HATCHET The GW
JVP chapters rally against Trump’s moves to quell pro-Palestinian speech
Members of Jewish Voice for Peace chapters across the D.C. region rallied in front of University Yard before marching to the F Street House on Sunday night to decry the Trump administration’s targeting of proPalestinian students and commemorate Passover.
Organizers from six JVP chapters around the DMV area held a “Freedom Seder” potluck at 6:30 p.m. at a “community space” in Foggy Bottom to celebrate Passover, then gathered on H Street outside U-Yard to condemn President Donald Trump’s “fascist” regime and the ongoing war in Gaza. Speakers pointed to
the revocation of international students’ visas, “repression” of pro-Palestinian student organizing by universities and Israel’s continued bombing campaigns in Gaza as reasons for continued “resistance” across the country.
Chapters of JVP — a progressive Jewish anti-Zionist organization that advocates for Palestinian liberation — from GW, American and George Mason universities hosted the protest as well as the University of Maryland and JVP’s D.C. metro branch. Passover — which this year lasted from April 12 to 20 — commemorates the Jewish people’s liberation from enslavement in Egypt and observers of the holiday often recount the story over a meal, called Seder. During the rally, multiple speakers criticized “modern
When Lynn Goldman became dean of the Milken Institute School of Public Health in 2010, she found the school’s faculty “beleaguered” by a lack of infrastructure to support their teaching, research and day-to-day lives.
She said she made it her goal to assemble the school’s leadership and determine its “issues” and ways that officials can create a strategic plan for the school’s future. Now, as Goldman prepares to depart her role on July 1 and join the school’s faculty after 15 years at the helm, she said she has been “lucky” to lead Milken during a period of growth as it fully established itself as a stand-alone school in 2011 and navigated the COVID-19 pandemic.
“When I arrived here, I could see it had the potential for that, right?” Goldman said. “And so to some extent, that’s a matter of luck and serendipity.”
A professor of environmental and community health, Goldman joined the University from her previous posts as a professor at Johns Hopkins University and an assistant administrator for the Environmental Protec-
pharaohs” like Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as a reference to the Egyptian pharaoh that enslaved Jewish people in the historical story of Passover.
About 100 demonstrators gathered on H Street between 20th and 21st streets at about 8:30 p.m. after the Seder, some wearing T-shirts reading “Not in our name” and keffiyehs or holding signs saying “Liberation now” and “Never again means now.”
The crowd broke into chants of “In the face of state violence, we will never be silent” between about five speeches as two organizers unraveled a banner reading “Liberation now” and “DMV Anti Zionist Jewish Students” in front of the closed gates blocking off UYard.
tion Agency’s Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances.
During her time as Milken dean, Goldman oversaw the school’s opening of its own building and its separation from School of Medicine & Health Sciences’ shared resources, like offices of development, research and public relations. Under her leadership, the school’s enrollment has nearly doubled, growing from 1,428 students in 2014 to 2,395 students in 2024, according to the enrollment dashboard.
She also initiated a wave of new faculty recruitment, including hiring new department chairs and adding nine new full-time faculty members since 2015, according to the University’s 2025 core indicators report. Goldman said she noticed Milken was “resource-poor” when she first arrived, which hindered faculty from acting upon their ideas for the school and their research.
At the beginning of her tenure, “a lot” of the school’s research funding came from private donors and foundations, Goldman said, which did not provide enough money for “F&A” or facilities and administrative costs of projects.
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Student groups call on officials to declare GW ‘sanctuary campus’
A group of student organizations launched a petition on Tuesday with six demands for the University to protect international students, including barring immigration and law enforcement agents from campus and protecting free speech and academic freedom.
The Socialist Action Initiative, Student Coalition for Palestine, Immigrant Liberation, Jewish Voice for Peace and GW Dissenters led an online petition calling on officials to designate GW a “sanctuary campus,” which would require GW to instate policies aimed at limiting the University’s
cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. The petition — which also stipulates that GW should refuse to “surveil” and report the status of international community members to immigration enforcement — came after federal agencies revoked a “small number” of international students’ visas earlier this month.
Sanctuary campuses follow the model of sanctuary cities, a term coined by cities in American southwest in the 1980s that declared themselves “sanctuaries” for Central American immigrants. Sanctuary cities are characterized by policies that define the extent to which a city’s government and law enforcement will cooperate with federal immigration law officers.
The petition asks signees to indicate whether they are signing on behalf of themselves or a campus group. It is unclear how many organizations and students have signed the petition because the website does not publicly display the number of signees. A University spokesperson said GW is “aware of” the post and petition. The organizations hosted a “Sanctuary Campus Town Hall” on Thursday at 6 p.m. in the Elliott School of International Affairs, where student representatives from the Socialist Action Initiative, Immigrant Liberation and the Student Coalition for Palestine led a panel discussion on Trump’s attacks on student protesters.
Students, faculty hope new GWPD chief boosts communication, officer training
A month after the University initiated a nationwide search for the next GW Police Department chief, students and faculty say they want the force’s next leader to bolster transparency and communication following reports of departmental disarray.
Officials on Wednesday announced the hiring of Public Sector Search & Consulting, a police executive search firm, which has assisted with gathering “broad input” from community members on GWPD’s next permanent leader over the past few weeks after former Chief James Tate’s resignation in October. Student leaders and faculty said they want the next chief to rebuild campus trust by meeting consistently with students and faculty and bolstering officer training — efforts that they hope will mitigate the gun safety lapses, staff turnover and lack of community engagement confirmed in a third-party GWPD review last month.
Officials anticipate interviewing candidates in the coming weeks, and a description of the chief position is “forthcoming,” according to the Wednesday release.
Candidates for chief will meet with University leadership, a union representing GWPD officers, members of the Campus Safety Advisory Committee, the Campus Safety’s Student Advisory Board and the GW Emergency Medical Response Group during the interview process, the release states.
“By collaborating with our many campus stakeholders in this search, we are prioritiz-
ing greater transparency and partnership on campus safety,” interim Associate Vice President for Campus Safety Katie McDonald said in the release.
McDonald’s office sent an email on March 19 — which was obtained by The Hatchet — that asked 17 “engaged stakeholders” to meet individually with representatives from the Public Sector Search & Consulting search firm to inform a “recruitment brochure” to attract candidates for chief.
Invitees included Dean of Students Colette Coleman, interim Title IX Director Asha Reynolds, Director of Conflict Education and Student Accountability Christy Anthony, Associate Vice Provost for Diversity, Equity and Community Engagement Jordan West, Chief of Staff Scott Mory and Director of the Office of Advocacy and Support Elisa Davoodi.
McDonald also invited Student Government Association President Ethan Fitzgerald, GWPD’s Union President Ilia Chakiashvili, three faculty members and GWPD’s top six officers.
University spokesperson Julia Garbitt deferred comment on the GWPD chief search to the University’s Wednesday release. She declined to comment on who is part of the GWPD Chief Search Committee and how the third-party review of the Board of Trustees’ decision to arm GWPD officers will inform the committee’s search. Dwayne Kwaysee Wright, a member of the Campus Safety Advisory Committee and professor of higher education administration, said he was one of the three faculty members the GWPD search committee reached out to last month. Wright said he spoke with representatives from Public Sector Search & Consulting about the skills, experience and “temperament” that he thinks the next chief would need to helm GWPD. Officials should look for a candidate who has previously helmed a campus police force and can navigate “various complexities” that President Donald Trump’s administration has “infected higher education with,” he said.
JENNA LEE
NICHOLAS WARE | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
A student speaks to pro-Palestinian protesters on H Street by University Yard during Sunday’s protest.
See CHIEF Page 5
KYRA WOOD | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Members of the Student Coalition for Palestine and the Socialist Action Initiative speak at a town hall Thursday.
KAIDEN J. YU | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR GW Police Department officers stand outside University Yard in October.
Officials to refresh branding in alignment with strategic framework
Officials said the University began a “brand refresh” last month for the first time in 13 years to encourage a “strong” and “differentiated” look.
University President Ellen Granberg and Vice President for Communications and Marketing Ellen Moran announced in a release early last month that they are beginning the process of a brand refresh to ensure GW’s marketing and communication strategies “reinforce” ideas that make GW “recognizable” and “unique.” Officials unveiled a draft strategic plan framework last Monday, outlining impactful scholarship, creating strong and resilient leaders and cultivating a culture for excellence as priorities — which experts in higher education said, in tandem with the brand refresh, could help students understand the direction of the institution.
University spokesperson Shannon McClendon said Ologie, a branding firm, is “guiding” the University during the brand refresh process, including the discovery, community engagement, design and implementation stages. She said officials sent a feedback form to the community last month requesting opinions from the community to guide the University’s further planning and communications, and officials will continue to engage with the community during the process.
“This effort will include updates to GW’s creative direction and messaging to reflect who we are today and in the future,” McClendon said in an email.
McClendon declined to comment on the specific elements of GW’s brand officials are going to change, including whether the University is planning to change its logo, colors or design el-
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ements.McClendon also declined to
comment on how much the University is paying Ologie and the length of their contract.
Brian Prescott — the president of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, a nonpartisan postsecondary education consulting organization — said it’s “much better” when a brand refresh coincides with a new strategic plan because it is “defining” the direction the institution is trying to go.
Frank Maisano, a professorial lecturer of public relations at GW, said the timing of GW’s brand refresh “makes total sense” after the moniker change two years ago because the University can now go “full circle” to revamp the brand.
