environment at GWPD, evidenced by the top six officers leaving the department in less than a year, which he said signifies that officials should reverse the arming decision and develop a collective strategy for campus safety.
“The degree of dishonesty, power abuse and corruption has just reached new heights, and the decision in the process of arming should, I believe, be stopped and ideally reversed,” McCarthy said. University spokesperson Shannon McClendon said “selected senior administrators” charged with responding to the report’s findings have started to adopt recommendations for structural changes, including by bringing GWPD and other “mission-aligned” departments under the supervision of a new associate vice president of campus safety. She said GWPD “continues” to
engage with the community members and the Campus Safety Advisory Committee, which is also working to develop an engagement strategy and improve community safety overall. The committee didn’t meet until July 2024, almost 11 months after GWPD commenced its first arming phase in late August 2023. Committee members said in October that the group doesn’t play a role in the department’s oversight or operations, instead broadly advising officials on GW’s safety initiatives. McClendon declined to comment on which officials failed to
collect community feedback as the report concluded, if the University has looked into why they didn’t and if officials think soliciting feedback from the community before making the decision would’ve changed the decision or implementation process. She also declined to comment on the reasoning behind officials’ pledge to not reevaluate the arming decision.
Guillermo Orti, the chair of the biology department and a faculty senator who has repeatedly voiced concerns about GWPD arming at senate meetings, said he is “satis-
fied” overall with the report’s transparency.
He said it was “kind of a miracle” that Granberg candidly admitted that officials made a mistake by not openly discussing GWPD’s arming plans with community members ahead of the decision.
He said there’s been a pattern of officials making “top-down” decisions without consulting the broader GW community, punctuated by former University President Thomas LeBlanc’s decision to implement a plan to cut undergraduate enrollment by 20 percent over five years and boost the number of students in STEM departments.
He said he and other faculty members urge officials to reopen the debate about arming, even though Granberg said trustees aren’t inclined to reverse course.
Because the Board made the decision and trustees told faculty senators that they had consulted experts to drive the decision, there appears to be a contradiction as the report doesn’t fault them for not consulting community members, Orti said — an observation that he called “unsettling.”
Orti said going forward, officials should adhere to the shared governance principles — which faculty senators approved in April 2022 to outline expectations for communication and collaboration between officials, trustees and faculty on University issues. Jamie Cohen-Cole, an associate professor of American studies and former faculty senator, said he was disappointed to learn that the process of deciding to arm campus police seems to have replicated “major concerns” found in a 2021 faculty-wide survey on LeBlanc’s leadership.
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The School of Medicine & Health Sciences building located next to the I Street Mall
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Officials gather at a Faculty Senate meeting in January.
From Page 1
From Page 1
OPINIONS
Why officials won’t reevaluate the decision to arm the GW Police Department in light of findings from a third-party investigation p.1
Students and faculty must steer response to Trump’s attack on universities
Higher education has been heading down a slippery slope. Students, faculty and the administration alike have to come together before we slide down too far.
Messages have filled the community’s inboxes about the Trump administration cutting funding for universities and targeting pro-Palestinian protesters and immigrants including deportations and arrests. A week ago, federal immigration agents detained former Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil for his involvement in pro-Palestinian protests last spring. Shortly after, Columbia officials agreed to a string of federal demands, like placing restrictions on protests and reviewing its Middle East curriculum, to restore $400 million in funding.
GW stands in the eye of the higher education hurricane. The University could lose millions of federal dollars if they don’t comply with Trump’s rules. Officials are under close scrutiny by the Department of Justice as the Federal Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism investigates last spring’s pro-Palestinian protests, and they’re already revising demonstration policies and placing signs on campus outlining rules on free expression. We need GW to reassure us they won’t bend further to Trump’s will, and students and faculty have to come together to make sure they don’t.
Our editorial board has urged GW to stand up for their students. With their initial concessions to Trump, they haven’t. We have to make sure that as a community, we’re not letting anything slide. We have to do our part to push against threats to our University by spreading awareness of changes at GW to fill the voids that our leaders have left vacant.
