Officials said they are opening an internal investigation into reports that armed GW Police Department officers carried firearms not registered in D.C. and received inadequate training after faculty senators pressed them for more information on the claims during a meeting Friday.
Upon repeated questions from four faculty senators about the reports, University President Ellen Granberg and Vice President for Safety and Operations Baxter Goodly said they could not comment on human resources or personnel issues for confidentiality reasons. Granberg said the reports are currently under investigation by the Office of the General Counsel and the Office of Human Resource Management & Development, adding that “when the time comes,” officials will examine what information they can share.
Goodly said all GWPD guns are currently registered in D.C., which he had previously stated last week.
“I have to register a major concern here, because while I understand your point about what is the current situation, it sounds to me like there was a period of time on this campus when people were carrying around guns that were unregistered,” said Philip Wirtz, a faculty senator and a professor of decision sciences and psychological and brain sciences. “So whether or not we are currently in compliance is really not speaking to the issue that I’m concerned about.”
Wirtz asked if officials could confirm whether or not there was a period of time where GWPD Police Chief James Tate and former Captain of Operations Gabe Mullinax carried unregistered guns. Tate and Mullinax carried unregistered firearms on campus be-
tween Aug. 30 and Sept. 27, 2023, according to an HR report filed last September obtained by The Hatchet and statements from three former supervisors.
“I don’t know what the investigation will show, and so I can’t promise specifically,” Granberg said. “What I can say is, what we can share, we will.”
Jennifer Brinkerhoff, a faculty senator and professor of international affairs, said she was “distressed” about the reports and was especially concerned about the alleged lack of training considering ongoing student protests that attract demonstrators from outside of the GW community.
“I’m very sympathetic to how difficult it is to manage these situations,” Brinkerhoff said. “Nevertheless, the concern is that we have armed GWPD with insufficient training in the midst of crowds with outsiders present, especially
outsiders who have threatened violence, we have a serious problem.”
In response, Granberg said she agrees the report was a “very disturbing article” that requires the University’s attention, adding that every officer who is currently armed is “fully trained” by a “reputable” outside group. Granberg did not specify which company leads the training, but former officers said they reached out to D.C. Security Associates — a group that assists District residents in navigating owning a firearm — about issues relating to gun safety.
Patricia Hernandez, a faculty senator and professor of cellular and molecular biology, said she is sponsoring a resolution on safety and accountability on campus, specifically regarding campus gun safety and during the meeting handed out the first page of the resolution with Guillermo Orti, a
Jewish students navigate identity, antisemitism after Oct. 7
One year after Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, some Jewish community members said they have grown in their religious identities and connection to Israel as they navigate heightened antisemitism, advocacy for loved ones affected by the war in Gaza and personal grief.
Some students said they are increasingly aware of antisemitism and its manifestations in protests, social media and in their everyday lives after Hamas on Oct. 7 killed more than 1,200 Israelis and took more than 250 hostages, 97 of which are still missing. Amid rising antisemitism in the past year throughout the United States, Jewish students and leaders said some parts of GW’s Jewish community have grown closer in the last year through civic action like fundraising for Israeli emergency health services, emotional support for peers experiencing trauma and conversations about the events of the past year.
“I’m able to live out my daily life, I’m able to have fun and to be a normal college student — whatever you define normal as — live a typical college life,” junior Aidan Cullers, co-president of the Jewish Students Association, said. “But at the same time, there is always that feeling deep down that the world has changed and that the world that I grew up in prior to October 7 is not the world that is after October 7.” Immediately following the Oct. 7 attacks, the Israeli government declared war with Hamas. More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli military’s counteroffensive since the war in Gaza began.
Cullers, who is also a member of Alpha Epsilon Pi, a Jewish fraternity, said the organization coordinated a fundraising drive a week
after the attacks and raised more than $7,500 for Magen David Adom, the national aid society of Israel.
“There were still bombs being dropped in Israel at this time, so we did what we felt like we could do,” Cullers said. “That’s something that kept me going, and I know it’s something that kept a lot of my brothers going as well.”
Cullers said after Oct. 7, he became aware of community members’ “precarious standing,” noticing that antisemitism appeared more prominent on campus, across the United States and on social media than community members had previously thought. Just under a third of hate crimes in the past year were motivated by anti-Jewish bias, the largest percentage of any bias that year, compared to 13 percent the year prior, according to the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer.
Cullers said he grew up in circles where there was positive conversation about being Jewish, adding that he previously believed antisemitism was a “dying form of hate.” He said the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, the 2018 shooting in a Pittsburgh synagogue and now, the aftermath of Oct. 7, have all been events that brought a wave of antisemitism to the United States.
“Even if it is one person
hundreds of miles away who holds those views, that still, unfortunately, can ruin someone’s day,” Cullers said.
Cullers said his life “certainly” changed as a leader after Oct. 7 when he leaned into fundraising for Israel.
“I used to be kind of skeptical of wanting this mass donation campaign,” Cullers said. “‘Does it really work? Is it really that effective?’ But now, after the work that we did after October 7, I can firmly say yes, it’s important, and it really has an impact, and it means something.”
Rabbi Yudi Steiner, the director of the Rohr Chabad Center at GW, said Chabad started hosting free, nightly family-style community dinners after Oct. 7.
Steiner said there is “nuance” among the Jewish community regarding the war in Gaza, but a “majority” of the community felt pro-Palestinian protests at GW and around the country that ensued after Oct. 7 were not in solidarity with the plight of Palestinians or government policy in Israel.
“It was protest against the right for Jewish people to be proud, to be connected, to support a homeland, and when every other nationality and ethnicity and country can be proud of who they are, but Jewish people can’t, many people felt that that was antisemitism,” he said.
faculty senator and professor of biology. The 25-page resolution calls for a “thorough and independent investigation” into the quality and nature of members of the GWPD, which will be shared with the senate and the Board of Trustees.
The resolution also requests that if allegations of illegality and safety violations are found to be true in an investigation, the individuals who are responsible and the offices that oversee them be “held accountable.” Faculty senators will vote on the resolution at their next meeting on Nov. 8.
The senate passed a resolution in October 2023 calling on officials to pause the second phase of arming until officials released the full community feedback on the decision to arm officers, along with any changes to liability insurance and GWPD operational costs.
Aston is ‘precedent’ in combating homelessness: advocates
Wesley Thomas said he opted to sleep on the streets of Foggy Bottom and West End for 29 years because he didn’t want to enter the District’s congregate shelter system, where he’d be required to share a room with strangers.
Thomas, who moved off the streets in 2017 and now helps people experiencing homelessness access temporary and permanent housing, said he avoided shelters because he was uncomfortable staying and storing his belongings in a room that lacked privacy. The Aston — a former GW residence hall on New Hampshire Avenue — is slated to open this year as the District’s first of its kind noncongregate shelter, which Thomas said will offer residents seclusion and security that he couldn’t access in shelters when he was experiencing homelessness.
District officials purchased The Aston from GW in August 2023 with the intent of converting the space into a shelter that offers private living spaces to medically vulnerable people, mixed-gender couples, families with adult children and people waiting to move into permanent housing. D.C. kept the former residence hall’s roughly 100 single “studio-style” rooms and replaced its flooring, upgraded security and IT infrastructure, added administrative spaces and repaired the underground garage.
Pro-Palestinian students center Gaza in campus activism after Oct. 7
Pro-Palestinian student advocates said they’ve rallied together to uplift Palestinian voices and experiences on campus despite resistance from the University, one year after the onset of the war in Gaza.
After Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, shortly followed by Israel’s bombing of the Gaza Strip, GW became a focal point for pro-Palestinian student activism, with vigils, sitins, marches and a nearly two-week encampment in University Yard in solidarity with Gaza, amassing fervent student support amid alleged sanctions and suspensions from officials.
Pro-Palestinian student activists said Oct. 7 represents a somber marker of Palestinians killed by the Israeli military within the past year and stands as a moment that brought visibility to the Palestinian cause on campus and internationally.
Manny Blanco, an organizer with the GWU Student Coalition for Palestine, said visibility of Palestinian suffering has reached a “critical mass,” sparking an internationally recognized understanding of the war in Gaza since it first broke out.
As the war hits its oneyear mark, more than 41,000 Palestinians — the majority women and children — have been killed by the Israeli military in Gaza since Oct. 7, when Hamas killed more than 1,200 Israelis and took more than 250 hostages. The humanitarian crises in Gaza continues to worsen as famine spreads throughout the region, according to United Nations experts.
Blanco said officials used to “take advantage” of the fact that the Israel-Palestine conflict was “in the margins” and less recognized before the war by taking disciplinary action against pro-Palestinian speech on campus.
“The school’s response is now something that a lot of eyes are on and is on a public platform, and so everyone’s attention is there,” Blanco said.
He said the vigil that Students for Justice in Palestine organized days after Oct. 7, which University President Ellen Granberg condemned as a “celebration of terrorism,” helped convey to students the tragedy of strikes on Palestinians. He said vigils are not “explicitly” protests but are spaces for communities to mourn publicly together, which he said only nonminority communities have the “luxury” to do.
Candles lit the center of Kogan Plaza last year as roughly 120 students joined together during the vigil to mourn Palestinians killed during Israel’s bombing of Gaza, reading the names of people killed in the strikes, playing music and delivering speeches. An SJP organizer said at the event that the Oct. 7 attacks marked a new era in Palestine’s struggle for liberation, with “resistance fighters” dispelling the “illusion of invincibility.” “This specific form of putting the issue in front of everyone, a mainstream way, has a lot of power in heightening the contradictions in terms of how we view race in the United States and the way that we construe narratives of cer-
tain people in certain countries and things like that,” Blanco said.
Reports of Islamophobia increased from 16 in September 2023 to 64 in October 2023, a 300 percent increase, according to the FBI Crime Data Explorer.
Weeks after Oct. 7, four members of SJP projected anti-Israel and anti-GW messages, like “End the siege on Gaza” and “GW the blood of Palestine is on your hands” onto Gelman Library. Granberg said the projections violated University policy in her statement following the demonstration. The University later suspended the group, preventing them from hosting and participating in on-campus activities for at least 90 days. Blanco said the level of solidarity among Palestinian students and pro-Palestinian activists on campus is “huge.”
Blanco said as the student coalition continues to call on officials to divest from companies that provide weapons to Israel, he understands it would be “very hard” for the University to divest in terms of its willingness to financially pull out from companies and harness support from stakeholders. But he said officials’ lack of consideration for their demands is “appalling,” referencing GW’s refusal to divest from companies partnering with Israel.