The University has not refreshed its brand since 2012, despite the Uni-
versity’s moniker change in 2023 from
the Colonials to the Revolutionaries following years of pressure from students, who said the moniker glorified the United States’ legacy of colonialism, slavery and racial discrimination. Colonial-branded events, organizations
Chris Aarons, an assistant professor of instruction at the University of Texas McCombs School of Business, said a brand refresh could “take years” because institutions have to change all and could cost between hundreds of thousands of dollars to multiple millions, depending on the type of rebranding, like changes to logos, color schemes and the mascot, which would require changing signage around campus. “The one thing you don’t want to do is have two brands living at the same time,” Aarons said.
SGA election voter turnout drops after brief boost in 2024
Voter turnout dropped by 20.3 percent in last week’s Student Government Association election after a brief surge in participation in 2024.
A total of 2,510 students or about 10.25 percent of eligible student voters cast votes in this year’s SGA election — the second-lowest turnout over the past 11 SGA elections and a record that was only bested by 2023, when turnout plunged to 2,190 students. Last year, 3,153 students or about 12.3 of eligible voters cast an SGA election ballot, marking a brief increase in voter turnout following a steady decline since a peak in 2019.
Joint Elections Commission Chair Michael Ubis said this year’s decline in turnout was not surprising because there was a smaller candidate pool across all races, which he said caused a lapse in voter participation.
“While the JEC can do
things to drive turnout, a lot of what drives it is the candidates themselves campaigning and telling people to vote,” Ubis said. Ubis, who facilitates SGA elections, said the drop is “without a doubt” due to fewer competitive races for top SGA positions because fewer candidates were speaking with students and encouraging them to vote before and during the election.
The 2025 SGA presidential candidate pool was initially four candidates before presidential contender Henry ScrivenYoung failed to receive JEC confirmation to appear on the ballot. Days before the SGA election, Dan Saleem then suspended his campaign for the presidency, leaving just two candidates — Emily-Anne Santiago and Ethan Lynne — with active campaigns for president.
Thirteen students vied for eight Columbian College of Arts & Sciences senate seats last year, compared to 10 vying for the
eight seats this year.
“We tabled, we sent out emails and we were always, you know, around campus, trying to get people to vote,” Ubis said.
But the SGA’s 2023 election — which reported the lowest voter turnout in a decade — had five presidential candidates. The 2019 election, which had the highest voter turnout in the past 10 years, had four presidential candidates.
Ubis said the JEC received about 70 reports of students’ Engage profiles not permitting them to access the ballot on the first day of the election, April 10, which he said could have also contributed to lower student participation. The JEC “immediately” contacted its adviser in the Division for Student Affairs to fix student accounts that were unable to access election ballots, he said.
He said the JEC spent more money on food this year at tabling events in Kogan Plaza throughout
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the campaign period and catered more food at the SGA candidate debate in hopes of encouraging more voter turnout.
The commission received a total of $4,629
from the SGA and the University Wide Programs Fund — a joint fund between the SGA and GW that allocates funding to student organizations to host campus-wide events — compared to $2,954 from last year, according to Ubis.
He said the JEC will return almost $1,700 in funds back to the SGA that the commission was intending to use for a ranked-choice voting software. The body did not use the software in this year’s election because none of the races went to a second round of eliminations due to a lack of competition in the races, he said.
Ubis said the JEC sent out two emails at the beginning of the election cycle in March “letting people know” the election cycle was starting and to encourage students to run for positions — which they had not done in previous years — but added that the candidates are ultimately responsible for driving students to ballot boxes.
“The JEC can send as many emails as we want, we can tell as many people to vote, but then they look at us and they say, ‘Well, who should we vote for,’ and we’re going to say, ‘Well, we can’t tell you who to vote for,’” Ubis said. “We just want you to vote.” SGA Vice PresidentElect Liz Stoddard said
she “wasn’t surprised” with the reduced turnout in this year’s election because there were “not as many” candidates running for president and vice president. She said years with more candidates in the “top ticket” positions are more likely to attract more voters because there are more candidates around campus campaigning and interacting with students face to face.
“There was less of an opportunity for you to run into a student who was advocating for you to vote because there were less people running,” Stoddard said.
Stoddard said the SGA held a workshop March 22 ahead of the election to encourage students not currently involved in the body to consider running for office to try to increase the size of the applicant pool. She said that as vice president, she hopes to hold more informational events about the SGA to motivate students to expand their engagement in the body.
“It also has a lot to do with making sure that everyone knows when they can come and see us,” Stoddard said. “‘When are our meetings held, where are they held, where can I go and talk to my SGA representative?’ And having all that be more publicly available.”
KYRA WOOD | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
—Compiled by Ella Mitchell
TANNER
Voters okay Student Court term limits, revised SGA constitution verbiage
Students approved a referendum that imposed Student Court justice term limits and clarified language in an article of the Student Government Association constitution during last week’s SGA elections.
The Fair Governance Amendment garnered 57.05 percent of the student vote — restricting justices to a two-year term, which was not previously outlined in the documents. SGA Vice President and Presidentelect Ethan Lynne, who cosponsored the amendment, said it will create opportunities for more students to serve on the court instead of having the same justices serve for multiple years.
The amendment created a two-year term limit for all justices and imposed a one-year term limit for the chief justice.
The SGA elects a chief justice — whom the referendum allows to serve for one academic year — each year from among the six associate justices to lead the court.
“None of us in the SGA are in our positions for our entire time here at GW,” Lynne said. “I think that it’s about making sure that we continue to have fresh faces coming in, revolving into the court to get a better perspective.”
The court currently reserves three of the six associate justice seats for undergraduate students, two for graduate students and one for a law student, according to the SGA Constitution.
The amendment streamlined the SGA Senate’s process for filling vacancies on the court by converting vacant seats into
“at-large” positions, permitting graduate or undergraduate students from any college to fill the seat.
“It’s really about giving more people the opportunity to experience and serve on the court,” Lynne said.
The amendment also revised the constitution’s Article 10, which outlines the legislative branch’s responsibility and authority, to allow the SGA Senate to amend the student court’s bylaws.
Lynne said the amendment “cleaned up” the SGA constitution by correcting typos and seeks to resolve the discrepancy
between the charter — which outlines the SGA’s power and responsibilities — and the constitution by changing the language of the constitution to align with the definition in the charter, defining SGA members as all students receiving academic credit from GW and possessing the power to vote in SGA elections.
The revision makes “SGA official” a universal term across the constitution and charter to apply to all students who serve in the SGA and are bound by its bylaws.
The amendment also clarified the definition of “eligibility” of student voters in the
GW alum, stressing Democratic pitfalls, launches 2026 House bid
BROOKE FORGETTE
CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR
RYAN SAENZ STAFF WRITER
Kat Abughazaleh said she’s sick of waiting for Democrats to act, so she’s launching a bid to represent Illinois’ 9th House District to unseat a veteran party leader.
Abughazaleh, who earned her bachelor’s in international affairs from the University in 2020, announced her congressional campaign late last month, posing a primary challenge to Rep. Jan Schakowsky (DIL), who has held the seat for decades. The 26-year-old’s campaign takes aim at the areas she feels Democrats have “done nothing” to combat President Donald Trump’s actions in office.
She said she plans to distance her candidacy from the Democratic Party’s “old consultant strategies” by pushing for voters’ everyday needs.
“It’s comforting to think that someone’s going to come in and fix all your problems, but that’s just not the truth, and we’re all we’ve got,” Abughazaleh said in an interview.
Abughazaleh, who’s gained over 580,000 followers, across Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and X, formerly known as Twitter, has amassed popularity online since 2022 for creating videos railing against rightwing rhetoric. She moved to Chicago in 2024 but doesn’t currently reside within the boundaries of the 9th District, which encompasses Forest and Tower Lakes, northern Chicago and Evanston.
She said she and her partner had to move to the Chicago area on “very short notice” last year, and they “plan” to move to the 9th District.
Abughazaleh has honed her campaign around broad reform of the Democratic Party, like enforcing term limits for members of Congress and pushing against the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s “dismantling” of the federal government, as she said in her campaign launch video.
“Resisting Trump needs to be a lot more public, a lot more loud,” she said.
From 2017 to 2020, Abughazaleh worked as a staff writer, a contributing culture editor and then a research assistant for The Hatchet, which she said al-
“The amendment did not make any operational change to the role of the SGA vice president,” Lynne said. “The vice president has historically been charged with running the legislative branch and does not serve in the president’s cabinet.”
Student Court Chief Justice Matthew De Bellis said the amendment is “constitutionally flawed” because it removes a clause that prevents the legislative branch from amending the court’s bylaws.
The amendment revised Article 10 to state that “the Senate shall have the power to enact and amend Bylaws,” removing the clause “with the exception of those of the Student Court,” according to a written memo De Bellis sent to The Hatchet.
De Bellis said the amendment deletion of the clause violates the longstanding legal principle that each branch of the government must govern its own internal bylaws.
constitution to stipulate that students who are studying abroad are able to vote in SGA elections. The amendment states that every student registered for academic credits at the University is part of the SGA’s “constituency,” meaning they are permitted to vote in elections.
Lynne said the amendment also clarified the role of the SGA vice president as a member of the legislative branch but did not change any of the position’s power or responsibility. Previously, the vice president was outlined in the executive branch and not explicitly outlined within the legislative branch.
lowed her to travel throughout the District and talk to new people, reaching beyond the bounds of a “typical” college experience.
“I think GW allows for a lot of independence, and I think the culture section was perfect for that,” she said.
Her congressional campaign also states support for issues like climate change , making education “affordable and accessible” and working to pass the Equality Act, which increases protections, like nondiscrimination policies across employment, housing, education and other “key areas of life,” for LGBTQ+ populations. Abughazaleh, whose father is a Palestinian immigrant, also pledged full support for all hostages kidnapped by Hamas to be released and a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
Since her campaign’s debut in late March, Abughazaleh said her team has raised more than $400,000 from more than 11,000 donors. But she said instead of using donations to fund advertisements and consultants, she uses money raised toward meeting people’s “direct needs” in the 9th District through food drives and recreational events that will be free for residents of the 9th District to attend.