STAFF EDITORIAL
The problem we’re facing is that so many of the ways GW has caved to Trump are hard to notice. We might not all be able to tell when a particular web page gets removed or a particular department loses funding. But someone will: a chemistry professor will know when their department suddenly loses its resources. We need all the community stakeholders — professors and students to talk about what’s happening so we don’t let too many unnoticed events pass until its too late. If we let ourselves happily give in on the small issues, there won’t be any networks to fight back if
Trump tries to engage in more drastic attacks. Right now, campus is silent. There are no protests or marches or any sort of public outcry directed at the Trump administration from GW students, with the exception of ongoing activism from pro-Palestinian groups — who are currently banned from hosting events for not allowing officials to attend their events. Instead, we have the GW College Democrats and GW College Republicans holding panels on how to get a job on Capitol Hill, turning a blind eye to the tumult unfolding in the federal workforce. Even our
Don’t compromise your beliefs for an internship
Before coming to GW, I never truly comprehended what GW students meant when they spoke of the suffocating internship culture at the University. Students will do anything to build their resume. Securing an internship in politics has gotten harder recently after executive actions, including the mass firings of federal employees. The GOP’s rising control in politics has opened space for more conservative-leaning internships, leaving my leftleaning peers and I conflicted about the ethics of taking an internship that may not represent our values. Some progressive students have made compromises by taking internships that don’t align with their beliefs driven by fear of falling behind in a competitive industry. I understand the pressure to perfect your resume, but interning in a position that undermines your beliefs feels like a trade-off that isn’t worth making.
Hurwitz Opinions Writer
Nowadays, party ideology is seen as tied to one’s morals. In this environment, working for a party or leader that fundamentally opposes your ethical guidelines risks not only personal discomfort but also chips away at your integrity. When I see fellow students — people who should be fighting for a brighter future — ignoring their moral values for
the sake of the possibility of some type of career advancement, it feels like a surrender to the current administration.
Since returning from winter break, I have noticed a rise in internship postings that align with conservative ideologies. In February, I was intrigued by a job posting for a paid journalism internship before realizing it was for the National Journalism Center, an organization that trains future conservative journalists. Even though opportunities in conservative think tanks or at conservative media outlets are more easily accessible because of the current presidential administration, it’s essential to ask if working in those spaces is worth supporting ideas that you don’t actually believe in.
Many GW students go into politics because they feel so strongly about certain laws, policies or rights. When we enter into the field of politics and politicsaligned businesses and opportunities, it is quite likely that our coworkers are people who strongly believe in the traditional values of their party, whether for better or for worse. It would be isolating to take on a role in such environments if your values don’t align with those around you. When working in the political sphere, interacting with colleagues and bosses whose jobs and policy-making directly impact people’s identities and livelihoods can be hard when it is your identity that their work affects, like if you come from an immi-
grant background or have your reproductive rights under fire.
Additionally, considering the long-term path to progress is essential. There is still hope for change — by choosing opportunities that align with our principles, we can contribute to a future that reflects a more just society, even if it means taking a slower and less conventional path.
Perhaps instead of seeking a Hillternship, we should take this opportunity to improve skills that will prove useful in any future career path. For example, honing your ability to build interpersonal relationships by working at a nonprofit where you interact with donors and community members consequently improves your communication and networking prowess. It’s a win-win situation: cultivating professional adeptness while staying true to your personal values.
In the end, the choice is up to the individual. But for many of us, choosing internships that conflict with our core beliefs can feel like giving up on the future we want to see, and in turn, giving in to an administration whose views are at odds with our own. Now more than ever, it is crucial that we stand firm and do not give in to pressure to conform. By staying true to ourselves and our principles, students have the power to create the change we seek — even if it means taking the long road. — Ava Hurwitz, a firstyear majoring in international affairs, is an opinions writer.
Ymore politically active schools, like the law school or the Elliott School of International Affairs, haven’t offered panels or town halls to discuss Trump’s executive actions as a community. Our professors, regardless of whether they teach chemistry, literature or economics, have an inside look as to what’s currently unfolding in higher education and what we can do to stay afloat. They’re in a unique position to guide their students about which headlines are worth worrying about or even simply offer a listening ear. STEM professors could be unpacking how the
National Institutes of Health funding cuts could impact students, and our Middle Eastern studies professors could be talking about what it means for Columbia’s Middle Eastern studies department going under receivership because of Trump. The end goal isn’t always finding a solution or conclusion, it’s the notion of sitting down and starting the conversation that is crucial.