ARWEN CLEMANS | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR Students at a vigil for Palestinian and Lebanese people killed by Israel.
ARWEN CLEMANS | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR
Vice President for Safety and Operations Baxter Goodly during Friday’s Faculty Senate meeting.
DANIEL HEUER | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR
A student wearing a yamaka attends a vigil for six Israeli hostages.
Students question need for U-Yard fences five months after installation
DIANA ANOS STAFF WRITER
Students question the necessity of the fencing surrounding University Yard more than five months after officials erected the barricades in response to the proPalestinian encampment that occupied the green space last spring.
After local police cleared the encampment in May, officials installed 8-feet-tall metal fences around U-Yard and Kogan Plaza that limited access to GW’s most popular gathering spaces. More than 35 students said after officials removed the fencing around Kogan over the summer, the fences that remain blocking off U-Yard during overnight hours — which resemble the ones installed at the Capitol after the Jan. 6 insurrection — are obsolete.
The U-Yard fence gates are open between 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., and the current fencing will remain for the first part of this semester until officials obtain new fencing that “aesthetically integrates” with the campus and can be deployed quickly around the space, according to the safety and security tab on GW’s “Strengthening
Our Community” website. Junior Adelina Hernandez said she used U-Yard for leisure before officials installed the fences, which left a “bad taste” in her mouth. Hernandez said prospective students choose GW because of its integration with the city, and the fences’ presence can make people feel “boxed in.” She added that she doesn’t believe the barricades will dissuade students from protesting in U-Yard.
“It shows the school’s apathy and inability to work with students,” Hernandez said. “It also shows their inability to correctly respond to student protests.”
First-year Alex Radt said they are “frustrated” as a wheelchair user because they cannot access the sidewalk by the fences. On the H Street side of U-Yard, the metal plates buttressing the fences protrude more than a foot into the sidewalk, reducing unobstructed sidewalk space. Radt said they reached out to officials in August regarding the blocked sidewalk but have not yet received a response.
“I just hope that if they do get these newer fences and they feel the need to put them up, that these fences are not blocking the side-
walk and are not an accessibility problem,” Radt said.
University spokesperson Julia Metjian said officials pushed the fence’s steel plates southward, away from the sidewalk and into U-Yard’s landscaping, to free up additional sidewalk space after receiving “concerns” about its width.
Metjian said after officials received concerns about the fence’s gates not opening wide enough to accommodate wheelchair users, officials made “adjustments” to “fully” open the fence doors.
Metjian said officials hope to install new fencing “later into the fall semester” but did not specify a timeline.
“Ensuring accessibility for our entire community is a top University priority,” Metjian said in an email.
Junior Stephen Garvey said the fencing surrounding U-Yard is a “good idea” because it allows officials to have “control” over the communal area.
“The University needs to prioritize the safety of us, and by allowing for some type of fence or something, the situations where there would be risk of injury or harm would decrease,” Garvey said.
LEWD, INDECENT OR OBSCENE ACTS
University Student Center
10/1/24 – 5:37 p.m.
Closed Case
GW Police Department officers responded to the University Student Center for a report of a male student and non-GW affiliated man engaging in a sexual act while using the bathroom stalls. GWPD officers made contact with the non-GW affiliated man, and they barred him from campus before sending him on his way. CASE CLOSED. SUBJECT BARRED.
DISORDERLY CONDUCT, INTOXICATION, ASSAULT ON A POLICE OFFICER MISDEMEANOR
Kogan Plaza
10/3/24 – 12:41 p.m.
Closed Case
GWPD officers responded to a report of an intoxicated non-GW affiliated man yelling at contractors at Kogan Plaza. Upon making contact with the subject, the man became agitated and threw objects at the officers before fleeing the scene. GWPD officers then apprehended the man, barred him from campus and arrested him. Metropolitan Police Department officers transported the man to the Second District Police Station. Case closed. No suspects or witnesses.
LIQUOR LAW VIOLATIONS
Thurston Hall
10/4/24 – 1:37 a.m.
Closed Case
GWPD officers responded to a report of an intoxicated female student. When the GW Emergency Medical Response Group arrived on scene, they medically evaluated the student. She refused further treatment.
SOPHIE
GW’s endowment dropped $200 million between April and July, which Chief Financial Officer Bruno Fernandes attributed to a decrease in value of the D.C. real estate market.
Fernandes said the endowment drop is “entirely due” to a depreciation of the District’s real estate market and previous increases in interest rates by the Federal Reserve between March 2022 and July 2023. The Board of Trustees said last week that the University’s endowment — a pool of funds and investments gifted to the University, including allocated funds for scholarships and individual schools — decreased from $2.8 billion to $2.6 billion in quarter two, marking the first time the endowment has dropped since February 2023.
Trustees meet publicly three times a year to give updates from their respective committees and include the current endowment level in their reports.
“Inflation, market value and the ebb and flow of financial markets are all key factors that contribute to endowment fluctuations,” Fernandes said in an email. “The reduction in Q2 endowment value is entirely due to a downward valuation of the real estate market in the District of Columbia and previous increases in interest rates.”
Fernandes said GW’s endowment is invested in a “diverse portfolio” of funds that are regularly adjusted, with the goal of growing at a rate above inflation while providing a stable stream of income to support the funds’ purposes. He said officials regularly track and monitor the endowment to maintain it as an “enduring financial foundation.”
The endowment has not sat at $2.6 billion since February 2023. The drop comes after years of increase in the
endowment’s value, which rose from $1.8 billion in fiscal year 2020 to $2.8 billion in February.
GW has faced smallscale fluctuations in endowments before, like a $20 million dollar decrease FY2019, which later rose by more than $20 million in FY2020.
GW also posted a job listing for a development and alumni relations donor fund compliance director in early August — which has since been removed — listing the main job duties as partnering with campus offices to address “unspent endowment payout” and finding solutions to encourage “consistent” spending.
Fernandes said officials created the donor fund compliance director position to maintain trust and accountability with donors.
Experts in higher education finance said fluctuations in universities’ endowment are usually based on interest and other outside factors, including market performance. Experts also said officials’ creation of the donor compliance position will allow the University to unlock funds to support GW’s academic mission and ensure that funds are spent in accordance to the donor’s requests.
Ali Sanati, an assistant professor of finance at American University, said endowments, which are typically nonprofit organization investments, differ depending how the University opts to invest their endowment. Sanati said professional fund managers and orga-
nization constraints are the primary actors in this allocation process.
GW releases a yearly Endowment Stewardship Report providing data on the endowment, but does not disclose investment allocation details.
Sanati said it is difficult to “disentangle” which investments would have contributed the downturn due to a lack of “detailed data” and GW’s diverse endowments. He said over the last few years some universities have grown their endowments, while others have done “really badly” due to static performance in nonpublic markets.
“Endowments that had most of their allocations to publicly traded assets, publicly traded stocks, especially in the U.S., they’ve been performing really well over the past year,” Sanati said. Sanati said GW does not necessarily need to change investment strategy based on short-term fluctuations in endowments due to markets’ “lack of predictability,” but officials should instead focus on “long-term performance.” He said it is the duty of endowment managers, the Board of Trustees and other monitoring figures to follow “diversification” and “long-term potential” principles when making strategic investment decisions. “If these analyses are reasonably done and with due diligence, on average, over a long period of time, they turn out to yield a very good performance for the organization,” Sanati said.
GSPM to relaunch Semester in Washington program after cancelled summer session
ELIJAH EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
The Graduate School of Political Management will relaunch a semesterlong program offered to non-GW undergraduates to study in the District in spring 2025 following an unsuccessful attempt to restart the program last summer due to low enrollment.
Tobias Greiff, the associate dean for academic affairs at the College of Professional Studies who oversees the Semester in Washington Program, said officials had to cancel its intended relaunch for summer 2024 because of low enrollment despite “hundreds” of initially interested students. Sarah Gunel, the former GSPM director of operations who oversaw the revamped program’s development, said the program initially struggled to secure adequate internships and financial aid, which pushed interested students away.
Undergraduates from other universities can apply to the Semester in Washington program — run by GSPM, which is housed under CPS — to study at GW in D.C. for a semester and take graduate-level courses on top of “hands-on experiences” and internships, according to the program’s website. The program is returning after a three-year hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and is now directly managed by GSPM instead of CPS, as it was before the pandemic.
Greiff said Semester in Washington’s return centers
around GSPM’s direct management of the program, which grants participants greater access to the graduate school’s resources like networking events and career advising. Greiff said the relaunched program — which will have one core course as well as elective options, an internship course and a research course — incorporates GSPM faculty to teach classes for the students.
“Before COVID, it was structurally its own entity in the college,” Greiff said. “I think that that was just too small for what it could do. I think it can do better, so we have moved this into a larger experiential learning unit.”
Greiff said the program’s summer 2024 cohort initially
attracted hundreds of “leads” — or interested students who inquired for more information, engaged with the website or began the application portal — but it “lost enrollments,” forcing officials to cancel the session.
He said a cohort of 15 students would make up a “good start” to the program. He said he did not have the numbers for how many students had applied to the program before its cancellation for the summer.
“I think decisions made in late spring that for students, it felt like it wasn’t the right time for them to come,” Greiff said.
A University spokesperson declined to comment on when the program was for-
mally canceled. The initial announcement of the program’s relaunch in January 2024 stated Semester in Washington would be “offered year-round,” and the website briefly listed a fall application deadline from January to June, before being taken down in July, according to web archives. Greiff said Semester in Washington “historically” ran in the spring and summer since its launch in 1995 and there were never plans for a fall 2024 session. Gunel said CPS Dean Liesl Riddle asked her to take over the revamped program’s development in October 2023 and begin designing the program eight months before its intended June 2024 launch.
NICHOLAS WARE | PHOTOGRAPHER
Graduate School of Political Management located in the Media & Public Affairs building on 21st Street.
SAGE RUSSELL | SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR Board of Trustees Secretary Avram "Ave" Tucker during a meeting.
SAGE RUSSELL | SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR
Pedestrians pass the gates that surround University Yard on H Street.
Textile museum employees continue push for pay equity in year after union vote
More than a year after employees at the George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum voted to unionize, workers are pushing in ongoing contract negotiations for pay that accounts for D.C.’s cost of living and their educational qualifications.
