Students warn stalled DEI initiatives, downplayed messaging signal rollback
EDWARDS
ELIJAH
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
Students say GW’s subtle rollback of several diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives since President Donald Trump launched a national crackdown on campus DEI, coupled with officials omitting diversity terminology in messaging, indicates the University is yielding to federal pressure.
As Trump moves to strip federal dollars from universities with DEI programs, signing executive orders and opening investigations nationwide, students say GW’s reluctance to champion its own initiatives signals the University is buckling under federal pressure and retreating from their oncetouted commitments. In recent months, GW has paused or scaled back several diversity initiatives — halting the search for the Office of Diversity, Equity and Community Engagement’s top post, shuttering the law school’s DEI website and twice postponing the University’s annual diversity summit — actions students said officials are attempting to downplay by removing diversity language from marketing materials
and softening public messaging around DEI.
Darianny Bautista, the Student Government Association’s director for student advocacy, said she’s noticed officials are less willing to explicitly promote DEI initiatives in advertisements and on-campus events, even if they privately express support for the goal of bringing diverse perspectives and backgrounds to the University community.
Bautista said officials’ reluctance to promote DEI became clear earlier this year when communications officials wanted to remove a line in a “Revolutionary Tales” video identifying her as the SGA Senate’s first DEI director, a position she held last year because it would be “bad for marketing.” She said she strongly resisted the request, and officials ultimately kept the line in the video.
“I fought, even when they were putting out that short documentary about me, to make sure that every single part of who I am, especially on this campus, was being properly put out,” Bautista said.
A University spokesperson declined to comment on whether GW’s marketing team has been
directed by officials to avoid referencing DEI in their materials. The spokesperson said the Uni-
versity aims to ensure its marketing represents the entire student body and accurately reflects community experiences.
Faculty Senate replaces Executive Committee chair, fills three committee seats after turmoil
ARJUN SRINIVAS
CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR
GIANNA JAKUBOWSKI
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
The Faculty Senate unanimously elected a new Executive Committee chair Friday, after the former chair resigned last month at the request of several committee members.
The Faculty Senate elected Guillermo Orti to serve as FSEC chair for the remainder of the academic year after former Chair and Columbian College of Arts & Sciences Representative Katrin Schultheiss resigned last month at the request of six committee representatives. The Faculty Senate also unanimously elected Orti as the CCAS representative to the FSEC, along with Tarek El-Ghazawi as the School of Engineering & Applied Sciences representative and David Mendelowitz as the School of Medicine & Health Sciences representative — a move that followed the disappearance of the previous SEAS and SMHS representatives from the senate’s website after last month’s meeting.
A heated debate at last month’s meeting over the FSEC’s request that Schultheiss step down as chair revealed that six of nine committee representatives asked her to resign instead of proceeding with an alleged threat to hold a vote of no confidence. The three FSEC members who opposed calls for Schultheiss’ resignation criticized the other members’ request and prompted faculty senator Jamie Cohen-Cole to draft a resolution to remove all FSEC members from their positions, though the motion never reached a vote after the meeting lost quorum.
MFA
In the days since Turning Point USA Foggy Bottom and the GW College Republicans announced that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will speak at GW on Monday, several student groups have denounced the appearance as contrary to GW’s values.
Turning Point Foggy Bottom and GW College Republicans on Thursday night announced that they’re hosting a fireside chat with Kennedy at Lisner Auditorium on Monday — a move that triggered a flurry of statements from partisan and non-partisan organizations condemning Kennedy’s stance on vaccines, abortion and other health policies in the hours and days after the two groups announced the event. Organizations like GW College Democrats, GW Democracy Matters and the Disabled Students Collective called on students to sign a petition launched by the DSC Friday morning, asking officials to bar Kennedy from speaking on campus, and some are helping plan the Democracy Matters’ protest outside the event.
The petition has garnered 399 signatures as of Sunday.
Zoe Zimmerman, vice president of the DSC, said
the DSC spent the weekend coordinating with Democracy Matters and other organizations to protest the event, emphasizing that the groups are focusing on demonstrating rather than pushing for its cancellation as the DSC’s petition calls for.