Even if our professors are also struggling to understand what’s going on, it is always better to have those conversations and figure it out together. And to our faculty, many of us want to know and understand what is going on. We’re in need of a forum to discuss what’s happening, especially when our University isn’t stepping up to the plate. We already have events like “Community Listening Circles,” at GW, but we need to make sure that we’re actually going to these events. We might not be able to hold a town hall meeting or dedicate a whole hour every class to Trump’s administration, but it can start with simply making more space for those conversations, spreading information about all the little but worrying ways the University has been affected in the first two months of the second term.
These are pressing times for the GW community and for higher education as a whole. Right now, we are all trying to figure out how to move forward, individually and collectively. But the way to move forward is to first start talking about the issues in front of us rather than sweep them under the rug. And as we keep moving forward, we need to remember history has its eyes on us.
We have to ask each other how we want GW to be remembered in this administration.
Forsake the common opinion
our opinion matters. It just doesn’t need to be constantly heard. I fully stand behind the notion that every individual should have the right to speak up and use their voice. What I cannot endorse is the neverending unfiltered — and often unfounded — plethora of opinions contaminating all conversations. As college students our shared ideas and perspectives should be honed in true belief and knowledge, not quips to fill the silence, to allow purposeful dialogue to flourish.
James Pomian Opinions Writer
For generations, American voices have been powerfully amplified in D.C. so it’s understandable why many of us at GW yearn to contribute to this setting in a similar way. I’ll never forget stepping into my first political science class at GW, with around 200 first-years.,I was excited to be exposed to new perspectives through discourse that could arise in my first semester, but as I ventured beyond that intro course, the pattern continued with a couple of students circumventing the whole class into their own debate. These interruptions were mostly unfounded or thoughtless due to their oblique relevance to the topic and narrow stances.Recently, just days after Election Day, a student blamed President Donald Trump’s second win solely on hatred and negative forces, tainting
the argument as they relied on morality through avid emotion.
This trend progressed with my education at GW in any given course — whether political or not. In a World War II in Asia history course, three ego-inflated students often go off on tangents based on their own perceived expertise which loosely relates to the topic of discussion. Class discourse is what I value most in the classroom, and I often contribute to these discussions. Harnessing my thoughts to tie together class content and lecture dynamics allowed me to give thought-provoking contributions to enhance the discussion rather than facilitate a combative one.
The consistent outpouring of opinions also happens outside of the classroom. Hearing students’ unwavering takes on systemic issues or institutional decisions such as student org funding, it’s apparent that most do not have any context of decisions and knowledge of factors that led to certain frameworks or decisions.
In the case of student organization funding, the Student Government Association allocates funding, which the Board of Trustees monitors with more intricate procedures in both of those systems. Not understanding these system dynamics and procedures when complaining about low funding is not only problematic but ineffective. My realization comes The continuous degrading dialogue regarding our university’s institutions provokes students to
take derogatory stances on processes they don’t understand and therefore results in a whiny conversation, which won’t contribute to meaningful change.
GW’s location in part explains why some people are extremely argumentative, but the trend is also part of a larger cultural phenomenon. Fueled by social media and the ability to see a constant flow of widespread voices, the constant opinions of others provoke us to regularly and unnecessarily provide our own.
Growing up in the United States and having the opportunity to study at GW in D.C. where I have the right to express myself and my thoughts is an immense privilege that deserves to be harnessed educationally and proactively. The setting cultivated at GW instilled a false notion that our thoughts and takes need to be shared perpetually as a combative way, instead of an opportunity to foster an insightful conversation.
In today’s landscape, it is crucial to take time and personally develop, expose and research issues before contributing to the consistent circulation of information. Striving toward this goal can be accomplished through the responsible embrace of diverse voices, dependable sources and open-minded conversation, allowing you to be more well-rooted in personal ideals and wellspoken in any environment.
—James Pomian, a junior majoring in history and political science, is an opinions writer.
CAROLINE MORRELLI | STAFF CARTOONIST
Ava
CULTURE
Student baristas spill beans on life behind coffee counter
As the pre-11:10 a.m. Gelbucks crowd awaits their mobile orders, Liv Ruggiero gleams as they prepare a “Medicine Ball” drink, made of Jade Citrus Mint tea, Peach Tranquility tea, steamed lemonade, hot water and honey.