While GW officials and textile museum employees have agreed on “administrative” terms, like defining a work week and a fulltime worker as a starting point, they have not reached a consensus on higher compensation and benefits, which are the bargaining unit’s main goals, textile museum Program Associate for Academic Engagement Katrina Orsini said. Textile museum staff said GW’s receptiveness to requests for wage increases has been slow, citing a constant back and forth about the human resources payment structure, which they say stunts progress on negotiations.
Orsini said the bargaining unit is also requesting benefits like mileage reimbursement and parking benefits. Staff often drive textile museum materials to and from the textile museum’s archive campus in Ashburn, Virginia, she said.
Textile museum workers said when the bargaining unit and officials begin to agree on small payment increases, officials come to subsequent meetings and change the structure of how employees are paid to only allow wage upticks for the lower-paid employees, meaning the union has to rewrite payment articles.
“Having to rethink about the structure again is delaying talking about the money another two weeks and another two weeks,” Orsini said. “I’m hoping that very soon that part can be done, we agree where everyone stands in the HR system and then really talk about the numbers.”
In September 2023, nine of
13 eligible museum employees unanimously voted to unionize and affiliate with Service Employees International Union Local 500.
The textile museum employees’ vote to unionize came as the textile museum accepted a $25 million donation to fund an endowment, and employees felt the textile museum’s increased funding should have been used in part to increase their salaries, Orsini said.
She said they’re also asking for more transparency on how officials will use the money from the donation.
The union’s goal is to reach a salary that meets the D.C. living wage, which is the amount the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Living Wage Calculator determines is needed for people to fund their basic needs. The D.C.
living wage, according to MIT, is about $49,700 per year for a single person without children. Employees said lower-paid textile museum employees make about $39,000 per year, despite all having received master’s degrees.
“We have full-time staff here who don’t make that, who have to work a second job to make a living, to be able to live in this expensive city,” Orsini said. “No one should have to work two, full-time jobs to live.”
Orsini said higher wages would help the museum boost its employee retention rate, which she said is often low because employees leave for higher-paying jobs at other city museums like the Smithsonian Institution. She said textile experts who have been at the textile museum for more than 20 years can’t
Elliott officials again delay release of annual diversity action plan
Elliott School of International Affairs officials have again delayed the release of the school’s annual diversity action plan after not publishing the plan as projected last year.
Elliott School officials state on their website an intent to publish an Inclusive Excellence plan each September since 2019 that details annual goals and strategies to advance diversity, equity and inclusion at the school, but officials said they are continuing to “review” this year’s plan after GW released its University-wide diversity action plan last month. The delay marks the second time officials have missed the September launch goal after they did not release a plan for the 2023-24 academic year.
Elliott leaders in January said officials were reworking the contents of the 2023-24 plan after the Supreme Court’s June 2023 decision to end affirmative action but said they still intended to release one for the 2024-25 academic year. Lakeisha Harrison, the Elliott School’s assistant dean for student services, diversity, equity and inclusion, said the 2024-25 action plan is a “priority” for the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and will be released this semester but did not provide an exact date.
“The thoughtful process of reviewing our plan involves many individuals within the Elliott community and has been handled with great care,” Harrison said. Harrison declined to comment on if the council drafted and reviewed an action plan over the summer and where the council is in the development process. Members of the Elliott School’s
MAX COLLINS | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council said the Council is meeting for the first time this academic year on Oct. 10.
Harrison said the Elliott School is reviewing the action plan for the 2024-25 academic year in light of the Office of the Provost’s diversity, equity and inclusion plan which officials released last month. The plan includes recommendations made by student, faculty and staff subgroups and comes more than two years after officials conducted a diversity climate survey in April 2022 to improve campus-wide diversity.
The report also lists actions the University has already taken or “plan to explore.” Some faculty said the plan is generic and excluded recommendations like metrics to track the progress of diversifying GW.
The report states that the University has allocated an unspecified amount of new funding for nearly every individual school to create a diversity, equity and inclusion office, with eight schools already establishing one and the College of Professional Studies in the process of creating one. These offices will regularly meet with the Office of Diversity, Equity and Community Engagement beginning next academic year, according to the report. Elliott leaders released the first diversity action plan in 2019 and released plans an -
nually through 2022. The Elliott School’s dean; school leaders; the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; and the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council, which includes seven faculty and staff as well as two student representatives, are set to draft and review an action plan each summer, according to the school’s DEI page. The most recent plan on the website is from the 2022-23 academic year and centers around four goals which include recruiting more diverse students, improving the “climate of inclusion” at the school, incorporating more DEI and social justice into the curriculum and creating infrastructure to prioritize these goals. The 2021 and 2020 action plans included the same four pillars but outlined strategies for achieving them, like increasing funding for diversity fellowships and improving already established resources and events like cultural activities and focus groups. The school previously listed a diversity statement on its website, last updated in 2016, but the statement was removed sometime after November 2023, according to web archives. The statement read that the Elliott School is prioritizing increasing representation and inclusion of individuals historically disadvantaged in the U.S. international affairs community and higher education.
giving managers hiring rights — Orsini said.
Orsini said she hopes the collective bargaining agreement with the textile museum is a “big step” for the University, especially as other groups like graduate students are unionizing on campus.
GW and SEIU agreed to meet on a biweekly basis beginning in January, University spokesperson Julia Metjian said. Metjian said the University is “optimistic” that contract terms will be finalized this semester.
“GW is committed to fostering a good working relationship with its unionized employees that is both responsive to their concerns and consistent with the University’s values,” Metjian said.
Several groups at GW have demanded collective bargaining agreements over the last few years with the hopes of improving salaries and benefits. Residents and fellows at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences voted to unionize last year, and union leaders at the GW Hospital have been battling with the hospital’s owner for years for union recognition and bargaining.
“up and leave” because their field and knowledge base is more niche. Museum curators and archivists typically need master’s degrees, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Orsini said the bargaining unit meets with GW’s Associate General Counsel Charles Pollack, the textile museum’s Director John Wetenhall, Deputy Provost Terry Murphy, a human resources representative and two SEIU representatives, as well as an SEIU organizer. The bargaining unit writes their demands in articles, which are presented at the meetings, while the other party takes those articles and returns them with revisions at the following meeting. The parties also have not agreed on telework, union and management rights, which are relatively administrative — like
Nicoll Botero, the textile museum’s visitor experience specialist, said the bargaining unit’s biggest nonnegotiable demand is wage increases. A salary increase is necessary, so employees can live, not just survive, she said.
“We all want equity in terms of the labor force. We’re all highly qualified individuals, everyone has a master’s and years upon years of experience,” Botero said. Botero said the timeline for finalizing contract negotiations is uncertain. She said GW doesn’t seem to be strongly considering the request for wage increases, despite the employees’ academic qualifications.
“We have finally started to make some movement, but it’s still not getting us to where we want to be,” Botero said.
Foggy Bottom encampment clearings foil residents’ ‘last resort,’ advocates say
People experiencing homelessness come to Foggy Bottom for its safety and local support resources, though an influx in community complaints over the last year have led to more encampment evictions, advocates say.
Advocates from D.C. homelessness nonprofit organizations said unhoused people often settle in Foggy Bottom after city and National Park Service officials evict them from encampments in other parts of the District because the neighborhood is safe and has a community of unhoused individuals. But advocates said complaints from Foggy Bottom residents about a lack of encampment cleanliness over the last year and a new no-camping rule in D.C. have led to more encampment clearings, which pose safety risks for many unhoused people who lose their community, belongings and connection to outreach workers when they’re forced to relocate.
“The encampments in Foggy Bottom are, for many people, the encampments of last resort in D.C.,” said Jesse Rabinowitz, the campaign and communications director at the National Homelessness Law Center and a former outreach worker for Miriam’s Kitchen, a Foggy Bottom-based homelessness nonprofit.
A 2023 census of encampments recorded 100 encampment sites across D.C., with 20 percent of city encampments falling in Ward 2, which encompasses Foggy Bottom. The survey found 210 unhoused individuals living outside and 194 tents or structures.
The Office of the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, which is responsible for overseeing encampments on land owned by D.C., closed more encampments so far this year than it did in all of 2023, putting encampment closures on track to double in 2024. NPS and DMHHS officials have cleared 23 encampments so far in 2024, a jump from 13 total last year, including at least seven Foggy Bottom sites in May that evicted about 70 residents.
The largest site, Triangle Park on Virginia Avenue between 21st and 22nd streets, accommodated about 40 people.
NPS on May 15 began enforcing a strict no-camping rule on all NPS land in the District, which NPS officials said came after D.C.’s visitation rates increased as pandemic restrictions ended, leading to “growing tension” between those using parks and people living in encampments. The rule prompted clearings in Foggy Bottom at Triangle Park, Rawlings-Wittman Park, a park near Godey Lime Kilns and 26th and L streets that week. District officials also evicted about 14 people from an encampment on 21st and E streets in late July, following record-
high temperatures in D.C. Rabinowitz — who conducted outreach to individuals living in Foggy Bottom encampments with Miriam’s Kitchen from 2015 to 2023 — said he knows of people who moved to Foggy Bottom encampments after officials cleared them from other D.C. encampments, including the K Street underpass in NoMa and McPherson Square.
Rabinowitz said when officials clear Foggy Bottom encampments, officials break up groups and force people to live in dangerous locations, like under bridges and highways. He said when officials remove unhoused individuals’ tents during cold or hot weather, they are risking exposing people to hypothermia or third-degree burns.
“National Park Service and the Bowser administration have made it illegal to be homeless in most parts of the city, and Foggy Bottom is one of the few areas left where people feel like they can exist,” Rabinowitz said.
Shelly Byers, who lived at Triangle Park since March 2023, also said she had previously been cleared from McPherson Square. She said encampment clearings make it difficult for her and others to find support resources, like nonprofit outreach workers, because they don’t know where she moved.
“We get attached to them, they get attached to us and then suddenly we’re all over the place trying to find a place to live,” Byers said.
The Elliott School of International Affairs on a bright day.
DANIEL HEUER
LEXI CRITCHETT | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR
The George Washington University Museum and Textile Museum located on 21st Street.
ALEXIA MASSOUD REPORTER
New Jersey congressman calls on Granberg to protect Jewish students
HANNAH
Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) called on University President Ellen Granberg and eight other university presidents to publicly outline their plans to combat antisemitism on campus in a letter Friday.