Zimmerman said the group has reached out to several GW faculty members for advice on how to protest the event effectively to avoid “administrative or outside retaliation” against students demonstrating. They also said officials at the Multicultural Student Services Center have offered their space on the fifth floor of the University Student Center for students to “decompress and process” during and after the event. “Our main concern is keeping all in assembly safe and informed, especially considering the undue response campus protestors have been met with from administration in the past few months, and this will include distributing protest rights guides the day of,” Zimmerman said. “We want to frame our protest not as attempting to cancel Kennedy’s event, which might be taken in bad faith as us attempting to suppress free speech, but instead using our own free speech to protest Kennedy’s presence on campus.”
Medical Faculty Associates officials significantly changed the medical enterprise’s leadership structure in fiscal year 2024 by adding GW Hospital’s CEO to its Board of Trustees and eliminating a top MFA officer position, the institution’s tax filings from July 2023 through June 2024 show. The move to add GW Hospital’s CEO as an ex officio trustee to the MFA’s board in FY2024, along with eliminating a top officer position, expanding the eligibility of physicians to become chair trustees and adding reports the board is required to review, came as officials were grappling with the institution’s highest annual loss since the University assumed control over the medical enterprise in 2018. The form also reveals MFA officials hired health care consulting firm BDC Advisors — which specializes in solving complex problems for medical enterprises — for the first time, paying them roughly $2 million between January 2023 and December 2023.
pital, lost more than $107 million in FY2024 and saw the enterprises’ loss total $344 million, though officials publicized that number last year in the University’s FY2024 consolidated financial statements.
The forms also show the MFA, a network of health care providers and faculty linked to GW’s medical school and hos -
The move to add GW Hospital’s CEO to the MFA’s board of trustees predated officials’ last month announcement that they’d struck an initial deal with Universal Health Services, the owner and operator of GW Hospital, to co-fund the MFA as both parties continue to negotiate a final deal to end the University’s financial support of the medical enterprise.
MARR MANAGING EDITOR
The two trustees who served on both the University and Medical Faculty Associates’ boards resigned from one board following the groups’ February decision to separate the two governing bodies, officials confirmed.
The decision led thenGW Trustee Pam Lawrence to step down from the University’s board with less than four months left in her term to remain on the MFA’s board and Board of Trustees Vice Chair Mark Chichester to resign from the MFA’s board to retain his position on GW’s.
Officials didn’t
KAIDEN J. YU | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The Faculty Senate’s new Executive Committee Chair Guillermo Orti at Friday’s meeting.
GRA[HIC BY AN NGO
KAIDEN J. YU | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Faculty senators gathered at Friday’s Faculty Senate meeting.
HANNAH
ARWEN CLEMANS | SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR
Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees Mark Chichester and Medical Faculty Associates Trustee Pamela Lawrence at a GW board meeting.
Students mixed on anti-Trump activism’s impact as
first year of term draws to close
Just over 300 days into President Donald Trump’s second term, students opposing his policies said they are now more willing to engage in activism in the nation’s capital than they were right after his election in light of their concerns with his health care, economic and immigration policies.
Over 20 students who oppose Trump’s policies said they have become more willing to protest the president in response to their objections over his policies and the frequent demonstrations organized by anti-Trump organizations but questioned the effectiveness of protests and their safety, pointing to fears of retribution from the University and the federal government. The students said they still participate in demonstrations but would prefer other forms of protests against the president, like working to implement changes within the government, participating in boycotts and sharing information with the community — all moves they said have more tangible impacts on the nation.
Those comments came after protesters from Refuse Fascism, an anti-Trump organization, hosted demonstrations on campus that have started on and marched through GW’s streets over the past two weeks. The majority of demonstrators appear to be non-GW affiliated, with only a few students joining the protests.
In September, GW students staged a walkout against Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in D.C., which drew roughly 40 students and community members. In October, GW Socialist Action Initiative, Students for Justice in Palestine and the Anti-Zionist Jewish Student Front held a “Fascists Off Campus” rally, calling on University officials
to make GW a sanctuary campus, including protecting free speech, providing financial and immigration resources for students and banning Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the guard from campus without judicial warrants.
Will O’Donnell, a sophomore majoring in international affairs, said he strongly opposes Trump’s policies, but he is concerned protesting in general could make him a target of GW because he said he feels GW’s suspension of students who participated in the April 2024 pro-Palestinian encampment in University Yard sends a message that officials could punish him for participating in anti-Trump protests.
He said he fears that GW could take away financial aid if he were to participate because the University has established itself as antiprotest in its response to the encampment.
“I feel like that set a general negative precedent about free speech at this University,” he said.