“Instead of spending a
sh*t ton of money on consultants and glossy ads, what if instead, we put that to food drives? What if we instead made recreational activities like concerts and sh*t for the community,” Abughazaleh said.
Abughazaleh said while she “fully plans” on winning, she knows her campaign will have a lasting and “net positive” impact on her community because of the mutual aid efforts they’re providing in the district, like donating to local food drives.
“The great thing about this approach of the community, mutual aid, direct action aspect of all this takes some pressure off of me because I know that win or lose, I am not wasting everyone’s money,” Abughazaleh said.
Sam Weinberg, Abughazaleh’s campaign manager, said “a lot” of young people are getting into politics now, especially after former President Joe Biden’s performance in the June 2024 presidential debate highlighted Biden’s age and underscored the “need” for young people in politics.
“Now we’re seeing multiple Gen Zers across the country of different backgrounds and different geographic areas and different ideologies running,” Weinberg said.
“It prevented politically motivated actors in the Senate from rewriting judicial procedures for personal, factional, or retaliatory purposes—something that has occurred with disturbing frequency in recent election cycles,” De Bellis said in the statement.
De Bellis said the revision opens a door for legislative “intrusion” over the court’s bylaws, which he said undermines the autonomy of the court.
“Until this amendment is repealed, revised or judicially limited, the constitution will remain internally conflicted. Such a poorly written and poorly thought out document serves to empower one body at the expense of another and its students,” De Bellis said in a memo.
Local cannabis ‘gifting’ shops transition to medical marijuana model
RORY QUEALY NEWS EDITOR
After years of selling cigars, glassware and accessories — and gifting marijuana, as allowed under D.C. law — a cannabis shop blocks from campus is months away from operating as a fully licensed medical dispensary.
Velvet’s Dispensary & Smoke Shop, which has operated as a recreational cannabis “gifting” shop on Pennsylvania Avenue since 2021, posted notice in February that it applied for a medical marijuana license last year, so it can open its doors to medical marijuana patients this summer, store owner Eddie Musa said. Velvet’s is one of dozens of cannabis “gifting” shops in D.C. that have applied for the licenses since D.C. officials enacted legislation in March 2023 to overhaul the city’s marijuana sales model, with stores facing shutdown if they fail to apply before the March 31 compliance deadline.
“Once people get used to it, it makes it even more professional,” Musa said.
D.C. voters overwhelmingly approved Initiative 71 in November 2014, prompting the legalization of the possession, purchase and transportation of up to two ounces of marijuana for adults 21 and older. But Congress, which has oversight over D.C. laws, has long blocked the District from creating a legalized system for recreational marijuana sales.
As a loophole, D.C. adopted a “gifting” model in 2015 — a de facto legal recreational market in which businesses sell items like
stickers and postcards and gift customers marijuana products with their purchase.
D.C.’s March 2023 law aimed to eliminate the gifting model by requiring shops to apply for medical marijuana licenses. Gifting shops will now have to comply with medical cannabis regulations under the legislation, including that retailers must carry marijuana cultivated and sold in the District and test products for potency and harmful chemicals.
Any D.C. resident aged 21 or older can purchase cannabis under the new law after self-certifying their medical marijuana eligibility by filling out a short form online or in person at the Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration office that asks for identification, proof of residency and a photo, per the law.
At least 41 gifting stores across the District have made the transition to medical shops since 2023, according to the Outlaw Report, which covers cannabis news in D.C. Enforcement against businesses that failed to meet the deadline began April 1, which has included seizure of businesses and temporary shutdowns of stores.
As of late March, regulators have shut down 42 shops that did not apply for licenses. An ABCA spokesperson didn’t return a request for comment on how many shops officials have shut down since April 1.
Local medically licensed cannabis retailers said the transition will make marijuana consumption safer and more commercial, but the transition involves
overcoming bureaucratic hurdles, like changing suppliers and obtaining building permits.
Musa said he’s heard from friends who own licensed stores that some customers aren’t comfortable signing up for medical cards because they’re worried about potential implications of the D.C. government having information about their marijuana use, despite the system being legal.
Musa said he expects that competition in D.C.’s marijuana market will decrease once the government begins cracking down on unlicensed gifting shops, leaving only medically licensed retailers in the legal market.
Terrence White — the owner of Monko in Mount Vernon Square, which made the transition from gifting to medical marijuana and started legal sales late last month — said the licensing process was “rigorous.”
He said the 2023 law stipulates that cannabis shops cannot be within 400 feet of each other, and despite Monko existing as a gifting shop for years, another cannabis retailer attempted to open a medical shop near his last year — which would have prevented him from obtaining a medical license if the competing business had ended up moving there.
White said Monko has been a “vital part” of the community and worked with the neighborhood’s local governing body and Business Improvement District to ease the conversion.
“We had the right people behind us to fight that fight,” White said.
ELIANA MELMED VIA CREATIVE COMMONS
Kat Abughazaleh poses for a portrait.
COOPER TYKSINSKI | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Student Government Association Vice President Ethan Lynne presides over the governing body's April meeting.
Milken researchers link nurse overtime, patient pressure ulcers
AIDAN FARRELL REPORTER
Hospitals that rely on nurses working overtime have an increased risk of patients developing pressure ulcers, according to a study published this month by researchers at the Milken Institute School of Public Health.
The study, led by Patricia Pittman, a professor of health policy and management, found a positive correlation between hospitals’ reliance on nurses working overtime and the rate of the hospital’s patients experiencing pressure ulcers, a soft-tissue injury caused by prolonged pressure. Pittman said the study’s identification of a high pressure ulcer rate, which is often caused by caretaker negligence — like failing to turn patients in bedrest to alleviate pressure — indicates that hospitals must rethink their current approach to overtime for nurses.
“So the question was, where is that cut-off point?” Pittman said. “At what point should we start being worried about excessive use of overtime and excessive use of agency nurses, if at all?”
Researchers examined daily reports on hospital operations and data from biweekly payroll-based reports from 70 hospitals participating in the study between January 2019 and December 2022. For every 10 percent increase in over-
time worked by registered or licensed practical nurses in hospitals, there was a corresponding 0.73 percent increase in the risk of patients developing pressure ulcers, according to the study.
The COVID-19 pandemic led to a significant increase in nurses working overtime due to the widespread shortage of medical personnel and influx of patients. Short term and localized nursing shortages — like those during the 2017-18 influenza epidemic — have given rise to higher overtime rates in the past, but Pittman said the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting persistent nursing shortage led to hospitals having a “structural dependence” on overtime.
Annually, there are 2.5 million cases of pressure ulcers, causing 60,000 deaths per year in the United States, according to the International Wound Journal. Pressure ulcers, which disproportionately affect elderly or physically limited patients, often occur when caretakers fail to take adequate precautions against restricted blood flow, like repositioning functionally impaired patients to alleviate pressure on the body.
Pittman said financial considerations have also contributed to increased overtime rates because nurses are considered a part of hospitals’ operational costs, rather than revenuegenerating professionals, like doctors and surgeons.
Unlike physicians, whose procedures and services are directly billable, nurses’ labor is bundled into costs, like room and board. She said because of this, hospitals are financially encouraged to not hire sufficient nursing staff.
Pittman said to reduce the risk posed by enforcing overtime on nurses, hospitals should create work schedules and make hiring decisions based on their assessment of nurses’ health and well-being rather than relying on “financial algorithms” to decide.
“When hospitals themselves and health systems are thinking about sort of the decision, you know how much to inform their decisions, about how much to rely on agency nurses and overtime, it’s really important for them to do their own analysis disaggregating these types of nurses,” Pittman said.
Amy Witkoski, an assistant professor at New York University’s Rory Meyers College of Nursing, said extending overtime hours on nurses may lead to diminished performance because of increased risk to mental health, like burnout, which contributes to a lower quality of care and heightens patient risk.
“Overtime hours, on top of nurses’ typical 12-hour shifts, can add to myriad deleterious outcomes to their health and well-being as well as patient care,” Witkoski said in an email.
ANC calls on DC agencies to address Aston power outage
ELLA MITCHELL CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR
A local governing body
Tuesday approved a slew of resolutions addressing a power outage at The Aston unhoused shelter, public transportation routes and federal layoffs.
The Foggy Bottom and West End Advisory Neighborhood Commission on Tuesday passed resolutions with recommendations for the Department of Human Services, DC Water and other government agencies. After a two-day power outage in West End last month left The Aston — an unhoused shelter on New Hampshire Avenue — without power, the ANC passed a resolution calling on the District to install a generator in the building.
Before the March meeting, the ANC could not conduct official business, including passing resolutions, when the term started in January because they could not reach a legally mandated quorum. The Foggy Bottom and West End communities elected only four commissioners in the November election, one short of the required amount for a meeting to count toward satisfying the District’s mandate.
Here are some of the meeting’s highlights: Pepco pitches plans for F Street substation
Linda Green — a business analyst at the Potomac Electric Power Company, an electrical utility company serving D.C. and suburban Maryland — said Pepco officials are proposing a plan to raze and upgrade the electrical substation on the 2100 block of F Street, with plans to hold meetings with neighbors in the coming months.
Pepco officials said the substation needs upgrades to meet customers’ electrical needs.
“It kind of needs a little bit of a face lift,” a project manager from Pepco said. “The infrastructure needs to be upgraded to kind of keep up with consumer demand for power these days.”
Pepco officials said the building needs a “face lift,” requiring boosted electrical capacity to meet the demand of power. The up-
grades will replace “aging” infrastructure, rebuilding the substation in compliance with industry standards and increasing square footage from 7,800 square feet to about 10,000, officials said.