Gottheimer said since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the outbreak of the war in Gaza, there has been a “surge” in antisemitic acts of violence across the country, including on college campuses where Jewish students have endured threats and intimidation tactics. He urged Granberg and the university presidents at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Pennsylvania and Rutgers, Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Brown and New York universities to form concrete plans to protect Jewish students.
“As a university president, it is imperative that you prepare a detailed plan to ensure the safety of Jewish students,” Gottheimer said in the letter.
He said pro-Palestinian protesters, faculty and staff have have assaulted, harassed and vandalized Jewish students’ places of worship. Students last November said someone tore down more than a dozen posters depicting Israeli hostages in the GW Hillel building. During
GW’s pro-Palestinian encampment last spring, some Jewish students, faculty and national organizations criticized the encampment and condemned protesters for posting signs that read “Students will leave when Israelis leave,” and “Students will go back home when Israelis go back to Europe, US, etc. (their real homes).”
Gotthiemer said in accordance with Title VI and Executive Order 13899 — which aimed to combat antisemitism by expanding the definition of discrimination under Title VI to include discrimination against Jewish individuals — administrators at colleges and universities across the country have an “obligation” to protect Jewish students against antisemitism, harassment and intimidation.
Gottheimer, a Democrat and member of the House of Representatives, has represented New Jersey’s 5th congressional district since 2017.
“This is a defining moment, and we cannot stand idly by as protesters have and continue to call for the death of Jews and the annihilation of the State of Israel,” Gottheimer said. “While differing views are a critical part of building cultural understanding, they cannot provide a bully pulpit for those who seek to divide others and spew hate.”
The Jewish Federation of
Retired mathematics professor, faculty senator dies at 78
TYLER IGLESIAS
Murli Gupta, a professor emeritus of mathematics and former faculty senator, died on Aug. 19. He was 78. Gupta taught mathematics at GW for 45 years, where he researched numerical analysis, computationally fluid dynamics and mathematics education and served as a faculty senator for over two decades before retiring in May. His colleagues in the mathematics department and Faculty Senate remember him as a loving father and grandfather, an advocate for faculty and students and a kind and trusting friend.
Gupta received his bachelor’s of science from Agra University in India in 1963, later receiving his master’s of science degree and his doctorate in mathematics from the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada, where he met his wife, according to his obituary and faculty profile.
Gupta chaired the mathematics department from 2015 to 2017, was a member of the ALEKS program advisory group from 2017 to 2023 and the Director of the Colonial Math Challenge from 2008 to 2010, according to the Department of Mathematics Chair Frank Baginski.
Baginski said Gupta was also the director of the GW Summer Program for Women in Mathematics from 1995 to 2013. The fiveweek program focused on cultivating undergraduate women in math by exposing them to advanced math coursework and positioning them to pursue graduate degrees.
Valentina Harizanov, a professor of mathematics, said Gupta has “touched many lives” of his students, collaborators, colleagues and friends. She said she used to teach and guest lecture at the GW Summer Program for Women in Mathematics, with two of its alums becoming doctoral students under her.
“Murli was a warm, caring and encouraging director who made a huge positive impact on the lives of so many young women in mathematics,” Harizanov said.
Harizanov said Gupta’s research included 34 publications and 489 citations over his career, including his early research starting with computers that required a punch card input. She added that Gupta gave her some of his original punch cards, which were used to input data and programs into a computer, to show to her Computability Theory class.
Daniel Ullman, a professor of mathematics, said Gupta was a friend for many years and a “fiendish” Scrabble player who loved his family.
Greater Washington in June announced it would give GW Hillel a $25,000 grant to combat antisemitism on campus.
Alums and Reps. Andrew Garbarino (R-NY), Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), William Timmons (R-SC), Jill Tokuda (D-HI), Erin Houchin (R-IN), Darren
“I do want to say that he built a wonderful family with his wife: Four children, all delightful, and seven grandchildren,” Ullman said in an email. “He was rightfully proud of all of them.”
E. Arthur Robinson, an emeritus professor of mathematics, said he and Gupta both retired in May after being friends and colleagues for nearly 40 years, where they worked on many projects together.
“Professor Gupta was devoted to his teaching and to GW’s students,” Robinson said in an email. “He was a prolific researcher and gifted administrator, including a stint as department chair. I will very much miss him.”
Gupta served numerous roles across the University, including representing the Columbian College of Arts & Sciences in the Faculty Senate for 22 years, where he served as the chair of the Appointments, Salary and Promotion Policies Committee and a member of the Fiscal Planning & Budgeting Committee and the Benefits Advisory Committee. Gupta also served as parliamentarian of CCAS from 2020 to 2023 and on the CCAS Promotion and Tenure Committee from 2009 to 2017, according to Baginski.
University President Ellen Granberg led a moment of silence for Gupta during September’s Faculty Senate meeting after Katrin Schultheiss, an associate professor of history and faculty senator, gave a dedication to Gupta.
Schultheiss said Gupta was a “respected and beloved” member of the senate and an advocate for faculty rights, fairness, safety and promoting the mission of the University.
“He had a wonderful sense of humor and a clear moral compass that, among many other qualities, will be deeply missed by all his Senate colleagues,” Schultheiss said in an email. Phil Wirtz, a professor of decision sciences and psychological and brain sciences and a faculty senator, said he had known Gupta since 1990 through their service on the Faculty Senate. He said Gupta was a “role model” for generations of
faculty.
“Many of us relied very heavily on Murli’s guidance, extraordinary judgment and characteristic good humor even when things looked bleak,” Wirtz said in an email.
Wirtz said Gupta was “instrumental” in implementing and monitoring many University initiatives, including faculty compensation, tenure, promotion and health insurance, the Medical Faculty Associates financial crisis and the creation of the School of Nursing.
“Murli personified the ideal faculty member: always fighting the good fight, and always there as a friend to support you whenever you needed it,” Wirtz said in an email.
Susan LeLacheur, a professor of physician assistant studies who served with Gupta as co-chair of the Appointments, Salary and Promotion Policies Committee, said he was a “tireless” leader in governance at the University.
“He modeled diligence, organization and inclusivity in every aspect of his work, always with the goal of helping GW to be the best it can be,” LeLacheur said in an email. “He never hesitated to press the Faculty Senate or the Board of Directors on issues of fairness.”
Sarah Wagner, a professor of anthropology and a faculty senator, said Gupta was a kind person and a “model” colleague in the senate. She said in a statement read at a September Faculty Senate meeting that Gupta led through “kindness, competence and equanimity.”
“For championing the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion, over and over again, for insisting on transparency and active shooter training, for doing all of this with unflappable goodwill and humility,” Wagner said in a statement at the meeting.
Gupta’s funeral service was held on Aug. 25 in Falls Church, Virginia. He is survived by his wife Elsie, his four children, seven grandchildren, four siblings, nieces and nephews and other relatives in the U.S., India and Canada, according to his obituary.
Soto (D-FL) and Neal Dunn (RFL) penned a letter to Granberg last October calling for officials to take “immediate steps” to protect its Jewish students.
Four students from GW’s Students for Justice Palestine projected anti-Israel and anti-GW statements onto the Gelman
Library last October, which the letter states represents a pattern of increasing antisemitism at GW. Alumni called on Granberg last November to form a “clear plan” on how faculty and University leadership will combat antisemitism following the projections.
SGA launches working groups on speech, inclusion, transparency
JACKSON RICKERT STAFF WRITER
Government Association President Ethan Fitzgerald formed a trio of student and alumni working groups this fall to develop policy recommendations for officials that address concerns about free speech, financial transparency and inclusion on campus.
Fitzgerald said the SGA executive branch will recruit five to 10 undergraduate or graduate students for each group, a student co-chair appointed by Fitzgerald, a co-chair for each committee from GW’s administration appointed by the Division of Student Affairs and a GW alum appointed by the GW Alumni Association.
He said each group’s student members will have biweekly conversations with the alumni and GW administration co-chairs at meetings, garner input from the student body on their current issues with free speech, financial transparency and inclusion on campus and draft written reports to present to officials.
“We are the ones that are being impacted, that are being held accountable by these policies, and I think a good university makes sure that the stakeholder groups that are impacted are part of those conversations,” Fitzgerald said.
“Conversations around free speech and campus inclusion have popped up, not that they’re new, but they’ve become more prevalent conversations on campus,” Fitzgerald said. “We saw those as important issues that a lot of students across the spectrum thought were important.” Fitzgerald said he wants to be as “hands-off as possible,” and once the groups are formed, they will operate “independently” and without SGA moderation. He said SGA members were still permitted to apply, but he wanted the groups to remain separate from student government “politics.” He said they looked to recruit students who have “experience” advocating for the respective topics.
He said the working groups are separate from the two councils former SGA President Arielle Geismar launched last year to advocate for Jewish and Muslim students, which struggled to meet because of a lack of interest in joining the councils from the student body and SGA members. He said the new groups will be “more effective” because they will have an administrative co-chair, which he said will ensure University administration awareness about concerns students bring up at meetings. The executive order for
Fitzgerald said the groups will host biweekly meetings to form “policy recommendations” that address issues students raise about their voices not being accurately represented in University decisions. Fitzgerald said the groups will need to reach a twothirds consensus to make a recommendation to officials. He said he has had conversations with the the Board of Trustees, University President Ellen Granberg and Dean of Students Colette Coleman, who have said they will take the groups’ recommendations “seriously.” He said the administration has not appointed cochairs for the groups but will look for faculty members who are “passionate” about the issues and have “subject matter experience.” Fitzgerald said he wanted to give students a chance to come together and make “tangible policy change” through discussions with officials to fulfill his “job” of giving students a voice. He said he began developing proposals for the groups over the summer, so students could begin work during the fall semester.
the councils, sponsored by Geismar and Fitzgerald last December, stated that the groups would meet with officials, but Geismar said the councils never planned the meetings or appointed both commissioners to lead the councils.
“I think what was wrong with those groups was that there wasn’t that buy-in, there wasn’t that stakeholder input,” Fitzgerald said.
The SGA closed applications last Monday, and Fitzgerald said the SGA executive branch began conducting interviews last week. Fitzgerald said he received 30 applications from students and hopes to have the groups begin their biweekly meetings by the end of the month.
Fitzgerald said the group on free speech will collect student input on GW’s existing free speech policies and propose changes. The application outlines the initiative’s goal to have a “consensus-focused approach” to free speech by recruiting students from diverse backgrounds who will share their life experiences and unique perspectives to best represent the greater GW community.