O’Donnell also said he fears personal retribution could come from the Trump administration as he looks to intern in the government, emphasizing Trump’s prioritization of partisan loyalty in government employees. Instead of engaging in protest, O’Donnell said he has engaged in activism “within the system” by working with Democrats in his home state of Maryland’s state legislature to protect federal workers and nonprofits facing grant cuts from the Trump administration.
“I’m an activist in other ways,” O’Donnell said. “If I really care about a cause I’m going to donate or volunteer. I’m not gonna just make a sign and go outside the White House for an hour on a Saturday.”
Maya Delamater, a sophomore majoring in journalism and philosophy, said she attended protests against Trump this year because there were many opportunities to do so and she opposes his policies. She attended the
Women’s March outside the Heritage Foundation after Election Day, the “No Kings” protest in October and the Refuse Fascism protest Friday.
Nationwide, there have been a flurry of anti-Trump protests since January, notably with “Hands Off” demonstrations in April with thousands of protesters rebuking what they called Trump’s “hostile takeover” and attack on American rights and freedoms. Thousands of people also hit the streets in June and October during the nationwide “No Kings” demonstrations aimed to highlight people’s power against the commander in chief.
“No Kings II” on Oct. 18 saw the largest number of anti-Trump protests nationally this year — clocking in at over 2,700 demonstrations across the United States — which also featured about 50 GW students marching from campus to the rally together. Over the past four months, D.C. averaged nearly 30 political demonstrations per month.
Delamater said she doubted the October “No Kings” protest’s ability to disturb Trump and shift his policies because it didn’t create a disturbance, something she said a protest needs to be effective. Still, she said she attended because she is “sick and tired” of Trump’s policies and wanted to do anything to oppose them.
“I don’t want to say I didn’t have another choice, but these are my rights and life on the line, my liberties are being stressed, so I feel like I have to do something, and this is the closest I can get,” Delamater said.
Delamater said the multitude of politically centered organizations at GW allows students of different political beliefs to become involved in activism, which differs from her experience growing up in Florida, where the dominant conservative ideology prevented other movements in the state from successfully organizing.
“I think because GW is
very political, I don’t say political in the sense that we’re divided but just because everyone is into politics because we have a great international school, and we’re in D.C., it makes sense for everyone to care about the issues that are happening right next door,” Delamater said.
Damon Sun, a junior majoring in political science and finance, said he backed Trump in the 2024 election but has disagreed with the president’s policies on health care as well as his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. He said he is disappointed with the president but still has not participated in anti-Trump protests, adding he’s unsure they would be productive in changing Trump’s political trajectory or his positions on certain issues because they don’t impact much beyond street closures.
“I think sometimes that could send the message that people disagree with him, but I think all it does is create more polarization at the end of the day,” Sun said.
Sun said he hasn’t wanted to join a protest like the ones that have taken place recently around campus because they mostly consist of marching and chanting for a few hours. He said he would consider participating in other forms of activism, like a boycott of buying goods from a specific store, saying it could have more concrete impacts.
“If there was a type of protest that would actually send a stronger message, for example, I think it had a lot more effect on things, like boycotts,” Sun said. “I think I participate in that form of protest more because that actually makes a measurable impact.
“
Molly Weber, a first-year majoring in political science, said she was an active participant in student-led activism in high school, specifically surrounding climate justice and sustainability, before pivoting to anti-Trump causes at the end of high school
BLACKMAIL
Lafayette Hall
11/9/2025 – 1:36 p.m.
Open Case
A GW student reported being blackmailed by an unknown person over a dating app. Case open.
LIQUOR LAW VIOLATION
Thurston Hall 11/9/2025 – 4:38 p.m.
Closed Case
The GW Police Department and GW Emergency Medical Response Group responded to a report of an intoxicated GW student. Upon arrival EMeRG conducted a medical evaluation of the student and determined further medical treatment was not warranted. Case closed. Referred to Conflict Education and Student Accountability.
THEFT I/OTHER
2200 Block of G Street Northwest 11/6/2025 – 2 p.m. to 4:16 p.m.
Open Case A GW student reported their electric scooter stolen. Case open.
—Compiled by Bryson Kloesel
and into college. Since coming to GW, Weber said she’s worked on the Students Rise Up project, which aims to get college students involved in anti-Trump activism, including most recently hosting a meeting at GW earlier this month about Trump’s higher education compact.