Green said to accommodate the added square footage, Pepco proposes removing Anniversary Park on F Street between 21st and 22nd streets. She said Pepco owns the land but worked out a deal with the University for the park.
For the project to begin, Pepco will file an application with the Board of Zoning Adjustment in late 2025 or early 2026, officials said. The construction is slated to begin in late 2031, pending BZA approval.
Commissioners approve nine resolutions
The body discussed 10 resolutions and passed nine. 2A03 Commissioner Trupti Patel penned nine resolutions, and 2A04 Commissioner Ed Comer penned one — all in response to constituent complaints or governmental moves that impact Foggy Bottom neighbors.
The body passed a resolution calling on District officials to install a generator in The Aston.
Last month, Pepco workers responded to an underground fire at New Hampshire Avenue and M Street at about 4 a.m., which left The Aston unhoused shelter on New Hampshire Avenue without power for two days.
The ANC also passed a resIn a resolution drafted by Patel, the body called upon the Department of Employment Services to administer unemployment benefits and
deliver stronger communication to laid off employees because DOES directs affected federal employees to the District’s federal worker support site for assistance. The resolution comes in the wake of mass federal layoffs — with nearly 12,000 federal employees filing initial unemployment claims since Jan. 4. In a resolution drafted by Patel, the body called upon the Committee on Transportation and Environment to treat the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority as “essential” and “critical.” The resolution also recommends WMATA prioritize preserving routes that serve schools and hospitals — including School Without Walls on G Street and the GW Hospital — when evaluating potential service changes. The resolution also requests that buses increase frequency between 7 and 9 a.m. and from 3 to 5 p.m. to accommodate for school pick-ups and drop-offs and that buses increase stop frequency to every 10 minutes during second and third shifts on 24/7 bus routes. The resolution follows WMATA’s proposed fiscal year 2026 budget, which includes opening one hour earlier and closing one hour later during weekend service.
Another unanimously passed resolution urged DC Water to perform“ robust engagement” to resolve sewage issues at Snows Court, a historic string of rowhouses between 25th and 26th streets. The resolution states that Snows Court residents have observed cracks in their building’s walls, which they believe may be attributed to “ongoing” water issues.
Foggy Bottom residents divided over proposed reversible traffic lanes
BRYSON KLOESEL STAFF WRITER
Neighborhood officials and residents are split over the National Park Service’s plan to eliminate reversible rush hour lanes and redesign intersections along Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway, citing safety risks and outdated traffic controls on nearby streets.
NPS solicited feedback earlier this month on how and whether to remove the rush hour reversible lanes on Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway, which have been in place since 1937 to help congestion and traffic flow in Northwest D.C. during peak commuting hours. The proposal is a segment of NPS’s larger plan to rectify traffic flow through Rock Creek Park, drawing both support and criticism from neighbors and local leaders, with some saying the change would increase congestion and others saying it will boost safety.
The proposal, introduced by NPS in March 2024, would replace the current one-way rush hour system running between the National Mall and Connecticut Avenue. On nonholiday weekdays, all four lanes of traffic on the parkway move southbound toward Washington from 6:45 to 9:30 a.m., while all lanes go northbound from 3:45 to 6:30 p.m.
The proposal includes 24-hour two-way traffic to eliminate the daily need for Park Police to manually adjust barricades and signs, which supporters say is a safety risk. The proposal also details a traffic circle at the north end of Rock Creek Parkway with a new southbound lane north of Virginia Avenue to mitigate added traffic congestion from the two-way traffic change.
Officials are collecting public feedback until May 2 on the elimination of reversible lanes, installation of two roundabouts and crosswalks to increase pedestrian and bicycle safety and the widening of the trail adjacent to the parkway.
NPS Traffic Manager Wayne Emington said at an April meeting
that twice-daily changeovers from two-way to reversible operations pose safety issues for Park Police responsible for upkeep of the parkway, including repairing or replacing broken barricades, which often involves stepping into an active roadway.
NPS documented 5,999 crashes on Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway between 1990 and 2020, 31 percent of which occurred during reversible lane operations.
“Folks that are confused can make driving behaviors that are unpredictable,” Emington said.
To combat the predicted boost in traffic congestion caused by eliminating reversible lanes, NPS proposed a roundabout on the parkway at Shoreham and Beach drives, a median between K and Q streets, one or two left-turn lanes at Virginia Avenue and “traffic control solutions,” like curb realignments and pedestrian crossings at the Potomac River Freeway intersection, a RCPP transportation impact assessment states.
Community members, advocates and local leaders are divided on NPS’s array of proposals due to concerns of safety and traffic delays.
Dale Barnhard, who co-owns three townhomes across from the Boathouse apartments on 27th and I streets, called two-way parkway operations “a necessary first step.”
He said he supports full-time twoway traffic because eliminating the need for Park Police to manually change signage is worth reducing the number of vehicles who can use the road.
“I have no objection to them making the parkway two way at all times,” Barnhard said. “I think that most streets should do that.”
But Barnhard said he’s skeptical about some of NPS’s other proposals because the plan “doesn’t address” pedestrian safety and transit improvements. The Foggy Bottom and West End Advisory Neighborhood Commission unanimously approved a resolution Tuesday calling on NPS to address “extremely unsafe” conditions at 27th Street
and Virginia Avenue before implementing their proposal.
The resolution, authored by ANC2A Commissioner Ed Comer, does not oppose eliminating reversible lanes outright but warns the proposal risks worsening congestion unless the District Department of Transportation first repairs 27th Street’s chaotic conditions.
The resolution states infrastructure gaps at 27th Street and Virginia Avenue, including missing signage, poorly marked lanes and a lack of crosswalks, is evidence of unsafe conditions and frequent backups. The resolution contained a request that DDOT installing clearer signage, pedestrian crossings and lane markings.
Comer said NPS and DDOT should fix the intersection of 27th Street and Virginia Avenue before making lane changes because the increased traffic congestion will
worsen its safety issues. NPS’s transportation impact assessment stated the area would receive “additional coordination with DDOT.”
“If they’re going to end reversible lanes, you need to fix it anyway because it’s a mess,” Comer said.
“But if they end reversible lanes, you really need to fix it because it will be three times as bad.”
The plan’s public scoping summary released in March did not address the intersection of 27th Street and Virginia Avenue. Save Connecticut Ave, which formed to oppose bike lanes proposed by DDOT on Connecticut Avenue in 2022, said in a statement the proposal signals alignment between NPS and the “bike lobby’s war on cars.
“They’re under the mistaken impression that the improvements that they are going to make are going to solve all of the problems
with congestion in the park, which is frankly crazy,” Save Connecticut Ave President Lee Mayer said. Mayer said NPS and DDOT should equip Rock Creek Parkway with automated signage and overhead gates instead of eliminating reversible lanes. He said this would eliminate risk for Park Police needing to change signs and barricades on the road, while saving money on personnel.
Mayer said Connecticut Avenue is a “mess” because DDOT ended reversible lanes in March 2020, diverting traffic to residential streets instead. He said the 2025 plan relies on “outdated” traffic data collected during pandemic recovery, missing a 2024 increase in driving in the D.C. area.
“They’re basing their proposed plan to eliminate the reversible lanes on a study that is not only flawed but very dated,” Mayer said.
NICHOLAS WARE | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Cars drive down the Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway.
LEXI CRITCHETT | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR
The gates to Anniversary Park, in front of the F Street substation
ANN DUAN | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
A student passes through the Milken Institute School of Public Health.
Student organizations demand University support international students
Attendees at the town hall called on GW to not comply with the federal government over immigration law enforcement, citing concerns over the Trump administration’s escalating efforts to target international students and suppress student protests on college campuses.
Kali Sen, an event organizer from the Student Coalition for Palestine, said in an interview that Immigration and Customs Enforcement “abducting” and detaining students drove organizers’ “anger,” motivating them to hold the town hall.
Conversations with international students helped organizers recognize that “more communication” from the International Services Office about the status of international students’ visas would help them feel safer on campus, she said.
At the event, the organizers shared resources to protect international students, including a “toolkit” with contact information of legal counsel, the process of visa revocation and information about immigrants’ rights in the United States.
“We had some direct conversations with international students, and we had also been advocating for them long before this,” Sen said.
Bell Julian Clement, an adjunct professor of history, said she attended the town hall to speak on behalf of a student in her class who came to her with a written statement that they didn’t feel comfortable reading publicly given their international student status.
Clement said the student felt “abandoned” by the University because of the lack of legal resources officials offer international students. The student asked in their letter that officials provide the contact infor-
mation of a lawyer or an advocate that can assist international students when they feel “scared” and “unsure” about their safety.
University spokesperson Julia Garbitt said officials understand the visa revocations have caused anxiety among international students, and she said mental health services through GW Counseling and Psychological Services and the Employee Assistance Program are available to community members.
She said students with questions should reach out to ISO for “continued and useful guidance,” including consulting with ISO before traveling, carrying proof of immigration status and seeking exter-
nal immigration counsel.
GW “remains committed” to fostering a safe educational environment that respects the debate and discourse of differing points of views, even when controversial, Garbitt said. She said the University maintains “strong policies” on free expression and offers resources and support for our students through the Division for Student Affairs.
“At the same time, we continue to follow all applicable laws to support and protect our community from unlawful discrimination, including on the basis of religion, national origin and shared ancestry, as well as applicable immigration laws,” Garbitt said in an email.
Next GWPD chief should ‘bridge gaps’
“We need to prioritize; experience leading a CAMPUS police force, knowledge of the GW Community, ability to balance the needs and desires of various (sometimes opposing stakeholders) and the ability to communicate with students, faculty and staff both outside and within moments of crisis,” Wright said in an email.