The working groups come after months of proPalestinian student protests and discussions with administrators about their demands for financial disclosure and divestment from companies supplying arms to Israel. GW’s Strengthening our Community website, which officials launched in January, outlines the University’s mission to foster productive dialogue within the GW community, strengthen support for community members and increase safety and security through faculty working groups, but students have requested student representation on the Board of Trustees’ Committee on Finance and Investments to allow for further input on GW’s financial handlings.
ARWEN CLEMANS | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR
A bird flies past the Capitol building on a sunny day in August.
HATCHET FILE PHOTO Murli Gupta during a Faculty Senate meeting in 2020.
Student
DANIEL
Black and Latino doctors more likely to treat Medicaid patients: study
Researchers at the Milken Institute School of Public Health found that Black and Latino family physicians are more likely to treat patients with Medicaid than their white and Asian counterparts in a study published last month.
The study — led by Anushree Vichare, an assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Milken — found that 52 percent of family physicians participate in Medicaid, and Latino and Black doctors saw on average 17 percent to 21 percent more Medicaid beneficiaries than white and Asian doctors. Vichare said the study aimed to understand the role of family medicine in caring for minority populations.
“My interest is primarily around improving access to care for minoritized communities and those that are socioeconomically disadvantaged, such as individuals that are covered by Medicaid,” Vichare said.
Medicaid is a program that combines federal and state government efforts to offer health coverage to individuals with limited income and resources. It primarily serves women, children, people from low-income socioeconomic backgrounds and people of color, according to 2023 Medicaid patient data.
The study determined that there is a correlation between physician race and ethnicity and Medicaid participation. Vichare said since
Medicaid populations are diverse, language, ethnic and racial similarities between physicians and their patients — as well as diversity within the family physician profession — are beneficial in the primary care setting and in expanding access to health care.
“There is robust evidence sug-
gesting that improving the diversity of the workforce and having a health workforce that is representative of the diversity of our nation is extremely important, and we know that there is a lack of diversity,” Vichare said.
In the 2022-23 academic year, 10 percent of medical school students
Faculty senators press officials on campus security, U-Yard fencing
From Page 1
Officials paused the continuation of the plan in October after the senate passed the resolution, pushing back the second phase of implementation from September to February. Tate said in April he paused the plan because the department “didn’t want to rush things,” especially as students began regular campus demonstrations in the fall in response to the war in Gaza but said the resolution “certainly wasn’t a factor” in the delay.
Jonathan Eakle, a faculty senator and professor of curriculum and pedagogy, asked Granberg if officials have made security plans for the upcoming one-year anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Granberg deferred the question to Goodly, who said starting Sunday, GWPD officers will
be on 12-hour shifts to have more “visible and present” officers on campus.
He also said officials are activating their Emergency Operations Center on Monday to help manage any necessary emergency response, and they have been in touch with the Metropolitan Police Department to ensure they are aware of any issues that may “pop-up.” He said MPD confirmed they will respond “as needed.”
“I think at the moment, given that we don’t know what next week will bring, I think we are as prepared as we can be,” Goodly said. Brinkerhoff also asked Provost Chris Bracey during his report about GW’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion in the wake of officials’ release of a University-wide DEI action plan late last month. She asked if officials met with members of the Diversity Program Review Team to
explain why officials moved forward on certain proposals and not others, pointing to reports of faculty members’ concerns that the plan is generic and left out their suggestions.
Bracey said he will follow up with members of the team and take their feedback into account when implementing the action plan.
Goodly, presenting a facilities update, said the University’s energy conservation initiative has led to less energy consumption on campus, and the University is on track to reduce energy use by 15 percent by 2026. He said one of the most significant ongoing projects is the process of replacing more than 45,000 light fixtures with LED lighting, adding that the measure will reduce utility costs by more than $700,000, with the entire conservation process expected to save GW more than $1.5 million.
across the country were Black and 12 percent were Latino. The study highlights the significance of having a diverse health care workforce, particularly in the context of ongoing challenges to minority representation in the field, like decreased enrollment in medical school due to financial hardship.
“It’s also essential to ensure that underrepresented in medicine students are not only recruited or given fair opportunities to get recruited in the health profession, but they should also receive equal opportunities for professional growth and to thrive in the medical profession,” said Vichare.
The study analyzed 2016 Medicaid claims data from the Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System, paired with responses from a 2016-17 American Board of Family Medicine physician certification questionnaire to determine family physicians’ demographics and Medicaid participation.
Andrew Bazemore, the senior vice president for research and policy at the American Board of Family Medicine and one of the study’s contributors, said the data allowed researchers to pair physicians with the Medicaid beneficiaries they were treating and let them observe the demographics of patients and physicians.
Bazemore said the consolidation of the health care system and increasing scarcity of health care access due to rising costs have made it increasingly difficult for Medicaid beneficiaries to receive primary care since 2016 when the data was collected.
“Obviously, the Medicaid programs continue to expand, and that’s at a rate that hasn’t been matched by the expansion of family doctors,” Bazemore said.
Aston to accept clients during hypothermia season, DC officials say
From Page 1
Thomas — who serves on the Community Advisory Team, a group of local Foggy Bottom and West End and District officials overseeing The Aston’s conversion — said the shelter will house people like him, who are experiencing homelessness and don’t seek entry into congregate shelters for safety or privacy concerns.
“This shelter is precedent,” Thomas said. “It’s very important, and I’ve spoken to a lot of other homeless people I’ve helped, and some of them will be moving in. It’s ahead of its time.”
Officials initially slated The Aston’s opening for November 2023, but a slew of complications — including challenges securing a provider, two lawsuits attempting to halt the shelter’s opening, months of repairs
and building code violations — delayed the shelter’s opening five times. Officials most recently projected its opening for Oct. 1 and selected the shelter’s inaugural 50-person cohort but postponed the debut indefinitely late last month after the building failed an inspection due to insufficient fire exits and “door closers.”
A D.C. Department of Human Services spokesperson said officials expect The Aston to begin serving clients during hypothermia season, which is in effect from Nov. 1 to March 31.
When the shelter opens, 50 tenants will gain entry into the shelter for up to five months, according to a March DHS presentation.
Hilary Silver, a GW professor of sociology, international affairs, public policy and public administration, said many unhoused people avoid congregate shelters because the facilities sepa-
Student group works to combat tuberculosis by lobbying Congress
ISABELLA
A student organization is advocating for the passage of a Senate bill that provides government funding to treat tuberculosis.
GW Partners in Health, a chapter of an international nonprofit, is lobbying members of Congress to support the End TB Now Act as part of the nonprofit’s nationwide campaign to pass the bill, which passed unanimously in the Senate on Sept. 19, but the companion bill has not yet been brought to the House floor. The bipartisan bill aims to support the diagnosis and treatment of all individuals affected by the disease by ensuring government funding supports the development of “person-centered programs,” coordinating with other organizations to pursue an “aggressive” research agenda and training health care workers.
Tuberculosis is an airborne disease that attacks the lungs but can affect almost any part of the body, and if left untreated, can be fatal. The disease is the 13th leading cause of death worldwide and is the deadliest infectious disease in the world, with 1.3 million deaths recorded in 2022, and more than 95 percent occurring in developing countries, according to the Partners in Health website.
The Partners in Health website states that people consider tuberculosis as a disease of the past because of its peak in the 18th and 19th centuries, so it does not get media attention despite its deadly effects.
“People treat TB differently, oftentimes depending on your socioeconomic status and your access to health care,” junior Kaitlyn Burkhardt, the advocacy lead for GW PIH, said. “The End TB Now Act aims to reduce that disparity by making a standard of care letting people know that this is how you should be treating TB, and then
holding people accountable for that treatment.”
The bill states support that the objectives set in 2015 by the World Health Organization End TB Strategy, which includes goals like curbing the number of tuberculosis cases diagnosed by 80 percent by 2030 and protecting all families affected by tuberculosis from “catastrophic costs” by 2030. The strategy outlines a global standard of care that involves patient-centered care and increased research and innovation that the U.S.-funded foreign assistance programs must meet to fight tuberculosis.
Burkhardt added that the organization’s advocacy efforts this year are centralized around contacting members of Congress, and said they have been “pestering” representatives with emails and calls as well as meeting with members of Congress directly. Burkhardt said she held half-hour meetings with six members of Congress, including Rep. Andy Kim (D-NJ) — who has confirmed he supports the bill — and Sen. Cory Booker’s (D-NJ) team, in recent months to discuss the bill.
The GW organization also participated in PIH’s annual Hill Day on Aug. 12, where members of all chapters meet with members of Congress and learn about the organization’s annual health care issue of focus so they can lobby lawmakers. On this year’s Hill Day, Burkhardt said PIH held 129 congressional meetings, and six weeks later, the End TB Now Act passed in the Senate.
Burkhardt said the organization’s goal was for the End TB Now Act to reach the House floor before the current session of Congress ended, but that did not occur. She said the organization will try to keep their momentum up until the session reconvenes in November by continually meeting with and contacting members of Congress. She said the national organization chooses a new monetary fundraising goal for all chapters to con-
rate people by sex.
“There has always been this hiatus, this gap in the shelter structure, and now, this is a good way to fill it,” Silver said. “If they’re willing to allow people, couples, to sleep in the same unit, then that’s a good thing because, otherwise, people will not come to shelters.”
Claudia Solari, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute, said noncongregate shelters are ideal for medically vulnerable people because the private rooms reduce the risk of illnesses. She added that noncongregate shelters make it easier for patients to see their medical providers in privacy.
“The homelessness population is as diverse as the broader population, and if we’re going to make a difference there, we have to acknowledge the diversity and obviously all kinds of needs,” Solari said.
tribute toward each year. Although PIH has been advocating for tuberculosis care since the inception of their organization, they decided to focus their fundraising efforts on tuberculosis as well this year, Burkhardt said.
Burkhardt said last year, the national and GW chapters of PIH raised money for the Maternal Center for Excellence in Sierra Leone. Through nationwide fundraising efforts, the nonprofit was able to provide 24-hour electricity, training for clinicians, a fully stocked pharmacy and a blood bank at the facility, according to their website.
She said the organization hopes to raise money through fundraising events like bake sales and braceletmaking events for X-rays, drugs used for treatment of tuberculosis and nutritional aid.
“We’ve known how to treat it
and how to prevent it for about 100 years now,” Burkhardt said. “Its progression around the world is less so its pathology and more so man-made and due to poverty and social injustice around the world.”