Officials confirmed the University is not considering joining the compact last month, which would require GW to change several of its policies in exchange for preferential federal funding.
“I’ve been working with a lot of different organizations but primarily working on the Students Rise Up project right now, which is this national project to get students
across the country united on taking action against the Trump administration on their campuses,” Weber said. Weber said she believes first-years students are “excited” to get involved in protesting and other forms of activism in their inaugural year of college because it is their first year living in a city as political as D.C. She said protesting across the board is especially crucial for the class of 2029 because they will be at GW for the entire duration of Trump’s presidency. “I think it’s a scary moment to stand up and also an important one,” Weber said. “In the past, every big social movement has been led by students.”
GWPD, MPD clear second District House bomb threat in 3 weeks
TYLER IGLESIAS SENIOR NEWS EDITOR
The Metropolitan Police Department and the GW Police Department responded to a bomb threat at District House on Friday afternoon, marking the second such incident at the building in the past three weeks.
Officials sent a critical GW Alert to students living in District House at 11:54 a.m. asking residents to evacuate the building immediately due to a fire alarm and go to the University Student Center. MPD Communications Officer Sean Hickman and GWPD Chief Victor Brito said the department’s on-scene investigation determined the bomb threat was a “fraudulent report.”
The threat marked the second bomb threat in the building in the past three weeks, after officials evacuated District House on Oct. 27 for over an hour after the MPD received a report of a bomb threat inside District’s basement dining hall.
University spokesperson Julia Garbitt said the MPD notified officials at 11:40 a.m. that an individual called 911, stating there was a bomb in District House. She said there is no active threat to the campus community. A University spokesperson said the MPD is leading the investigation into the incident.
She said residence hall staff and
Division for Student Affairs officials are continuing to provide support to residents who may need it. She said the University encourages any member of the community with concerns to contact GWPD.
Brito said on scene officials were investigating what he believed was a hoax threat “out of an abundance of caution.” Officials issued an all-clear alert at 12:20 p.m.
Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Deputy Dean of Students Rachael Stark said in an email to District House residents after the all-clear that the MPD and GWPD “thoroughly” investigated the building and did not find any evidence of a bomb. She said officials activated the fire alarm to evacuate the building quickly, also adding that they recognize the evacuations can be “frightening and stressful,” especially since it was the second threat in the last few weeks.
Stark said the MPD has told the University they will take “all appropriate actions” to investigate and identify the perpetrator, with the University and GWPD offering any support as needed.
“The safety of our students and the entire GW community is always our foremost priority,” Stark said in the email. “We appreciate your cooperation in following the safety directions as you have done in these two cases.”
Students hopeful Democrats’ election wins reflect national Trump backlash
BRADY EAGAN
REPORTER
JESSICA ROWE
REPORTER
Students from New Jersey, New York City, Virginia and California said the results of recent elections in their home states signal a nationwide rebuke of President Donald Trump’s second term in office.
Multiple Democratic candidates, including Virginia Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger, New Jersey Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, took home large margins against Republican and independent challengers this month, while a Democratic-backed California ballot initiative to redraw the state’s House of Representatives map won by more than seven million votes. Students from the three states and New York City said the elections signal voters’ dissatisfaction 10 months into Trump’s second term as the president’s approval rating stooped to its lowest point last week since he reentered office.
In New Jersey, Sherrill won against former Republican Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, earning about 1.8 million votes compared to Ciattarelli’s 1.4 million votes.
Erin Coughlin, a sophomore studying political science from New Jersey, said her main priority in the election was affordability. She said with rising housing prices and the cost of living in the state, she looked for a candidate whose policies would allow her to eventually buy a house and live in her home state sometime after she graduates.
“I was definitely very surprised at how decisive her victory was,” Coughlin said of Sherrill. “But I wouldn’t say I was entirely shocked that she came out the winner.”
John Tober, a sophomore and the director of political affairs for GW College Republicans, said many New Jersey residents prefer to elect a moderate Republican
Campus safety committee report endorses threat assessments, bystander training
BRYSON KLOESEL CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR
The University’s Campus Safety Advisory Committee called for expanded threat assessment measures, mental health infrastructure and mandatory deescalation training for campus leaders in its first annual report since the group first convened in July 2024.