He said the University deserves “credit” for not repeating insufficient communication practices identified in the third-party review of GWPD’s arming rollout — which concluded
that Tate and GW officials didn’t seek community input before arming because officials believed the campus’ reaction to the decision would be “universally negative.”
“However, true consultation only amounts to anything if it impacts the final decision,” Wright said. “It is yet to be seen if/how this level of engagement will proceed moving forward.”
Black Student Union President Kalah Neal said the University has not yet reached out to the organization during its search for a new chief, despite GWPD including the organization in past conversations about how policy changes, like
arming officers, could affect students of color.
The BSU and GWPD held a joint town hall in September 2023 — just after the force armed its top two officers — on public safety and the arming decision. Tate also met with BSU leaders before trustees directed GWPD to arm about 20 supervisory officers in April 2023.
She said she wishes officials reached out about the GWPD chief search, adding that it’s been “radio silence” from GW over the last year.
“Things being done without the knowledge or the input of students just feels like an administration overreach,” Neal said.
Three student speakers, who did not identify themselves during the town hall, discussed ICE’s “abduction” of Columbia students Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi, who are both legal permanent residents. Agency officials detained the Columbia protest organizers on March 8 and April 14, respectively, for their involvement in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
One of the town hall attendees called for GW to create a voting student seat on the Board of Trustees, which would allow someone with a “real stake” in the University to communicate with trustees in a “meaningful” way.
“People that are putting in their
time, money and effort into the University and having no say in the policy that comes out of it, that’s the opposite of democratic governance,” the attendee said. “It’s people not being involved in their governance, I think that should change.”
The Student Government Association in 2023 passed legislation to request that GW names the SGA president and vice president student trustees, building upon past unsuccessful efforts to add a student representation to the Board. The University has said in the past that it would not create a student seat.
An organizer from the Student Coalition for Palestine, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of fear of retaliation from the University, called for replacing trustees with faculty, students and workers who are “actively contributing” to GW through their “labor” and tuition.
“People are not paying tuition to be here because of the Board of Trustees,” the organizer said. “Who makes up this institution? It’s the students who pay tuition. It’s the faculty members who are teaching their classes.”
The organizer said the student coalition is in the process of “coalition-building” with other campus groups — like the GW American Association of University Professors chapter, the GW Graduate Worker United and the union representing the George Washington University Museum and the Textile Museum — to demand officials defend freedom of speech for student protesters and international students.
“The Board of Trustees essentially has complete unilateral control to make decisions for the entire University community, decisions that don’t affect them, but affect us directly,” the student organizer said.
in campus trust, students say
Neal said that if the search committee had asked for her perspective, she would have told them to ensure the new chief has previous experience working with a variety of different races, ethnicities, age groups and in a school setting.
“I would want them to find someone with a diverse background,” Neal said. ”And not just policing but have they worked in the school system before? How do they deal with different groups of ethnicities and people and races and identities?”
Fitzgerald, the SGA president, said he met with the GWPD Chief Search
Committee earlier this month and shared that strengthening officer deescalation and mental health response training would help in “bridging gaps” between the force and students.
“I emphasized the need for stronger and more consistent training for all GWPD officers, with a focus on de-escalation tactics, cultural competency and mental health awareness,” Fitzgerald said in a message.
Lynne advocated for student input in University-wide decisions, including the hiring of the new GWPD chief, during his presidential campaign.
Lynne said the new chief should discuss with the community the errors that GWPD made in its arming rollout and what officials will do to ensure the issues aren’t repeated.
“We’re not going to move forward if we don’t acknowledge the past mistakes with the officers, with arming them, that whole process, that debacle that led to Chief Tate’s departure,” Lynne said.
SGA President-elect Ethan Lynne said he wants to encourage officials to include as much student participation in the chief decision-making process by reaching out to student groups.
Faculty say outgoing Milken dean ‘transformed’ school’s academics, research
She said she worked to improve the school’s resources, including growing its endowment from $1.1 million to more than $130 million, reallocating existing funds to support faculty and bringing in more outside grants from federal sources, like the National Institutes of Health.
Under her leadership, Milken received more than $80 million in donations from the Milken Institute, Milken Family Foundation and the Sumner M. Redstone Charitable Foundation, including an endowed professorship in her name.
“We do have a lot of pride in the fact that people who could have invested their money anywhere because they were not alumni, they were not from here, chose us as a place to build a premier public health school,” Goldman said.
She said NIH grant funding for Milken’s research has allowed researchers to spend more time on their studies and delegate administrative tasks to support staff. The reallocation of existing funds and additional federal funding for research has also allowed the school to build labs and grow the number of departments conducting research from two to seven, she said.
Milken has expanded its research beyond its original strength of health policy, including in areas like developing vaccines for malaria, using advanced molecular technologies to track pathogens and continuing to study HIV/AIDS.
“We’ve basically quadrupled the amount of research, and we’ve changed the kind of research that we do,” Goldman said. The NIH canceled at least three Milken grants last month — totaling roughly $2.86 million in lost funding — for studies on the effects of HIV on racial minority populations after the Trump administration ordered agencies to flag studies on issues considered to be related to diversity, equity and inclusion.
Goldman said she met with faculty members last week with research funding revoked by the NIH to examine how they can “move things forward.”
“It’s all about this incredibly unfair process where they’re saying that it’s no longer a priority to address HIV/AIDS and minority communities, where people are both either racial ethnic as well as a sexual minority, which is where we have a lot of AIDS transmitting, right?” Goldman said.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Goldman said she led Milken as the school provided a “tremendous amount” of research and support, including guidance on testing, masking and contact tracing protocol.
The school’s faculty developed a test for the virus before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provided commercial test kits publicly, supported local jurisdictions, like D.C. and counties in Maryland and Virginia, with their resources and worked with organizations like the National Association of Counties and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials to develop training and procedures for contact tracing, she said.
Goldman said that she enjoyed getting to know officials across the University she wouldn’t usually work with and learning how aspects of the University function when collaborating on GW’s COVID policies — which included providing input on GW’s mask mandate, advising on testing protocol and managing the public health lab that performed its COVID-19 testing.
“It’s a little different to have really gotten to know the people who run the residence halls and are keeping the students safe all the time in all kinds of ways and that the people who keep our facilities maintained and people who work with the neighbors,” Goldman said. Goldman said, Milken’s next dean will have to decide where
to lead the school based on new problems that “well from the grassroots” in the public health field, as well as from their own perspective and interests in the field.
“They’re going to need to work with our faculty, but at the same time, they will be bringing their own point of view and hopefully some strong sense of direction for where public health is going in general, in our country and globally, that they can help to put an imprint on that,” Goldman said.
Faculty at the school said Goldman has been a communicative and transparent leader who grew the school’s academics, research and service enterprises.
Jim Tielsch, a professor and the chair of the Department of Global Health, said the school has “transformed” under Goldman’s lead-
ership through her emphasis on expanding the school’s research, introducing new online academic programs with education provider 2U and encouraging partnerships with local communities, like stationing a Milken epidemiology professor at D.C. Department of Health during the pandemic.
“Lynn really has taken the school from a place where it was a very solid teaching program, doing pretty well in terms of enrollment and really maturing it into a world class, full-fledged school of public health, with all three of the major agendas in place, teaching, research and service,” Tielsch said.
Amita Vyas, a professor of maternal and child health, said Goldman demonstrated “unprecedented” leadership as she guided GW through COVID-19.
“That type of leadership in a moment of crisis, I saw firsthand how she was able to bring people together and to put that entire system and process into place with folks throughout the University,” Vyas said.
Alan Greenberg, a professor of epidemiology, said Goldman has been an “extraordinary” leader who was transparent and available with the school community, including regarding Milken’s strategic and fiscal priorities during meetings.
“Dean Goldman always prioritized our monthly meetings so I could solicit her guidance on the challenges our department was facing, and in between these meetings was available for consultations during nonbusiness hours when needed,” Greenberg said in an email.
ARWEN CLEMANS | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR
Dean Lynn Goldman sits in the crowd during a Milken Institute School of Public Health event earlier this month.
From Page 1
KYRA WOOD | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Students project a list of six demands for officials in the Elliott School of International Affairs.
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OPINIONS
Officials should share all they know about student visa revocations
President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration policies have landed on college campuses in recent weeks as universities began disclosing one by one that federal agencies have revoked visas from international students at their schools.
In attempts to quell students’ fears, some university leaders at schools across the country have shared estimates of the number of students impacted by the visa crackdown and pledged to check federal visa databases daily to keep their communities updated. GW needs to do the same.
The University joined the wave of schools announcing visa revocations last week, stating in a bullet point of GW’s weekly “Federal Update” email that agencies had terminated a “small number” of international students’ visas.
Unlike a handful of Ivy League schools, like Columbia and Harvard universities, and regional neighbors like Georgetown, the Catholic University of America and George Mason University — all of which provided specific numbers of affected students or “at least” estimates — GW left the community wondering what a “small number” truly means. Officials’ use of vague language to describe actions as grave as terminated student visas didn’t provide the transparency that the community was seeking.
When faculty senators pressed officials for the specific number of students affected at a meeting last week, Univer -
ASTAFF EDITORIAL
sity President Ellen Granberg said she didn’t know “all the details.” Provost Chris Bracey refrained from offering specifics beyond that the number of visa revocations was “split” between current and recently graduated students. We know universities are often in the dark when it comes to visa revocations, as the Department of Homeland Security is not required to notify visa holders before revoking their documents. But even in these conditions of confusion and chaos, GW’s disclosure of information has been sparse compared to its peers and at times
contradictory. If the University can estimate the proportion of alumni versus current students affected and feels confident in characterizing the number of students as “small,” the community at large has no choice but to assume that our leaders know more than we do.