Junior Emmie Then, the fundraising lead for GW PIH, said the chapter’s first general body meeting of the academic year Sept. 9 was dedicated to educating new and current members about the disease. She said they discussed the history of tuberculosis, relevant statistics and the relevance of the End TB Now Act. Then said GW PIH plans to spread their message to a broader audience through fundraising activities around campus, including a bake sale in Kogan Plaza on Oct. 25 and a potential tie dye or bracelet-making event. Then said the proceeds from these events will go
to the umbrella Partners in Health organization.
GW PIH is also planning to invite a professor from the Milken School of Public Health to speak about tuberculosis and global health care, she said.
If the End TB Now Act passes, Then said the organization plans to focus on the Paul Farmer Memorial Resolution, named after the founder of Partners in Health. The bill would reduce unnecessary and preventable deaths, promote universal health care and increase global health spending, she said.
“They’re not just a savior complex organization,” she said. “They go in, they help educate, they help grow, and then once they’re able to have that specific area succeed on their own, then they take a step back to allow them to have that growth opportunity.”
COURTESY OF GW PARTNERS IN HEALTH
Members of GW Partners in Health pose for a photo.
SAGE RUSSELL | SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR
A student exits the Milken Institute School of Public Health as a person walks past.
OPINIONS
“I’m learning to adapt to this new liberal world I have entered — maybe the ultimate challenge, after all.”
—REAGAN HIGGINS on 9/30/24
After repeated lapses in transparency, GWPD must stop arming officers
The past year and despite the GW community’s objections, multiple officers in the GW Police Department have begun carrying guns since the Board of Trustees’ decision to arm part of the department in 2023. Former interim University President Mark Wrighton and GWPD Chief James Tate said the decision was a response to heightened gun violence and recent school shootings and served as a measure that would ensure “specially trained” campus police were ready in the event of a severe emergency. Alongside the arming rollout, officials made a series of safety assurances to the GW community, like firearm and use of force training and two safety committees of students, faculty and staff to oversee the decision.
But last week former GWPD officers said the “rigorous” arming training that we were promised wasn’t a reality.
Last year, The Hatchet’s editorial board said arming GWPD wasn’t the answer to gun violence. Months later, it called on trustees to better explain the arming decision after months of calls for more transparency. And this year, amid the claims from former officers of substandard firearm training, storage and registration procedures, the editorial board argues that officials must immediately halt arming officers, as the department appears currently unequipped to carry out their intended mission: keeping us safe.
Officials said GWPD finished its three-phase arming process last month and said 22 officers would be armed after filling vacancies. But the department reportedly experienced a recent mass exodus of veteran officers, leaving the department within a two-month period. Amid this turnover, Tate declined to explain how vacancies would change operations for the arming rollout, leaving the community uncertain if those carrying firearms are as “distinguished and honorable” as once vowed.
STAFF EDITORIAL
One former officer alleged that only six or seven officers are currently armed, and another said it would take between 18 months to two years to hire and train new officers and pave the way for officials to complete the final phase of the rollout. Instability shakes a community’s trust in a department’s personnel, so arming cannot persist unless there is clear evidence of efforts to rebuild connection and communication between armed officers and GWPD leadership with students, faculty and staff. Tate said last year in May that the training for armed officers was going to include “extensive” requirements. But according to former officers, it’s not enough. Out of an abundance of caution, officials should operate upon the assumption that when it comes to arming officers and their capabilities, more is always better. Former
officers criticized the department’s reported reliance on GWPD’s virtual training simulator instead of real-world scenarios and deemed the required course insufficient for officers. GWPD must audit its training procedures using feedback from current and former staff and announce revisions that reassure the entire community — but, most of all, its own officers — that the department is prepared to respond to such threats.
Most concerningly, it’s unclear if the accountability measures that officials put in place to avoid a situation like this from happening were effective. The human resources reports that officers filed last year documenting these concerns didn’t appear to prompt a wide-scale University response, internal or public. GW has established two safety committees upon the arming decision — an independent review
Granberg’s first year served trustees and no one else
No one gets it right in their first year on the job. University President Ellen Granberg, however, could not have gotten it more wrong.
Here’s a quick rundown: She has garnered GW the distinction of being one of three institutions to “set the standard” for creating a hostile environment for Muslim and Palestinian students, and assuring alumni of her “wish” to expel students. In the spring, she begged D.C. police to forcibly clear the student encampment. Student negotiators have demanded a transparent disclosure of GW’s investments and divestment from companies. When questioned about these demands in her interview, she suggested she’s interested in reviewing GW’s financial support for mass slaughter, “not from what we remove but from what we add,” confirming her refusal to take the matter seriously. In an email, Granberg insists that the past year’s protests have taught the GW community “important lessons.” Any lessons of the past year should have come from the neighborhoods razed, hospitals bombed
and journalists murdered by an illegal Israeli project that GW refuses to divest from. Instead, Granberg learned how difficult it is for her to manage a diverse community. Her response remains infantilizing, opting to “extend grace and space” rather than acknowledging the gravity of her community’s concerns.
Faculty has repeatedly called for a voice in how officials handle demands for disclosure and divestment, and when Granberg refused to visit the encampment, student representatives blasted her lack of communication with them. With all of this backlash, why does Granberg claim that, “there was a lot of communication back and forth” during the encampment?
And, in the bigger picture, where does she find the confidence to so shamelessly ignore the vocal pleas of her students, faculty and the wider community — whom she herself admits were ignored?
The Board of Trustees Chair Grace Speights said in May that she was “grateful” for Granberg’s approach. If any of us were under the impression that the president seeks to balance the interests of the GW community with those of the trustees, this year has cemented that we are sorely mistaken. If the GW community’s sole representative on the
20-person Board is Granberg, then the community has none. With no president to pursue its interests, and a refusal to give students a peer representative, it follows that community demands will only be heard via community pressure.
University divestment is not unreasonable nor unattainable. It is being forcibly shut down by the Board. The University’s current approach to student protesters is not apolitical nor standard. It differs from its historic negotiations process for divestment. In the words of a student negotiator, it is not divestment that is off the table, it is divestment for Palestinians that is off the table.
The students, faculty and larger GW community want disclosure and divestment, and we demand a president who has an interest in representing GW students and faculty voices.
When trustees brazenly ignore divestment demands and refuse to consider the community as stakeholders, we must make our voices heard.
As long as administrators and Board members don’t feel public pressure, they will continue to profit off of genocide and do it in your name. —Manny Blanco is a senior majoring in geography and international affairs and is a member of the Student Coalition for Palestine.
Tgroup that’s supposed to provide “additional review” and accountability on GWPD’s arming and the Campus Safety Advisory Committee that focuses on safety across GW — but the bodies never publicly flagged these issues, nor have they issued a formal response following the allegations. The GWPD website shows that officials conducted two internal investigations in 2023 and sustained one internal complaint, but it doesn’t state the reason that prompted the reviews or the result. Groups that check and balance powerful entities cannot function if they aren’t given the transparency they require to hold the department accountable. We have to wonder: Were these concerning reports as surprising to these committees as the rest of the community? After Tate said in April that arming was “going well” and that GWPD “wanted to get it right,” the per-
ception of arming from the force’s leaders seems miles apart from the concerns shared among its rank and file. The community deserves updates on GWPD’s corrective actions and mistakes, even if it slows the arming process or prompts a community “I told you so.”
The GW community was already apprehensive or downright opposed to the arming of GWPD due to a plethora of evidence-based concerns on the presence of guns escalating violence and police’s disproportionate harm on communities of color. Despite ceaseless calls from the community for more data and context on what backed the decision, officials have maintained the decision to arm officers was for the University’s safety, stating that “When weapons are involved, minutes matter.”
But officers who feel unprepared to use a firearm, even if they completed all required training, could prove to be more immediate threats to our safety than hypothetical horrific tragedies. When weapons are held by shaky hands, minutes matter, too. Irreversible mistakes can happen in seconds. The community is safer when officers aren’t armed.
These reports have broken the community’s trust in GWPD. And after months of demands for more evidence and communication on the arming decision that went relatively unanswered despite promises of transparency and accountability, the lack of confidence doesn’t feel all that surprising. We continue to question the rationale for arming, but no amount of protest seems enough to reverse the decision. So amid allegations that are sure to worsen an existing campus problem, the only solution is for officers to stop carrying guns until the department and its relationship with our campus can heal.
GWPD must immediately halt arming and take pronounced measures to earn back our trust before the department stops serving their stated purpose altogether: to protect and serve.
DC is cool enough
he constant downplay of D.C. is seemingly inescapable. In my two years of being a GW student, I continue to hear students label the city as excessively career-driven and bleak compared to New York City and other cities across the country. I also found myself guilty of these notions. But it’s time to find contentment in the multifaceted role of the District, a city with rich history and culture beyond Capitol Hill.
Coming to D.C. for college after living in Chicago, Illinois, was an unexpected culture shock. The Windy City is one of movement with an equilibrium of people from all walks of life, ranging from local musical artists to start-up owners. This environment persists around the clock. Experiencing D.C.’s desolate streets on the outskirts of campus past 9 p.m., coupled with the distinct professional populace, provoked a self-doubt in the environment I chose to place myself in.
Despite being a political science student, I lacked my classmates’ ambitions of landing a Hillternship, wanting to be a college student for a while without professional pressures. By rejecting the politically configured nature of D.C.
and embracing its culturally expansive character, I developed a love for the District.
I committed to finding an ideal coffee spot that would reliably provide refuge from the academic spaces on campus within the first month of college. I walked 20 minutes to Dupont and found Emissary, an uplifting space with an open atmosphere that offers a satisfying mix of studying students, working professionals and customers of all ages. The renowned bookstore, Kramers, is a landmark nearby, hosting an expansive reading selection with an illustrious attached restaurant and bar. Discovering such enclaves reflected the District’s culture as more than a career-centric city. Utilizing the Metro to reach disparate locales, I became exposed to Mastiha Taverna, a Greek joint in Union Market that embraces the old-world Greek table through authentic recipes and fresh ingredients, like the Mastiha salad with lamb, which combines fresh peppers, olives and multicolored tomatoes with feta cheese drenched in olive oil. The eatery superseded and matured my sense of what D.C. has to culturally offer.