Ruggiero knew they had to get the drink right — Medicine Ball drinkers are the most loyal of anyone to their go-to Starbucks orders. They’re one of many student baristas at GW who have to deal with long hours and complicated drink orders to get students their caffeine fix. Three student baristas said aside from the ires of peddling coffee, their jobs have led to them to become a part of the cultural centers of GW life and be some of the only constants in the lives of their fellow students.
Ruggiero, a junior studying political science, said they worked at the Gelman Library Starbucks for six months last academic year and started working again about five months ago. They said managing the job with school is “definitely a lot” because the Gelman location is open until 9 p.m. on weeknights, but the long hours make it easier to fit work into their schedule around classes. Still, they said the sound of typing from focused students in Gelbucks can remind them
of all the essays they have to write as they instead fuel the late-night study sessions of their peers.
“It basically just feels like an extension of Gelman, like people just kind of hang out there and do work, but I’m just like ‘Ugh, I wish I could be doing my work right now,’” Ruggiero said.
Ruggiero said working at Gelbucks has helped them find a sense of community at GW — they are currently rooming with another student they met through the job. They said their coworkers are like “one big family,” despite some being Starbucks veterans and others new on the scene.
Ruggiero said student customers can be overly demanding, even when they get what they ordered. Ruggiero said they were recently yelled at by a customer for their cappuccino having “too much foam,” despite the recipe for the drink demanding one-third steamed milk.
“I said ‘why’ because it’s a cappuccino and then her girlfriend was like ‘Oh my god did you just ask a customer why, like I can’t believe you would ask her why. Like that’s so rude and ridiculous,’” Ruggiero said.
Miranda Mata, a senior studying international affairs and management information systems, said she has worked at Peet’s Coffee in District House since her first-year fall semester. Mata
said she chose to work at Peet’s because it was close to her first-year residence hall, Lafayette Hall, and since she already was a regular customer, she knew she could save a buck by working there.
Mata said customers can often be rude, ordering a drink without saying hello or responding when she asks how they are doing.
“Anna Krantz, a senior studying criminal justice and psychology, said she has worked at Peet’s for twoand-a-half years. Krantz said she likes keeping busy and working as a barista on campus has helped improve her time management because she has to balance classwork and a job.
“I have always done really well with a super full schedule,” she said.
Krantz said people think being a barista is an “easy job” because it only involves making coffee and ringing up customers. But in reality, her gig involves far more than just standing at a counter. She said baristas, especially those who are working in conjunction with school, should get more recognition from customers than they do because of the long hours they work and the commitment they have to their job.
“It’s always nice when people recognize me, or they’re like, ‘Oh, you made my coffee, and it’s really good,’” she said.
New exhibits commemorate Textile Museum’s double anniversaries
fellow curators wanted to capture the District’s history in the exhibit to showcase the museum’s extensive collection of D.C. artifacts.
The buzz of student voices and views of vibrant, multicultural fabrics filled the halls of the George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum on Friday afternoon for a celebration of the museum’s 10 years on campus.
Students and visitors gathered for student dance performances, hands-on craft activities, a clothing swap and tours through the museum’s five exhibits. The celebration marked the 10-year anniversary of the museum’s partnership with GW — plus its 100-year birthday — in conjunction with a new exhibit at the museum, “A Tale of Two Houses,” which tracks the museum’s centurylong tenure from its original post in Kalorama to its current home at GW.
Kasey Sease, a curator at the museum, said “A Tale of Two Houses” walks visitors through the 100-year history of the textile museum. She said the exhibition is the first she’s curated at GW after joining the museum in 2023, and she dug through historical artifacts, photos and research from past museum documents and staff to find notable pieces for the show.
Sease said she and her
“Our museum’s story is rooted in D.C. history. To understand why we do what we do, it’s necessary to reflect on the places where our work started right here in the nation’s capital.” Sease said in an email.
Sease said “A Tale of Two Houses” spans across three galleries, bringing visitors through the museum’s centurylong legacy. She said the first walks visitors through the textile museum’s original Kalorama home, which museum founder George Hewitt Myers’ resided in starting in 1913. She said the exhibit next teleports visitors across town with a look at the Woodhull House, where the museum currently resides on 21st Street. Sease said the mansion was built before the Civil War but became a part of GW when an early trustee donated it to the University in 1921. She said the room is full of artifacts from GW’s past, including old yearbooks and campus maps. The final gallery of the exhibit shows the intersection of the museum’s two lives by showing off the 2015 museum opening at GW.