Officials in April 2024 formed CSAC — composed of five students, five staff members, five faculty, one community member and six officials — to identify and highlight “positive safety practices” the University could implement after GW faced community backlash for the Board of Trustees’ April 2023 decision to arm some GW Police Department officers. The committee released its first annual report last week, recommending the University improve threat assessment systems, increase access to student mental health services and hold bystander intervention and deescalation trainings for campus leaders and the broader GW community.
Chaired by Vice President for Safety and Operations Baxter Goodly, the committee met six times between July 2024 and July 2025 to define key terms, members’ roles, priorities and shared committee goals in its first four meetings and spent the final two evaluating safety recommendations its subcommittees submitted, according to the report.
University Spokesperson Julia Garbitt said CSAC works to ensure safety measures reflect the diversity of the GW community, and the group will continue to host focus groups, engage with the community and the Board and conduct a needs assessment.
She declined to comment on the timeline for implementing the recommendations or on the specific steps the committee envisions for achieving it.
The committee’s first recommendation called for enhanced
governor, like Ciattarelli or Chris Christie — the state’s governor from 2010 to 2018. He added that Sherrill’s win will keep Democrats in charge of the state for 12 years, limiting the partisan diversity of leadership in the governor’s office.
“You need to have some change, a little diversity in how you handle issues because one party isn’t going to solve everything perfectly, and that’s why we have different parties in power all the time, on a state level, on a federal level,” Tober said. “So I just worry about those years of one-party rule, and I think the people of New Jersey are going to suffer for that.”
In Virginia, Spanberger, a former Democratic member of the House of Representatives, took home more than 57 percent of the vote against the commonwealth’s Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears. Logan Olszewski, a junior and chief of staff for the GW College Democrats, said the group organized four canvassing trips to Virginia for Spanberger, with a total of about 150 students showing up over four weekends.
“I think it gave me, personally, and a lot of people on our board and our membership, a lot of hope that things can get better,” he said.
Mamdani, the Democratic Socialist candidate running as a Democrat, won 50.4 percent of the votes in New York City, beating Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa and
former Governor Andrew Cuomo — who ran as an independent after losing the Democratic primary.
Sofia Alves, a first-year international affairs student from Manhattan, said gentrification and housing costs were crucial issues for her this election. She said she’s seen families have to leave their homes around her neighborhood due to affordability issues, including Harlem, a neighborhood near her.
“Honestly, this was kind of a big signal of hope,” Alves said. “There was a huge blue wave.”
In California, voters overwhelmingly backed a ballot initiative that would redraw the state’s Congressional districts, aiming to help Democrats gain five seats in the House — a response to redistricting efforts in red states intended to favor Republicans.
Sarah Gohres, a junior majoring in political communications from the Bay Area, said Proposition 50 was the first “concrete offensive” move Democrats made against the Trump administration since the start of his second term amid a wave of redistricting efforts in Republican states.
“Texas and other red states drew blatantly partisan maps, and they were going to see how far they could go without pushback,” Gohres said. “California also choosing to hold an election gave credibility to redraw the maps in a more democratic manner, by actually giving voters the choice.”
threat assessment and identification tools, expanded counseling and mental health resources for students and faculty training to recognize at-risk students. The report states Campus Safety largely already had similar efforts underway.
Security experts in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s September assassination on the Utah Valley University campus during a speaking tour said the University should conduct threat assessments and add extra security for every speaker who visits GW.
Garbitt said GW’s Threat Assessment Team has held training sessions for its members based on the University of Virginia Threat Model, which emphasizes early recognition of threats and proportionate responses and has been adopted by schools across Virginia, according to a UVA webpage. She said GW’s threat assessment team has substantially boosted the number of cases it reviews.
Garbitt said in September GW is working with “external partners” to evaluate and make any necessary changes to security measures following Kirk’s assassination.
After District House’s second bomb threat in three weeks, Associate Vice President for Student Affairs and Deputy Dean of Students Rachael Stark said in an email to residents the Division for Student Affairs and residence hall staff are available to provide additional support to students.
Officials ended CAPS’ walkin hours this semester, opting for an appointment-only model that student mental health advocates say limits same-day psychological support options on campus.
The report’s second recommendation calls for expanded bystander and deescalation training for students, staff and faculty. The report states that officials could begin by offering two-to three-hour bystander intervention sessions for Campus Living and Residential Educa-
tion staff, student group leaders, sports and sorority leaders, GW EMS personnel, department heads, academic deans and other campus leaders.