Historic D.C. neighborhoods, like the U Street corridor once known as “Black Broadway,” provide a window into the timeless marks left on the
city. Eating at Ben’s Chili Bowl for the first time on a Sunday, I was hit with two realizations. The first was that this is what a chili bowl was supposed to taste like: savory with a dynamic combination of hearty ingredients. And second, I evolved a newfound appreciation for the roots in these neighborhoods grown by the Washingtonians of past generations and preserved by locals. Ben’s Chili Bowl is a renowned spot for D.C.’s original halfsmoke, the historic staple of U Street given its founding during segregation and continued to stay open during critical times of the Civil Rights Movement, serving as a meeting point for leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. Of course, I was aware of the historical prominence of the city, yet beyond the monuments, I was once seemingly blind to these less apparent spots which continue to hold legacies. There is a certain allure to confining myself to campus or even to my ever-cozy residence hall room amid academic and social pressures. Yet, as GW adamantly promotes the city as our campus, maybe it’s time we listen. We have the immense privilege of access to culture, history and art by hopping just a couple Metro stops. Historic D.C. implores to be discovered.
—James Pomian, a junior majoring in political science, is an opinions writer.
James Pomian Opinions Writer
ABBY TURNER | CARTOONIST
Manny Blanco Guest Contributor
CULTURE
Students dodge rivals, scheme strategy in GW’s intramural laser tag league
CARLY CAVANAUGH STAFF WRITER
Under the fluorescent lights of a top-floor Lerner Health and Wellness Center basketball court, students in athletic shorts lined up on opposite walls, waiting for the referee to blow his whistle.
But instead of jerseys and pinnies, players wore light-up vests and brandished laser “blasters,” ready to become champions of GW intramural laser tag. This semester, Campus Recreation officials introduced the “sport” through its lowstakes, all-level intramural sports department, creating four leagues of between six to 17 people that participate in matches through the end of October.
Right after the referee’s whistle, the players were off. With eight competitors sporting red or blue vest sensors to represent one of two teams, each player was granted 15 “lives,” losing one each time the opposing team’s laser hit their sensor. After a player exhausted their lives, their blasters croaked the words “game over” and stopped working.
About a dozen giant, inflatable red-and-black “bunkers” sat in the center of the court, which players ducked and hid behind as they strategically sniped their nemeses. The teams battled for as many rounds as possible within the allotted 20-minute window, with the team winning the most being crowned the day’s winner.
First-year Ethan Kim, a mechanical engineering student and captain of his team “Top Gunners,” aimed his blaster at a student whose vest was glowing blue. Normally, Kim would be on the same team as his target, but Wednesday, the team that Top Gunners was supposed
to play didn’t show up, so it was a battle of friendly fire. Kim said he received an email in September that Campus Recreation added laser tag to its official list of extracurriculars this semester and asked his friends if they wanted to join the league with him. He said he played laser tag with friends in his hometown of Auburn, Alabama, and wanted to do the same at GW.
He said the seemingly silly game can get intense. Once, a fellow Top Gunner got overexcited during a game and rushed into the field of play “very aggressively” be-
fore running straight into a wall, he said.
He said another time, an opposing team constructed a detailed strategy with “plays drawn up like a football game” — which, unfortunately for Kim, worked to his rivals’ advantage and sparked losses for Kim and his teammates.
Junior Logan Harris, a political science and finance student and a GW intramural sports supervisor, helps set up and referee laser tag games. Harris said the interim director of intramurals that began at GW at the beginning of the se-
Indie singer, former student talks career post-GW before local set
Illuminated by pink and blue stage lights, indie rock singer and former GW student Eliza McLamb looked out to the audience as a hush fell over the crowd and posed a question.
Opening for British singer-songwriter Nilüfer Yanya last Monday at The Black Cat, a go-to venue for indie musicians near U Street, McLamb asked, “Is anyone here a GW student or alumni?” prompting a sprinkle of enthusiastic cheers from the crowd. McLamb said in an interview before her set that she was excited to play at The Black Cat for the first time, but it can be “weird” stopping in the District on a regional tour, as she attended GW from 2018 to 2021 to study political science before dropping out during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Almost like crossing paths with a ghost of yourself,” McLamb said. “But I think that process is just something that is inherent to growing up, and I’m not as freaked out by that as I used to be.”
After the pandemic sent GW students off campus and shifted classes online in March 2020, McLamb started posting original music on her TikTok account and soon went viral, earning millions of views for songs she would write based on her followers’ prompts, like
“crying alone in your car but feeling warm and therapeutic.”
She also chronicled her move from her home state of North Carolina to Los Angeles in 2020 by road tripping across the country and making stops to work at farms in Kansas and North Carolina in exchange for room and board.
McLamb ultimately garnered more than 300,000 followers on TikTok and went on to release a series of singles and two EPs: the 2020 “Memos” and the 2022 “Salt Circle.” Both EPs demonstrate McLamb’s vulnerable lyricism and indie rock sound and have accumulated millions of streams on Spotify.
McLamb said she doesn’t currently have concrete plans to release more music, but she will play some unreleased tracks on her headline tour starting this week on Oct. 10 in Hamden, Connecticut. As she continues writing new music, she said she listens to a lot of Americana, indie rock artists, like Wilco and MJ Lenderman, and plans to incorporate more reflections on her time in Los Angeles into her work now that she’s living in New York City after moving there over the summer.
While in Los Angeles, California, in 2020, McLamb also launched pop culture podcast “Binchtopia” with then-roommate and content creator Julia Hava. Nearly
four years later, “Binchtopia” has garnered a devoted fanbase.
McLamb’s opening set last week was an intimate and condensed collection of some of her best work. She opened with her song “Glitter,” in which she sings to an old friend from home pleading for her to leave an abusive boyfriend.
The set reached its pinnacle when she performed “Modern Woman,” a track of gripes about the mundanity and pressures of modern life, like having to go to the Department of Motor Vehicles and being marketed as a “sad girl,” followed by a cover of Britney Spears’ “Lucky,” a track about the struggles of fame.
She closed with “Mythologize Me,” one of her most popular songs with more than 1 million streams, which appeared a big hit with the crowd as attendees danced to steady guitar riffs and sang along to McLamb’s sarcastic lyrics about being the “perfect image of a girl.”
Reflecting on her time at GW, McLamb expressed her appreciation for the music community at GW, saying her “one regret” was not being more involved. Ultimately, she realized college was not the right place for her at that time in her life, McLamb said.
“Roll… what do you say?” McLamb said, closing out the interview. “Raise high.”
mester decided that the University would implement the laser tag leagues.
He said GW already owned the laser tag equipment from past events like a Senior Week game, and officials figured they should utilize it.
He said laser tag players take matches as seriously as they would any other intramural sport for one simple reason: They love competition and they hate to lose.
“When the teams show up, the teams get competitive because I’ve realized doing IMs that nobody at
GW likes to lose anything,” Harris said.
He said a team of first-years once beat their opponents in five minutes, conquering six games as the other team collected repeated losses. Harris said the team’s success came from the members’ interest in video games, which taught them to coordinate and shout out calls to their teammates.
“That was pretty funny to see how much they love laser tag,” Harris said. “They took it seriously.”
Junior Joie Ruble, a marketing and political science student, said she plays for the team “Miss Ko Jones Largos,” a name brainstormed by her teammates. She said a fellow member sent an Instagram post promoting the sport to her friends’ group chat, and the group collectively decided to join the league.
At the start of each match, Ruble and her team huddle to discuss their “battle plan” for victory, often using lingo from Fortnite like “pushing” and “knocked,” she said. Ruble said her typical gameplay involves frequent “hand signals” to her teammates, waving wildly to silently communicate her thoughts without hinting her strategies to opponents.
She said despite strategizing, sometimes plans get thrown off course. Once, she and her team had assigned specific positions for each player, but a fellow team member ignored their plan, “full sprinted through the court” and was the first person eliminated. Mishaps included, her team perseveres because the game conjures nostalgia for childhood memories of blasting lasers, Ruble said.
“I think it really helps us bring out our inner child,” she said.
REPORTER
As night falls over the University Student Center, most students shut their laptops and flee the area to return home or go out on the town — but some head to the building’s basement, plug in their computers and queue up songs for their late-night radio shows.
Those students are among the few who host shows into the wee hours of the morning on WRGW, GW’s student-run radio station. These intrepid, night-owl broadcasters said jamming in the studio as campus sleeps helped them relax and feel more connected to their intimate listenership during the darkest hours of the night.
The radio station bustles with students during the day, lounging on comfy couches and admiring the signatures of past hosts on the wall decorated with outlines of District landmarks like the Washington Monument and signed concert posters. But the room becomes hushed at night with just GW Police Department officers and cleaning staff passing by the station’s broad windows in the basement hallway of the student center. Junior Khushi Hemrajani, an entrepreneurship
student, said she co-hosts a show called “Feudz” on Wednesdays from 1 to 2 a.m. She said the show has had a late-night slot for four years and she inherited the mic after the founding host graduated this past spring.
Hemrajani said they break down “iconic rivalries” between musical artists during the show, like the beef between Arctic Monkeys and Wet Leg, or the love triangle between Shawn Mendes, Camila Cabello and Sabrina Carpenter.
Hemrajani said her latenight show can be tiring since she has a 9:35 a.m. class the next morning, but the drowsiness the next day is worth it because the nocturnal time slot makes the show a “little secret” between her and her listeners.
Junior Rob Brown, a political science student, said he runs a show called “Deep Dive Into the Dead + More” from 11 p.m. to midnight on Sundays. Brown said he doesn’t have trouble staying up for his show since he’s so “engaged” with queuing up the “psychedelic” tunes he features, from the likes of the Grateful Dead. He said the show is relaxed because he’s already hammered out all his homework for the day before he gets into the studio.
Brown said a “laid back” environment can sometimes become a bit more stressful — he said the cleaning staff have confronted him about
staying after typical hours in the student center, which closes at midnight from Monday to Wednesday and at 2 a.m. from Thursday to Sunday, and have asked him to leave a few times. Brown said in these cases he firmly holds his ground, telling the workers that he won’t be leaving because his radio show allows him to be there, and they let him stay.
Junior Henry ScrivenYoung, a political communication student, said he hosts “!Uptime,” a midnight Saturday show highlighting video game soundtracks that focuses on the songs from one game per week.
Sophomore Aidan Penna, an international affairs student and an operations assistant for WRGW, said he holes up in the radio station from midnight to 1 a.m. on Sundays for his show
“The Butterfly Effect,” in which he explores current popular artists’ past musical influences like Vince Staples and Björk.