At the celebration Friday, K-Pop, Irish and Folklórico student dance crews took center stage at the museum, while visitors stared at tex-
tiles and engaging in scavenger hunts.
Lee Talbot, a museum curator, said 2025 marks a double anniversary for the museum, and staff wanted to show off the best from its 100-year history, like Mamluk carpets and dragon carpets from the Caucasus in two anniversary exhibits, “Intrinsic Beauty: Celebrating the Art of Textiles” and “Enduring Traditions: Celebrating the World of Textiles.”
Grace Lemoine, a senior studying international affairs and geography and a student museum assistant, said that Friday’s event had been her “pet project” all year. She said it was her job to figure out how the museum would celebrate their anniversary, embracing the relationships the museum has forged during its time on campus. She said those partnerships included the dance organizations who performed Friday. She said she also organized a clothing swap at the event alongside Sustainable GW to promote the museum’s focus on sustainability.
“I really wanted to first and foremost celebrate the cultural aspects of our museum and the sustainability aspects of our museum because those are two really big initiatives that we try to pride ourselves on, not only as partners with GW but just individually, as an institution,” she said.
In 1973, concrete monstrosities materialized on the Foggy Bottom Campus.
At least that’s how an unnamed Hatchet writer described the newly constructed University library and School of Medicine & Health Sciences’ Ross Hall in an article published on Sept. 10, 1973. As a part of GW’s expansion of the Foggy Bottom Campus during the 1970s, the architecture firm Mills, Petticord & Mills designed Gelman Library and Ross Hall in the Brutalist style that swept across the District in the mid20th century — and some students were not pleased.
Brutalism, derived from the French phrase for raw concrete, “béton brut,” is an architectural style that originated in post-World War II Europe and is known for its use of raw concrete and simple geometric forms — think the foreboding concrete behemoth that is the FBI’s J. Edgar Hoover Building. The style remained popular in the architectural world for a few decades, serving as a cost-effective method for public construction projects in D.C. during the mid-20th century urban renewal movement that displaced thousands of predominantly Black and immigrant residents. Brutalism eventually declined in popularity as some members of the public found it “austere and imposing.”
“We must debate the choice to destroy all the character of this urban campus and replace it with sterile blocks devoid of all imagination,” another unnamed Hatchet writer wrote a week later in the Sept. 17, 1973, edition. The construction of SMHS’s
Ross Hall and the adjoining Himmelfarb Library marked the first time since 1912 that the entirety of GW was located in one area. After its 1973 opening, one research associate told a Hatchet reporter that “The old place was a garbage can, this is like heaven.”
But an unnamed Hatchet writer didn’t mince their words in the Sept. 17, 1973 edition of The Hatchet, writing that, “The new Medical Building has all the grace and charm of a federal penitentiary. Why does it look like someone
bricked-up all the windows?” The writer also criticized GW’s “Master Plan” for the expansion of the Foggy Bottom Campus throughout the 1970s and how the construction of new buildings could damage GW’s relationship with the Foggy Bottom community.
President Donald Trump issued a memorandum on his first day in office titled, “Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture,” requesting that federal public buildings adhere to “classical architectural heritage.”
Earlier this month, the Trump administration briefly published a list of 443 federal properties designated for potential offloading and labeled them as “not core to government operations.” Several D.C. federal buildings made it on the list, including Brutalist buildings, like the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Hoover Building. The administration scrubbed the D.C. buildings from the list after a few hours, and the entire list was gone the next day.
Experts in architecture say understanding the full history of Brutalism may help members of the public appreciate the oftenlambasted architectural style and consider ways these structures can evolve sustainably for the future.
For college campuses, Angela Person, the co-curator of the National Building Museum’s “Capital Brutalism” exhibit and an associate professor of architecture at the University of Oklahoma, said Brutalist architecture can create distinct landmarks that stand out from traditional collegiate architecture. She said as the large scale and concrete facades of Brutalism can make buildings feel “uninviting” and “difficult to adapt,” universities can consider ways to renovate these buildings, like improving lighting and reconfiguring interior designs.
Alex Anderson, an associate professor of architecture at the University of Washington who has written about Brutalism for the University of Washington and Harvard Design News, said universities in the United States first aimed to mimic the Gothic and Neoclassical styles of the British and French university systems in their campus architecture. He said American universities’ adoption of Brutalist architecture deviated from the traditional styles that the public associated with academia.