Associate Vice President of Campus Safety Katie McDonald said in October GWPD Captain Ian Greenlee is working with Eli McCarthy, a professor of peace studies and member of CSAC, to bolster deescalation training within GWPD.
The committee’s two recommendations mirror reforms third party investigators the University hired to look into the firearm mishandling and training allegations urged GW to pursue, including strengthening GWPD training and coordination among campus safety units, according to the March report.
The investigation also found officials deliberately failed to adequately consult the community during the arming rollout and confirmed multiple gunsafety violations, prompting officials to reorganize campus safety operations and hire a new GWPD chief.
Officials have since consolidated GWPD and related offices under a new campus safety leader and begun expanding deescalation training, McDonald said in October.
The report states the subcommittees made other recommendations the committee determined required further committee consideration and will be on its agenda in fall 2025. Three out of five students who contributed to the first annual report have graduated from GW. Garbitt said of the committee’s incoming student members, listed on the committee’s website, a faculty member recommended one, and Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Colette Coleman recommended the rest.
The report states the committee discussed “tangible” implementation ideas related to the second recommendation but does not name any.
USAID shutdown fractured global humanitarian system: study
ARJUN SRINIVAS
CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR
DYLAN EBS
GW researchers found President Donald Trump’s administration’s dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development triggered the “most significant” humanitarian funding shift in decades, which has damaged communication networks and curtailed aid, in a report released last month.
The report, conducted by GW’s Global Food Institute, found these effects are not a temporary disruption but a permanent structural transformation of the global aid ecosystem as the July 1 shutdown of USAID has discredited the country’s reliability in foreign aid and left local partners abandoned. Caitlin Grady, a professor of engineering management and systems engineering and the lead author of the study, said trust in the United States among humanitarian aid organizations is “fractured,” and the impacts of the Trump administration’s USAID cuts in July were “devastating.”
“These changes are having very real impacts to people’s lives, and a lot of those
impacts are really devastating,” Grady said.
The United States is the leading provider of foreign aid and provided an average of $51.4 billion annually between 1946 to 2023. But Trump shuttered USAID on July 1 amid his push to reduce the size of the federal bureaucracy and has said foreign assistance is often not aligned with American values, destabilizes other countries and that the agency was run by “radical left lunatics.”
After the Trump administration terminated USAID in July, annual foreign aid funding dropped to $13 billion. Approximately 5,200 USAID contracts were terminated by the Trump administration, including malaria prevention in Senegal and food assistance in Ethiopia and health care in South Sudan.
A study published in the Lancet in late June estimated that more than 14 million people could die as a result of the USAID cuts if the current cuts continue through 2030.
The study lists four main findings in the wake of Trump’s dismantling of USAID: Trust in the U.S. government has dropped among humanitarian groups, coordination sys-
tems for delivering aid were dissolved, aid priorities have narrowed and aid organizations have established peerto-peer networks for sharing resources through informal channels like WhatsApp. Grady said the researchers focused on changes to how aid organizations with each other and outside partners to analyze the “traumatic” impacts those groups are facing. The researchers conducted more than 20 interviews in May and June with stakeholders from non-governmental organizations, United Nations agencies and other nonprofits.
“We were focused much more on the ecosystem and trying to understand changes to how organizations work together and how they work with partners,” Grady said.
Researchers said the breakdown in trust comes from local organizations being left mid project with no warning or resources when USAID funding ended. The report states that the dissolution of coordination systems like formal working groups, technical forums and platforms USAID once convened left aid organizations without the shared information networks they relied on to align logistics.
COURTESY OF QUINN VAN MOURIK-RUDNICK
Virginia Gov.-Elect Abigail Spanberger speaks at a rally on Nov. 2.
MATHYLDA DULIAN | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR A sign for the U.S. Agency of International Development is covered at their former headquarters.
KAIDEN J. YU | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
District House community coordinators direct students away from the building during Friday’s evacuation.
Trump, Congressional policies undermine DC’s autonomy: experts
RYAN J. KARLIN
Local advocates and D.C. history experts warn President Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard and push for legislation to extend congressional review of District laws and give the president the power to appoint the city’s attorney general pose a threat to the District’s self-governance.
In his first 300 days in office, Trump has federalized D.C.’s police force, deployed thousands of guard troops to the city and encouraged Congress to assert more power over the District’s government — leading Republican members of Congress to introduce over a dozen related bills in September, two of which are set to see a vote this week. Advocates and experts said the federal government’s recent actions encroach on the spirit of home rule and defy the will of District residents.