As students across the country watch in fear as their universities cave under the Trump administration’s pressure, knowledge becomes the only currency we have. We therefore ask that GW’s leaders empower our community by providing as much information as they have. In practice, this looks like Uni-
Trump exploits antisemitism to repress student speech
s a Jewish student, my people have lived through numerous periods of persecution, imprisonment, deportations and violence for our beliefs.
It happened in my own family — my great-great-grandfather having been killed in the streets for his Judaism by the Russian army at the end of World War I circa 1920. Stories like my greatgreat-grandfather’s prompt people who are suffering to come to the United States, a land of free expression and political practice.
Riegel Opinions Writer
But at present, President Donald Trump is trying to use my people as a pretext to repeat our history of persecution. Many Jews, myself included, do not want that unjust veil of responsibility put upon us — which presents a reason for others to target American Jews.
The mission of eliminating antisemitism in the United States is one that I share, but Trump’s process of carrying out this goal is deeply flawed and disingenuous.
Most of the students that immigration enforcement officials have recently rounded up at Trump’s direction have engaged in no such unlawful activity and have seemingly been targeted because of their racial background, citizenship status and the substance of their speech.
When white nationalists carrying Nazi flags and other symbols of antisemitic groups ran over, berated and
harmed counterprotesters at the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Trump refused to condone the anti-Jewish hate, stating there were “very fine people” on both sides. It was never about protecting the Jews for Trump because he had the opportunity to years ago and did not. Have pro-Palestinian student protesters’ behavior been uncomfortable, scary and intimidating for myself and many American Jews? Absolutely. But there is a difference between discomfort and illegality. Secretary of State Marco Rubio himself stated that Mahmoud Khalil’s conduct is not illegal — it simply aligns with the Trump administration’s current definition of antisemitism. From all of the evidence publicly available, Khalil would not be facing deportation had he been protesting a different issue and been of a different racial background or citizenship status.
The federal government is also cutting funding at universities. These slashes hurt all students, not just those who were on the frontlines of pro-Palestinian protests. Jewish students at schools like GW, which has a 27 percent Jewish population, may now feel retribution from their classmates due to Trump’s purported efforts to combat antisemitism. While he frames it as protection, the president’s removal of his dissidents sets up a reality in which Jewish people could be seen as the reason for his unjust crackdowns instead of Trump’s efforts to further his personal agenda.
Jewish people have faced oppression from around the
world — from Europe to the Middle East to the United States, from the Roman times to the 1900s to now — for ever-changing and always-proliferating reasons. The reality is that this oppression will not go away overnight, and Trump’s current approach to eliminating this oppression is likely going to make things worse for Jews in this country.
This will make people more violent and radical, a problem that will become evident when people start to channel their anger toward our community. Many of us did not ask for the government to censor and systematically deport pro-Palestinian protesters.
Aesop once wrote that “a tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny.”
American Jewry cannot be used as the pretext that Trump needs to fulfill his own tyrannical agenda — one of anti-immigrant hate and the persecution of those who disagree with him.
I am a Jew who has felt scared and at times harassed on campus by people protesting the war in Gaza. I wish people were kinder to Jews in this country and that they realized that American Jews shouldn’t be blamed for a war miles away.
But I am also an American, and we shouldn’t condone the arrest, deportation or persecution of anyone for practicing free speech. At GW, we take classes on civil rights and liberties, freedom and the dangers of an overinvolved government. As students and as a community, we cannot condone this present political action.
—Mara Riegel, a first-year majoring in political science, is an opinions writer.
Iversity officials defining what a “small number” is. If they cannot do so, they must offer an explanation for why it’s in the community’s best interest to stay in the dark. In the face of a lack of communication from the Trump administration, Columbia and Harvard have both pledged to check the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System daily to monitor the number of revoked visas. GW’s International Services Office — which officials are directing affected students to — should match its peer offices at other universities by publicly offer -
ing to do the same. The University has resources and staff to collect and distribute this research that the average student does not, and as uncertain as the higher education climate is, GW must uphold this responsibility.
When GW joined the National Institutes of Health lawsuit combating Trump’s research cuts, Granberg sent an email to the community explaining the University’s stance and reasoning for joining the lawsuit. We’re asking for a similar level of communication when it comes to visa revocations — a prominent announcement directly from the desk of the University’s leaders — as opposed to a bullet point buried in an email with a vague subject line, like “Federal Update.” We want GW to align with other universities, like George Mason, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Emerson College, whose leaders sent out announcements directly with intimate verbiage and detailed specifics.
GW’s messaging on visa revocations doesn’t match its messaging against other executive actions, nor does it align with several university peers. The University’s lack of consistency fuels suspicions of secrecy, sowing doubt among the community that our leaders are prioritizing our security and safety. GW can’t be seen as a brave ally in the face of Trump’s attacks if it dulls the blades of our only weapons — information.
Welcoming the beauty of bromances
’ve worked a new word into my everyday vocabulary this year: “bro.”
In the past few months, I’ve found myself throwing “bro” around in conversations more because, well, I’ve been trying to find ways to “bro out” more.
I’ve never had that hard of a time surrounding myself with male friends. When I was four, I’d “write” plays for my friends to perform in. In high school, I was determined to ensure I would have other guy friends. I’d seen my dad go through life without really making friends when he lived in my hometown of New Haven, Connecticut, and other adult men I know limiting their friends to their partners’ social circle.
So I decided to learn everything I could about the National Football League and Major League Baseball, having played a total of one hour of organized sports in my life and having watched such events for even less time. Since I got to GW, partly via watching sports and partly not, I’ve made a lot of close bonds with guy friends I really hope will last my entire life.
But I, as anyone who has ever spoken to me would attest, am not super bro-y. I’m scrawny and don’t really know anything about cars. My mom’s fiancé says every man needs to either be into fishing or golfing. I can’t tell you the last time I did either.
As graduation nears, the
looming loneliness of not constantly being in college with possible new friends at every corner, has been weighing on me. I’m, for better or for worse, a political science major, meaning I have many, many times read Robert Putnam’s “Bowling Alone” for class. The classic 2000 book covers how Americans just don’t spend time out together anymore. That phenomenon has only gotten worse in recent years, with the COVID-19 pandemic and the general rise of the internet driving more people online and away from each other.
As our editorial board noted earlier this semester, that increasing loneliness has been especially bad among men. I didn’t want to graduate and fall victim to those same trends, drifting away from my guy friends and becoming another statistic in the male loneliness epidemic. So this semester, I’ve been creating regular reasons to spend time with my male friends so we can all embrace the bromance.
I’ve been reaching out to friends I haven’t seen in years to go see spy movies and action flicks together most Sundays. I have Wednesday morning study dates with one friend and Wednesday evening walks with another to talk through all the problems of our lives. I get together with another group every Saturday to watch some sort of sporting event, including my first time ever watching a professional fight, a spectacle that I remain totally befuddled, if also fascinated by. All those experiences are different from what I thought a classic bro-down would require — the walks, the movies, the book clubs, even watching the fights are all just excuses to hang out with some people I really like spending time around, without any of the toxic manliness I might’ve feared from the word “bro.” My schedule now revolves around weekly traditions with my male friends, and I don’t have any of the worries about losing touch that I did a few months ago because those one-off hangouts are becoming rituals. I could write more, but it’s a bro movie night tonight, and I can’t miss that.
—Nick Perkins, a senior majoring in political science, is the culture editor..
My project started back in January, when my two best friends from studying abroad and I decided we wanted to start a book club to stay in touch. To pick out our first book, I Googled “book club books for men” and settled on Larry McMurtry’s “Lonesome Dove.” The novel is a sweeping Western full of its own bromances, between the two lead ranchers, two kindly Irishmen and a whole giant outfit of other cowboys. Every week, we hop on FaceTime to talk about the book and compare our weeks to those of the book characters’ — if a week is going well, it’s a Jake Spoon week, named after an effortlessly cool, mustachioed cowboy. If things aren’t going great, well, that’s a Dish Boggart week — the man whose love Jake Spoon stole away. The experience has brought us all closer, and it’s honestly just been really nice to have an excuse to call my friends every week.
Nick Perkins Opinions Writer
CAROLINE MORRELLI | STAFF CARTOONIST
Mara
THE SCENE CULTURE
How a faux rodent scurried its way into the SGA
The message is simple, plastered on Student Government Association campaign posters and stickers across campus: “Vote Rat.”
Each spring semester, while the variegated tulips bloom in GW’s green spaces, multicolored SGA election posters crop up around campus. Each new election cycle boasts its own range of newcomers and familiar faces running for a seat in the governing body, and since 2023, one fuzzy, aspiring politico has become a recurring candidate.
The GW Rat garnered a total of 105 write-in votes from students in last week’s SGA election. Students’ votes placed the GW Rat fourth and third in the presidential and vice presidential races, respectively. The rodent even won a GW School of Business undergraduate senate seat with 13 write-in votes, coming in 11 votes ahead of Jakub Gloc, whom the Joint Elections Commission ceded the seat to because they could not verify the Rat’s identity. Gloc did not immediately return a request for comment.
The votes followed an online and on-campus campaign of students pasting posters around Foggy Bottom and reposting “Vote Rat” graphics on Instagram, including a red-andblue color-blocked nod to former President Barack Obama’s “Hope” poster from his 2008 campaign.
The student behind the Rat, who requested to remain anonymous to maintain the mystery surrounding the campaign, said they think of the GW Rat’s campaign as a “little anti-establishment.” They said they feel the SGA can be doing more to help students, like being an “advocacy council” for students to administrators rather than “role playing” government in a threebranch system.