Penna said his show’s timing means that a couple of his college buddies tend to tune in, but he keeps track of the locations of any random listeners who hop on through the station’s computer. He said the WRGW station is cozy late at night, with dim lighting and nobody around to disturb him.
“I can’t explain it, just being there at night is like a different feeling,” Penna said.
ALBUM: “JAGUAR II: DELUXE” BY VICTORIA MONÉT
JACOB GLASS REPORTER
MAGGIE RHOADS STAFF WRITER
MOLLY WOLF
ELLIE SULLIVAN | PHOTOGRAPHER
Nick Penders, Tyler Richardson and Braden Lovino host their show “Soundtrack of My Life” from midnight to 1 a.m.
JORDAN TOVIN | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR
Eliza McLamb and her band play during the soundcheck at Black Cat DC.
ARWEN CLEMANS | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR
Raz Shah takes cover behind a barrier, looking to tag the enemy on the basketball courts inside the Lerner Health and Wellness Center.
SPORTS
Volleyball pummels Fordham in third-straight win
DIAMOND STAFF WRITER
Volleyball (13-4, 3-1 Atlantic 10) took down Fordham University (4-9, 0-4 A-10) on Saturday in threestraight sets, claiming a match and series victory, 2519, 25-21 and 25-20. The Revolutionaries dominated the match, with their hitting percentage swinging above .400 for two of the three sets, which marks the Revs’ third victory in their win streak. Volleyball dominated Duquesne 3-0 (11-5, 2-2 A-10) on Sept. 28 and won their first matchup against Fordham on Oct. 4 in four sets, 25-7, 22-25, 25-14 and 25-17.
Freshman opposite Taylor
Treahy led the offensive charge with 13 kills on a .440 hitting percentage, and senior opposite MC Daubendiek added 11 kills.
Treahy has already collected 160 kills this season, playing in 16 out of 17 matches.
Leading on the attack, junior setter Dilara Elmacıoğlu and freshman setter Abby Markworth dished out 20 assists each, allowing the team to maintain their momentum throughout the match. Markworth, in her first year with the program, almost topped her season high of 21 assists, which she achieved in GW’s game against New Jersey Institute of Technology last month.
Junior middle blocker Cianna Tejada and junior middle Sydney Stewart contributed three total blocks at the net, shutting down Fordham’s attack. The Revolutionaries’ defensive play, a tactic Head Coach Katie Reifert has emphasized throughout the season, played a key role in their three-set victory.
The Revs have won 10 nonconference games, starting their season with a successful D.C. Challenge
tournament that ended Sept. 1 and resulted in triumphs over University of California, Riverside and Howard University before losing to American University.
The Revs dominated the Delaware State Tournament, taking home wins against the Highlanders and Delaware State and Harvard universities.
Coming into the 2024 season, the team looked to bounce back after ending the previous season with a 7-22 overall record and ending on a 10-match losing streak. Reifert shifted focus to improving defense during the offseason, especially after the team ranked at the bottom of the A-10 in opponent hitting percentage and second to last in kills allowed at the end of the 2023 season.
Reifert said in August that GW showed flashes of offensive dominance last year, after beating Georgetown University 3-1 a few weeks into the season, but their defensive struggles gave opponents too many opportunities to score. The team improved its opponent hitting percentage, bringing it down from .247 in the 2023 season to .182 this season through the first 17 matches.
The team added several new faces this season, including transfer graduate student Reilly Heinrich from the University of Texas, a two-time NCAA national champion.
The Revs now sit in third place in the A-10, behind Loyola Chicago and Dayton. With a few key conference matchups ahead, including battles against George Mason and Saint Louis, GW will look to maintain their momentum from the three-set win streak and solidify their position in the standings.
GW will travel to Fairfax, Virginia, for a matchup against DMV rival George Mason on Oct. 9.
Swimming and diving opens season with new moves, quad meet triumph
Swimming and diving had their first victory of the season Saturday, after opening the academic year with a loss against Virginia Tech last month.
Swimming and diving swept a quad meet against the University of North Carolina Wilmington, the University of Delaware and William & Mary at the Hampton Aquaplex. Against Virginia Tech, GW found its greatest success on the diving board, with divers placing first and second in the women’s 3-meter.
In their first meet, junior Olivia Paquette won the event with a score of 304.28, and senior Dara Reyblat finished next best with a score 278.78. Paquette placed second in the 1-meter dive earlier in the competition with a score of 267.00.
“We’ve got some new dives in our list, so we’re just kind of taking it as it is,” Head Diving Coach Christopher Lane said. “And I was really happy with overall how we did.”
After finishing last in the men’s 1-meter dive, sophomore diver Ben Bradley bounced back, finishing fourth in the 3-meter dive with a score
of 314.55, and scoring 2 points for the team. He said the early struggles were partially due to him trying out new dives.
“My first event didn’t go as well as I would have liked, but I think having the mindset of putting that into your back pocket and moving on to the next event was important for me,” Bradley said.
The Revolutionaries introduced 10 new swimmers to the team this summer, after 11 swimmers transferred and graduated.
“It’s always sad to have teammates leave, but like bringing in new people and showing them the culture and like the beautiful things about GW is very exciting,” Senior Molly Smyers said.
Last weekend, both the men’s and women’s swimming and diving fell to Virginia Tech in their first meet under new swimming Head Coach Chico Rego, 184-112 and 191-107, respectively. Freshman Shae Stratton took home a trio of second-place finishes across the two meets. At Virginia Tech, he finished second in the 100-meter and 200-meter backstroke, losing the latter by just .11 seconds in a time of 1:50.84. He also finished second in the 200-meter backstroke
at this weekend’s quad, improving his time to a 1:47.49.
Sophomore Daniel Choi won the men’s 1000-meter freestyle by over 12 seconds in both meets with a time of 9:35.75 at Virginia Tech and improving to a 9:15.60 finish at the quad meet.
Junior Ava Topolewski also missed taking home the crown in the 1000-meter freestyle by under a second, swimming 10:16.48 to the Hokies’ Kate Anderson who won in a time of 10:15.81. Last year, Topolewski set a new conference record in the 1650-meter freestyle: 16:08.48.
Senior Connor Rodgers won the 200-meter butterfly in a time of 1:50.68 and in the 200-meter individual medley with a time of 1:52.48. Senior Moriah Freitas was victorious in the 200-meter butterfly, hitting the wall first in a time of 2:05.55.
Sophomore Colleen MacWilliams won the 200-meter individual medley in a time of 2:06.75. Smyers finished second in the event. Both men’s and women’s swimming and diving were voted as the top team in their respective A-10 preseason polls. The men’s team has won the last four A-10 championships, while
Women’s tennis takes home doubles crowns at Blue and Gold Invite
NOLAN GREJDA REPORTER
The Buff & Blue triumphed in doubles at the Blue and Gold Invite in Annapolis, Maryland, last weekend.
Doubles pairings of tennis freshmen Vaida Matuseviciute and Karen Verduzco and Revs’ sophomore Madison Lee paired with Navy’s Manci Pal each claimed titles in doubles flights A and C, respectively. The Revolutionaries competed against nonconference teams, including Navy, Lehigh and D.C.-rival Georgetown at the three-day tournament.
Matuseviciute and Verduzco defeated a pair from Villanova 6-4 to secure their title in Flight A. Lee and Pal rallied past a pair from Navy 6-1 to secure the Flight C trophy.
“Having two freshmen, Vaida and Karen, win the ‘A’ doubles flight at the Blue and Gold Invitational is moving us in the right direction,” Rodriguez said in an email. “So far, doubles has had the biggest impact to our team. I’ve been mixing it up to see who compliments each other and who has the chemistry to make an impact.” At season opener Bedford Cup last month, Lee and Matuseviciute were paired, ultimately losing 6-1 in the third-
place match to West Virginia, and sophomore Victoria Sasinka and senior Alejandra Ramirez were paired, winning their thirdplace match 6-4 over Delaware State. Matuseviciute, Sasinka and sophomore Solange Skeene finished third in their respective
singles flights at the tournament, where each went 2-1 during the weekend before winning on the final day to secure their thirdplace finishes. The Revs collected three bronze finishes at the Bedford Cup, hosted by the University of
Maryland. Rodriguez said doubles pairings will be crucial for the rest of the season and looks to improve the team’s comfort in playing doubles and “applying pressure.” “The fall season has been
the women have won the last three.
The Virginia Tech men’s team was ranked 10th in the nation and the women 22nd, according to the CSCAA preseason poll.
“Polls are nice, but they don’t mean anything,” Lane said.
“We got to show up and show out, period.”
The 2025 A-10 championships will be held in the same venue in February, where the Revolutionaries will look for their fourth women’s conference championship and fifth men’s conference championship in a row.
Rego said he thinks A-10 championships should be a standard for GW to win, given their dominance over the past few years. He said now that they have established themselves in the conference he wants to see them qualify for more competitive meets by continuing to put up good times.
Rego said the schedule is set up to challenge the Revolutionaries to swim against schools in powerfour conferences, like their first meet against Virginia Tech, to prepare them for the postseason. The Revs will continue their season after a nearly monthlong break, with a meet against Navy in Annapolis, Maryland, on Nov. 2.
a success so far,” Head Coach George Rodriguez said in an email. “Watching their confidence grow every match they play has been refreshing and inspiring. We are using this fall season to gain experience and to gain traction before we move into the spring season.” Matuseviciute said she had looked forward to playing alongside Verduzco at the Blue and Gold Invite and enjoyed winning together as freshmen. She said the pair’s ferocity was useful in the Flight A doubles bracket.
“I loved playing with Karen and was so happy that we could secure a win,” Matuseviciute said in an email. “We had great energy together, and our aggressive playing styles complemented each other well.”
Underclassmen dominate this season’s seven-person roster, with three freshmen, three sophomores and one senior, following the graduation of four athletes from last year’s 10-person lineup. Rodriguez said last month that the young team will focus on building confidence ahead of the spring season.
Tennis will attend the ITA Regional Championships to compete against other Atlantic region schools from Oct. 17 to 21 in Charlottesville, Virginia.
HATCHET FILE PHOTO
Swimmers cut through the water during a meet in 2022.
GRANT PACERNICK STAFF WRITER
KARSYN MEYERSON | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Tennis players during a practice at the Mount Vernon Campus in September.
MARGOT
SARAH HOCHSTEIN | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Sophomore Haylee Brown and junior Cianna Tejada spike the ball during a set.