“There’s hardly any emotional connection you can form with a Brutalist building because they’re not meant to form emotional connections,” Anderson said. “They’re not ornamental. They’re meant to be driven by practicalities and truth, which isn’t something necessarily people identify with in an emotional way.”
SARAH GROSS STAFF WRITER
ANN DUAN REPORTER
ISABELLA CHE REPORTER
RACHEL KURLANDSKY | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Items on display at “A Tale of Two Houses” exhibit, which tracks the museum’s tenure.
takes a customer’s order at Peet’s Coffee in District House.
COOPER TYKSINSKI | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The facade of Gelman Library in Kogan Plaza.
Gymnastics bring home fourth EAGL conference title in last decade
KRISTI WIDJAJA STAFF WRITER
Gymnastics won first place in the East Atlantic Gymnastics League Championships in Philadelphia on Saturday, their fourth championship win in the last decade.
The Revolutionaries concluded with 195.950 points in the meet, with Temple University finishing close behind with 195.775 points for second place out of four teams. Saturday’s win is the fourth EAGL conference title the Revs have racked up, with previous wins in 2015, 2017 and 2022.
Sophomore Delaney DeHaan placed first in the vault event with 9.875 points, third in the floor exercise with 9.900 points, fourth in the uneven bars with 9.825 points and 12th on the balance beam with 9.750 points. She was awarded Gymnast of the Week in the EAGL weekly accolades Wednesday for her high performance this season. DeHaan led the league on vault and all around and was honored into the All-EAGL First Team for vault, beam, floor and all around.
She has earned six All-EAGL recognitions through her two seasons with the Revs. At the GW-hosted Towson, Maryland and North Carolina State meet on March 14, freshman Lola Montevago led GW in seventh with 9.800. DeHaan came in 15th
with 9.725 followed by Rachel Katz with 9.700. Montevago finished first place for the uneven bars with 9.900 points at the EAGL Championship. She earned the Rookie of the Week award and First Team All-EAGL on bars and beam events for the EAGL weekly
accolades.
University of New Hampshire finished with 195.700 points, Towson ended with 195.675 points and Long Island University closed out the championship with 194 points. The Revs competed against these four teams back on Feb. 2 in Philadelphia in a
meet hosted by Temple. The Revs won first place, winning a slight margin of 195.400 points to Towson’s 195.375 points in second place. Montevago won the event title for the uneven bars with 9.975 points and finished second with 9.850 points in the balance beam.
In 2022, the Revs secured the championship with a score of 196.325 and Towson trailing behind with 196.075. In 2017, the Revs took home a win with 196.275 and New Hampshire earning 195.075. During their 2015 win, the Revs scored 195.850 with New Hampshire in close second earning 195.700.
Last month, the Revs competed in a meet at the Smith Center to honor the late alumna Alex deMoura who graduated in 2017 and passed away in 2019. She earned the EAGL award in the all-around and a few other accolades on the balance beam, vault, uneven bars and floor exercise during her years with the team.
The Revs also won gold in the meet honoring deMoura, distancing themselves with 196.550 points from Cornell University’s 191.825 points, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse’s 190.800 points and Ursinus College’s 190.625 points. DeHaan’s performances excelled in the vault and floor events with 9.900 points and 9.925 points, respectively. Graduate student Kendall Whitman tied first with DeHaan in the floor event. Montevago won first in the uneven bars with 9.850 points and sophomore Maya Peters placed first with 9.900 in the beam.
The Revs will head to the NCAA Regionals April 2 to 6.
Women’s lacrosse falls to UMass, adding fifth defeat to losing streak
ETHAN TSAI REPORTER
Women’s lacrosse (5-5, 0-5 Atlantic 10) fell 6-15 to Massachusetts (7-3, 4-0 A-10) in their fourthstraight loss of the season on Saturday.
The loss pushed the Revolutionaries to ninth place in the conference rankings, marking their fifth defeat this season. In their match against the highly ranked UMass, who now hold the first place A-10 spot following their win against the Revs, GW partially bounced back from a rough second quarter before ultimately falling in the second half.