In a March 24 joint Instagram post from Gw.propaganda and Gwurats urging students to “Vote Rat,” one student commented “#unitedwerat,” and in an April 12 post announcing the GW Rat’s GWSB senate seat win, students commented “RECOUNT #STOPTHES-
TEAL” and “THEY’RE TRYING TO STEAL THE SEAT FROM RAT!!!” in response to the JEC ceding the seat.
The student said they were “sick” of the “self conceited” nature they saw from members of the governing body, noting that the representatives often “don’t actually care a lot” about SGA initiatives and are there for their “own purpose.”
“I’d heard way too many stories,” the student said. “I’d seen the toxicity of SGA before, and so I was just like, it was dumb, there was the club funding drama as well, I think I kind of spurred that by being a bit propagandizing about the topic.”
The student said this semester, they transitioned from taping posters up to wheatpasting them to prevent them being torn down, which they said has happened occasionally in the past. They added that while wheatpasting posters this semester, someone approached them and asked what Vote Rat means, stirring them to contemplate why they run the campaign every spring.
The student, a junior graduating early this semester, also runs Gw.propaganda, an Insta- gram account that posts content about student life and campus culture. They said they started the Rat account and campaign in spring 2023 after serving as a clerk in the SGA that academic year.
“I had just gotten a knack for making these fun little propaganda things, and I realized, ‘Oh, you know what’s so propaganda? A campaign,’” the student said.
The student said even though they haven’t thought deeply about the GW Rat’s plans for next year’s elections, their “main idea” is to go “bigger” and possibly reveal their individual identity after.
“I don’t want to be a part of the SGA, that’s been out of my mind since freshman year,” the student said. “I think it would just be a signal to the people who are running student government that something needs to change. If people are so inclined to vote Rat rather than other candidates, that speaks more on them.”
The
Driver Era revs up Smith Center for Spring Fling performance
Indie pop band The Driver Era commanded the stage in GW Program Board’s annual Spring Fling concert, with former Disney star Ross Lynch alongside brother Rocky Lynch delivering a high-energy performance to a small but mighty crowd.
“You might know them from their songs like ‘Kiss’ and ‘Preacher Man’ or maybe their most recent album, ‘Obsession,’” one member of Program Board said, met by light cheering.
“You might also know Ross Lynch from potentially ‘Teen Beach Movie,’” she then said. The semi-full Smith Center erupted in screams.
After 10 days of speed-run marketing, ticket sales and flash promotions — a departure from the monthlong campaigns of previous years — Program Board’s annual concert, attracted a high energy, yet sparse, crowd. While most attendees weren’t screaming along to every lyric, the pit was constantly dancing, reaching toward the brothers and cheering along their electric performance.
The organization deleted the original Instagram announcement of the performance on April 4 and didn’t officially reveal the headliners until April 9. During the short promotional
period, Program Board was met with criticism after charging for entry for the second year in a row. Prior to last year’s concert when Quavo headlined, the event was free for students, but a Program Board Instagram post said the fact that they do not receive “full funding from the University and rely on limited SGA funds,” forces the organization to charge for tickets again this year.
Program Board did not return requests for comment.
Program Board offered three tiers of tickets: early entry floor access, general floor access and general admission seating, ranging from $20-$60 with a $5 discount for GW students. Public controversies surrounding the performers, such as members of the Lynch family’s alleged following of conservative social media accounts, were also addressed by the organization on their Instagram account.
“Artist selection is based on a variety of factors: student interest, availability, budget, and tour schedules,” the story post said. “To clarify, there has been no official endorsement of any political candidate by the artist.”
Students funneled into the Smith Center before the concert’s 8 p.m. start time, with adamant fans arriving at 6 p.m. to claim their spots near the barricade to the stage. The top section of bleach-
ers on both sides of the gym were closed off to audience members, and two sections of bleachers remained empty.
Lisa Heller, an indie pop artist with over 40,000 monthly Spotify listeners, kicked off the night in her opening act, jumping and whipping her hair as she sang bangers and ballads she co-wrote, some inspired by mental health struggles. The setlist included songs like “This is the End” and “Crushing on Straight Girls,” as well as some unreleased songs. The audience was mellow until Heller laid on the energy with a cover of “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers, descending from the stage onto the Smith Center floor and even taking the phone from a member of the crowd and videotaping herself singing.
After a brief intermission between performers, the crowd roared as The Driver Era made their way on stage. Opening with the lead single “You Keep Me Up At Night” from their recently released album “Obsession,” fans sang along and jumped to the beat of the upbeat pop hit.
“What the f*ck is up! Are y’all ready for a good time tonight?”
Ross Lynch yelled after the song ended. “Hell yeah. I’m allowed to cuss, right?”
The group kept the provocative energy up throughout the night, swapping the Disney Channel Austin Moon energy for suggestive
dances and songs as Ross Lynch grinded on a microphone stand, prompting yells and gasps from the crowd. The suggestive dance moves continued throughout the night, with strong audience reactions that never reached a lull.
“Everybody go to school here? Fancy school,” Ross Lynch said between songs. “My college was Disney Channel.”
The band played a song “On my Own,” a nostalgic hit from the Disney Channel movie Teen Beach 2, in which Ross Lynch starred as the lead throughout the series. The pair riled the crowd up, with Ross Lynch running over to each side of the stage, reaching to audience members’ hands, and he even stole a fan’s pink cowgirl hat for a few songs. He brought his well known “Austin and Ally” dance moves to the stage, jumping and twisting around as he sang upbeat songs, like “Rumors” and “The Weekend.”
The duo’s last song, “A Kiss,” invigorated the crowd, singing along and waving light-up wands provided by Program Board.
As the song winded down, the band continued to play, while crew members threw guitar picks, drumsticks and set lists into the crowd. The band left the stage as Ross Lynch threw up peace signs and heart hands up to the audience, while concertgoers kept their hands raised, grasping for the freebies.
Overseas overseer of GW’s Reddit forum moderates campus dialogue, drama
of the forum throughout her time at GW, answering questions about campus culture and University policies that often came from prospective students.
Under a r/gwu thread titled “Amount of straight vs gay guys?” a prospective student asked if she’d be able to find love at GW as a straight woman. Current students provided their honest advice: “I don’t have a pulse on the gay/straight ratio but I will say that dating here is rough.”
The r/gwu forum, a hub for all things admissions, campus gossip and dining hall grievances, has gone through its fair share of moderators since its 2010 launch. Under the randomly generated pseudonym u/Plane_Vanilla_8832, a 2024 international affairs graduate, has overseen the message board since June 2023, organizing the forum — which tackles everything from class recommendations to SGA elections — and deleting harmful content.
Plane Vanilla, a graduate student in Europe, requested anonymity because of her past involvement in the Student Government Association and fears that people may assume her moderating is biased due to her prior student leadership role. She said she was an active user
She said her on-campus job and SGA involvement made her “very knowledgeable” on all things GW, prompting her to apply for the moderator position through a Google Form when more were needed in summer 2023. Previous moderators selected her to take over the position, noting that the Reddit algorithm displays a list of users that interact most with the page, and Plane Vanilla was in the top five.
Plane Vanilla said she runs the message board alongside another active moderator under the name u/kaheye, a GW Law student. She said the forum used to be “jampacked” with moderators when she began the position, and they used to use a Discord server to communicate, but the number of active moderators has dwindled over time due to a lack of interest and moderators graduating from the University.
She said she would like to step back from moderating now that she’s graduated but she hasn’t because she doesn’t know how to “start the process” of granting
moderating access to another person. She said she has to reach out to friends at GW to understand campus happenings and inform her moderating. She added that her fellow moderator has been ghosting her questions about how to transition access, making her feel stuck in the role until she finds a solution.
She said during last spring’s pro-Palestinian encampment, the message board, which was once “a lot more lighthearted,” grew more intense in various threads, with users arguing on the forum and using hateful language. She said her time commitment ramped up to around five hours a week during the encampment.
She said the discourse caused her to enforce stricter rules by deleting posts or banning users from the forum to moderate the conversations, which can be difficult due to the heightened amount of disagreement online.
“We will be more vigilant in moderating this year, and any violations of our rules will be addressed firmly. We expect all members to act with common courtesy and respect towards one another. Disregarding these standards could result in bans being issued more frequently,” she wrote in a Reddit post eight months
ago. She said while some of the forum’s rules that are posted on the main page of the website, like “be considerate” and “no room swap posts,” existed before her tenure, she established the “ask admissions” rule, stating “We don’t know if you’ll get into the university. Contact [GW Admissions] (https://www.gwu.edu/contactgw) if you have questions related to applying” to ward against the flood of prospective students asking about GPAs and SAT scores. Plane Vanilla said the forum has seen its fair share of controversies, like SGA elections, where users often dramatized events and constantly updated the forum. “It was so odd to me that they’re taking this so seriously and using Reddit as if it’s CNN, breaking news,” she said.
CARLY CAVANAUGH
CARLY
RACHEL
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY JORDAN TOVIN A student scrolls through the r/gwu Reddit forum.
RACHEL KURLANDSKY | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Vote Rat poster on an electric box.
COURTESY OF SARAH HOCHSTEIN | GW TODAY
Students wave light-up foam sticks in the crowd at Spring Fling on Saturday.
‘Time
heals’: Men’s basketball double threat eyes second comeback
BEN SPITALNY SPORTS EDITOR
Garrett Johnson believes he could have been one of the Atlantic 10’s best players last season. In the 2023-24 season, the versatile guard-forward spent his first year averaging 13.4 points per game on 42.8% shooting from the field and an impressive 40.3% from 3-point territory. But during the first drill of the second day of summer practice ahead of the next season, Johnson said he “felt a shock through his body” as he extended his leg driving toward the basket.
After an MRI a week later, doctors diagnosed him with a torn ACL which forced him to sit out the entire season.
Time away from basketball was not new for Johnson. Initially enrolled at Princeton University in 2021, a battle with a benign hip tumor forced him to sit out from what would have been his first two years of collegiate basketball. He underwent nine rounds of chemotherapy and multiple surgeries until over two years he was healthy enough to play to open the 2023-24 season.
As the team was in the midst of what would become a 12-game losing streak in February 2024, he began dealing with hip pain that limited his ability to play and eventually forced him to the sidelines for the team’s final nine games. They finished the season 15-17.
Johnson said he returned to chemotherapy treatments while he was out “to try to kill the tumor as much as possible” while he wasn’t playing.
Entering summer practices last year, Johnson said he was able to go off chemotherapy but went on once again during his ACL rehab process following his injury in June.
He said “it was really tough” initially to deal with the impact of his ACL tear,
leaving him unable to come into the Smith Center to watch his team practice and made even daily tasks difficult, resulting in him spending a lot of time laying in bed.
But, he said that as time went on into the fall, he was able to transition to a new role where he helped out his teammates’ confidence and gave them positive feedback. He said sophomore guard Trey Autry, “one of [his] best friends,” was someone who he would help out often.
As the team embarked on what would become their best season in nearly a decade throughout the winter, finishing 21-13 and making a postseason tournament, Johnson said “it was great” to see the success of his squad.
He remained focused on his ACL rehab, reintroducing movements and exercises that he had lost the ability to do after his surgery. He said his chemotherapy was a “hurdle” as it led him to need more rest and sometimes prevented him from “getting work in.”
“I don’t know if anyone’s really done an ACL rehab on chemo,” Johnson said.
Now, almost a year removed from his ACL tear, Johnson said he is “a month or two” out from his doctors fully clearing him but feels good and has been working out. After being away from the game, he said he still has the same goals heading into next season: improving on his first year, becoming a more complete player and helping the team win games.
After everything he has endured and overcome the past few years, his tenacity is clear. He said that “being tested” and going through his health struggles made him realize that he is stronger than he had thought.
“But I think if you just have a goal, no matter what happens to you, if you keep showing up and putting in the work, good things will happen eventually,” Johnson said.
After strong nonconference start, lacrosse cools off in A-10 play
and 1-8 record in conference.
Lacrosse (8-8, 2-7 Atlantic 10) is tied for eighth out of 11 teams in the A-10 standings with just one game remaining in the regular season, despite a successful start during nonconference play in February.
After winning five of their six nonconference games to start the season, the Revs have lost eight of their last 11 matches, most against conference opponents. The team’s two conference wins came over George Mason and La Salle, which rank last and second to last in the conference, respectively.
“Overall, we’re pleased with our team’s performance so far this season,” Head Coach Colleen McCaffrey said in an email. “While a few A-10 losses were disappointing and we wish to have those games back, we continue to focus on the process of growth.”
With the Revs’ 8-15 loss at Davidson on Saturday, they will fail to make the A-10 tournament for the second year in a row as only the top six teams in the conference qualify to compete.
Despite the recent losses, the Revs’ record is an improvement from last season’s 4-13 overall record
The team currently sits just one spot ahead of its ninthplace finish in the conference last year.
McCaffrey joined the Revs in 2023 and led them to a fifth-place finish in the conference that year. The 2023 season marked the last time the program finished with a conference record at or above .500 since 2015.
McCaffrey said the team’s work in the offseason catalyzed their wins at the start of the season against Howard University, Kent State University, William & Mary College and Robert Morris University.
“The key to our fourgame win streak was really our preparation and team chemistry throughout preseason and the early weeks of season,” McCaffrey said.
The Revs lost their March 8 conference opener to Duquesne 10-11 off a goal they conceded with just over a minute to go in the game. The Revs picked up their first conference win on March 29, defeating George Mason 158, with junior attack Grace Curry scoring seven goals. Curry leads this year’s scoring with 41 goals on the season.
The team’s top two goal scorers from last season — Emma Nowakowski and
Golf’s regular season swings shut after offseason roster rebuild
Golf wrapped up its regular season on April 12, concluding a year marked by the team’s adjustment to the growing pains of a reconstructed roster.
The team failed to place in the top three in any tournament the whole season, with its best finish coming at the Howard USF Intercollegiate in September where the Revolutionaries placed No. 4 out of 12 teams with a score of 853 — 13 strokes over par. The team concluded its spring campaign placing 9th at the Stitch Intercollegiate out of a 13-team field, with a team score of 22 strokes over par.
In the offseason, the Revs rebuilt their roster, replacing two graduating starters and junior Jed Dy, who transferred to San Jose State University, with a freshman and two transfers. Head Coach Chuck Scheinost said this team is “very different” than last season’s due to high turnover.
“We’re struggling worse than — might have been struggling as bad as I’ve ever seen it in my time at GW,” he said in an interview.
But Scheinost said he’s started to see “signs of life” since the team held internal meetings around spring break in an attempt to “bounce back.” The Revs had their best finish of the spring at the SeattleU Redhawk Invitational from March 31 to April 1, tying for seventh out of 18 teams.
“My expectations
coming into the year were actually pretty low because I knew we were going to have to grow,” Scheinost said. “When you’re adding three pieces to the puzzle because you graduated three starters, it becomes a matter of learning and growth.”
The three new members each began their golf careers abroad, with freshman Adam Bencik, sophomore Benji Garcia Moreira and junior Philippe Thorin hailing from Slovakia, Mexico and Ecuador, respectively. Moreira transferred from Swarthmore College, and Thorin came to D.C. from the University of North Texas.
Bencik said competitions with the Revs are a “huge difference” from his youth career in Slovakia due to the higher level of competition in college and 36-hole days compared to the usual 18.
“We had a rough start to the season, but in the past month, I feel like we kind of really got together and established certain goals and values that we’re going to follow in the team,” Bencik said.
Scheinost said Bencik decided to start seeing a local D.C. swing coach earlier this season, which has helped his development.
At each of the last three competitions, Bencik posted one of the top two scores for the team. He posted his best score of the spring season on April 1 with a final round 67 at the SeattleU Redhawk Invitational.
Junior Rodrigo Barahona has performed the strongest of anyone on the team this
season, consistently placing in the top 15 of tournaments, including a tie for second at the Howard USF Intercollegiate in September where he shot a 206 — four under par across three rounds.
He most recently tied for third place in the Stitch Intercollegiate with a total of 212 strokes, one under par for the tournament and just four strokes back of first place.
“It’s been a big step this year versus last year in consistency of how he’s performing, and the biggest part of that is learning how to play his game when he doesn’t have his A-game,” Scheinost said.
Barahona, junior Manuel Barbachano and the three newcomers will all be returning next season. Senior Luke Lyu — who hasn’t been in the starting lineup all season — is the only member of the team graduating.
Scheinost said he will look to the transfer portal instead of recruiting an incoming freshman to try to replace Lyu before next season.
“Obviously next year will be a big year for us because we’ve got several guys graduating,” Scheinost said.
He said the team understands that with the whole lineup returning, the plan they put in place won’t stop after this season but will continue into the summer and next fall. Despite finishing near the bottom in most tournaments
Desiree Kleberg — graduated last year.
McCaffrey said the team is working to develop offensive personnel that helps younger players feel more comfortable in the college game, which is more physical and fast paced than high school. Freshman attack Sophia Levine leads the first years in scoring this season with 12 goals, coming off the bench in all her games. McCaffrey said that on the defensive end, the team relies on its veterans and needs to make “smart adjustments” as the game unfolds. Senior Katie Hipp and junior Parker Cranz are among the team’s veterans on that side of the field, both having started all 16 games on defense.
“We continue to emphasize our defensive goal of holding opponents to under 10 goals per game,” McCaffrey said. McCaffrey’s squad has given up more than 10 goals in each of its losses this season. The team has the third-lowest average in the A-10 at 10.47 goals allowed per game, down from last year’s average of 13.79, which was the second highest in the conference in 2024.
The Revs will wrap up their season with a game against St. Bonaventure on Saturday on the Mount Vernon Campus.
this season, they hope to compete to win tournaments next season, including the conference crown.
But first Scheinost is looking to wrap up this season with a strong showing at this week’s Atlantic 10 Championship starting tomorrow in Orlando, Florida. Barahona and Barbachano both finished in the top 10 of last year’s championship. One of the keys to a strong championship performance is driving the ball well because good drives can lead to scoring opportunities on the Grand Cypress course, he said. He also said the team will be focusing on its short
game around the greens because they have struggled in that area this season. He said he planned a “wedge day” this past Saturday where the team went to East Potomac to hit exclusively wedges for a couple of hours in preparation for the A-10 Championship.
“This is probably the weakest year overall in A-10, I think, where kind of anyone can jump up and get it,” Scheinost said. “Richmond’s definitely the favorite, they’ve played the best all year. But, you know, we’ve been right there with them a couple times throughout the year. So I think the guys are really excited because we’re close, and they see the plan
that we put into place really starting to work.” In the four common tournaments where the Spiders and the Revs have faced off this season, Richmond has posted a team score of at least 10 points lower than the Revs in each contest. If GW wants to win the A-10, the team will need to score lower than Richmond and the 10 other A-10 teams competing over the three-day event. The first round of competition in the A-10 Championship begins Tuesday morning at the Grand Cypress course in Orlando, Florida, with the final round concluding on Thursday.
KARSYN MEYERSON | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Junior golfer Rodrigo Barahona hits the ball during a practice earlier this season.
GRANT PACERNICK STAFF WRITER
KRIS PARK | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Junior attacker Carleigh Callahan runs during a practice.
DANIEL HEUER | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Redshirt sophomore guard-forward Garrett Johnson poses for a portrait in the Smith Center.