Junior midfielder Kiki Rotay scored the Revs’ only goal in the first quarter, while freshman goalkeeper Gabi Greth was able to save two of the four shots UMass attackers attempted on goal. The quick reflexes of Greth prevented the Revs from giving up any more goals, ending the first quarter with UMass in the lead by a marginal 2-1 record.
The Revs’ defense collapsed in the second quarter, as UMass scored two goals in the first two minutes of the
quarter and eventually ended the quarter with an additional four goals scored, putting UMass in the lead with 8-1. The UMass defense also shut down the Revs’ offense, which was unable to maintain control of the ball long enough to find opportunities to get into shooting positions.
After the second quarter, a goal swiftly scored within 40 seconds of the third quarter by senior attacker Everly Kessler revitalized the Revs’ offense. Both teams got more physical, resulting in several penalties, a few green cards and one yellow card.
A UMass defensive foul gave the Revs a free position shot, which junior attacker Grace Curry used to launch a shot past the UMass goalie, bringing the record to 9-3. The quarter wrapped up with freshman attacker Sophia Levine assisting Curry to another goal, followed by a last minute score by junior midfielder Stella Ray. The Revs’ defense also performed well, resulting in an almost even scoring board for the third quarter, with
UMass only gaining one more goal than the Revs. The quarter ended with UMass in the lead 13-5.
The fourth quarter opened up with a UMass charge, which Greth
blunted but UMass quickly recovered and put in the goal. A shot by Kessler was barely deflected when it struck the crossbar of the goal, but a free position shot
sunk by Kessler just a minute later redeemed the close miss. Greth once again saved several shots on the Revs goal with help from a strong GW defensive team, only
Men’s basketball season is ‘ray of hope’ for program’s future,
From Page 1
After George Mason knocked GW out of the Atlantic 10 Championships a week ago, Caputo said he knew the team would be in consideration for postseason play because of its strong record, whether in the NIT or the Crown.
Following the Friday loss, Caputo said the Crown was in contact over the weekend, telling them they’d be “100 percent” interested. Despite the loss in the quarterfinals of the A-10 tournament, Caputo said he thought the team had a good year with its 9-9 finish in A-10 play.
The team entered conference play 11-2 before a largely up-and-down set of games that included impressive wins against Dayton and Saint Louis but losses to Richmond and La Salle. In the end, its 9-9 finish was good for seventh in the conference, which marked only the
second time since 2017 the Revs finished at least .500, the first being a 10-8 finish in 2023.
“Two out of the last eight [years] we’ve been .500 or above in the A-10,” Caputo said. “So it’s been a year of some really good progress for us, but I felt like you really wanted to then get toz the postseason as well.”
With over two weeks between the March 14 A-10 departure and the March 31 Crown tipoff, Caputo said he and his staff have been balancing practice with conditioning and rest for the players, giving them one week off before a full week of practice leading up to the Crown.
On top of this, he said he has “a number of guys” monitoring the transfer portal, which is set to open Monday.
“If you’re going to be a program that talks about competing at a high level in competition, you’re gonna have to show up
to compete when you get asked to, and that’s what we’re gonna do,” Caputo said. “But we’re also gonna compete in the portal.”
Out of the nine players that averaged at least 10 minutes per game this season, only two — graduate students guard Gerald Drumgoole Jr. and forward Sean Hansen — were playing in their final year of eligibility. Caputo said finding success with a younger team is a positive sign as he looks to continue building the program.
“We’re not a team that’s one of the older teams in the league or even the country, and yet here we are with 21 wins and a postseason opportunity,” Caputo said. “So I think we’re on track for where I want to be, and we’re obviously going to be pushing forward.”
In a pool that includes programs like Georgetown, Villanova and Cincinnati, who have 17 NCAA Final Four
surrendering one more point before the game ended. The Revs’ next game will take place Wednesday at 11 a.m. at Rhode Island.
Caputo says
appearances between them, Caputo said playing on a big stage like the Crown is important for his program and his players. “Twenty wins, good
record in the league, key wins, postseason — all these things are starting to show a ray of hope for what the program could be going forward,”
LUKE JOHNSON | PHOTOGRAPHER
Men’s basketball Head Coach Chris Caputo talks from the sidelines during a game earlier this season.
ARWEN CLEMANS | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR
Sophomore Delaney DeHaan celebrates after a bar routine during a meet in February.
ADDISON OSBORN | PHOTOGRAPHER
Lacrosse players look to capture the ball during a game last week.