Melissa Wasser, senior policy counsel at ACLU-D.C., said the bills to alter the city’s criminal justice laws and strip the attorney general of their elected status threaten home rule and exemplify Congress’ efforts to interfere in D.C. affairs. She said the proposed policies have been tried elsewhere and proven ineffective, adding that they further Trump’s efforts to eliminate political opposition.
“Despite the Trump administration’s attempt at fear and intimidation, everyone in D.C. has rights, and we want to ensure that people know their rights and know that, again, we do not need the president to micromanage D.C. with the influx of National Guard troops,” Wasser said.
Congress passed the Home Rule Act in 1973, granting the District self-governance after years of con-
gressional control. The act granted the local government control over many aspects of public life, like business regulation and local ordinances, but included caveats, permitting the president and Congress to approve laws and wield more power over D.C. in emergency situations.
Trump’s threats of a federal takeover of D.C. date back to the 2024 campaign trail, when he said he would take over D.C. to “clean it up” and bring down violent crime. Despite Trump’s claims of a crimeridden city, crime in D.C. reached a 30-year low in 2024 following a spike in 2023.
Wasser said the federal government has been using D.C. as a testing ground for policies, like continued guard deployment, that they can more easily impose on D.C. because it lacks statehood. She added that the Trump administration is undermining the will of the 700,000 residents of the District by attempting to exert control over its local affairs and elected officials.
“We’re seeing more and more micromanagement by the president and by Congress that are using failed and outdated methods of addressing crime, and that is not going to keep us safe and secure,” Wasser said.
Wasser said having the guard here for the extended period of time has done nothing to make D.C. safer because they have spent most of their time in Metro stations and “standing around.” She said instead of spending money on troops, the government should be investing in proven solutions to address the root causes of public safety, like investing in community nonprofit organizations.
“We know what keeps communities safe and that’s investing in solutions that address the root causes
of public safety issues and stop crime before it happens,” Wasser said. “Having the National Guard here on these extended orders, it’s just a waste of time and money.”
In early September, congressional Republicans advanced more than a dozen bills aimed at altering the Home Rule Act or otherwise limiting the District’s self-governance.
The proposed legislation would make the elected D.C. attorney general a presidential appointee, impose mandatory pre-trial and post-conviction detention for certain crimes, lower the minimum age that someone can be tried as an adult to 14 and extend the congres-
sional review period where Congress can veto bills passed by the D.C. Council from 30 to 60 days. One of the bills the House Rules Committee is set to vote on this week is the District of Columbia Cash Bail Reform Act of 2025, which would reinstate cash bail for severe crimes, something the District hasn’t had in decades, as well as mandatory pre-trial and post-conviction detention for those accused of violent crimes. Wasser said she expects the bills to pass the Rules Committee and receive a vote of the full house later this week.
George Derek Musgrove, an associate professor of history at the University of Maryland, Bal-
timore County and a scholar of D.C. history, said the District has long stood as America’s example of “anti-democratic” government action, with Congress having long been able to impose policies on D.C. that wouldn’t be accepted by their constituents. Musgrove said home rule has been the only way D.C. residents have been able to exercise self determination.
“Home rule is quite literally the difference for D.C. residents of being a vassal to a sort of ersatz king sitting in the one of the House office buildings or Senate office buildings or being something approximating an American citizen,” Musgrove said.
Researchers reveal consistent tool use among early humans over 300,000 years
GW researchers uncovered newly documented African stone tools that showcase evidence that early humans passed down toolmaking techniques starting approximately 2.75 million years ago in a study published earlier this month.
Researchers conducted six field campaigns at the newly discovered Namorotukunan site in Kenya between 2012 and 2022 to gather the rock and sediment data needed to accurately date the site and found the same stone tool-making techniques for over 300,000 years, according to the study. David Braun, a professor of anthropology and the lead researcher on the study, said the study indicates that early humans were able to understand and replicate behaviors from one generation to the next and gives researchers a glimpse into a period and location of human evolution they previously had little in-
sight into.
“That’s kind of exciting, because it would suggest at least the precursors to whether it will eventually become this innate ability to transfer information between individuals, which is really a critical ability in our evolution as hominins,” Braun said.
Braun and his colleagues found the Oldowan tools — made of stone and used for tasks like food gathering — which include sharp-edged stone flakes and cores, representing the oldest systematic production of sharp-edged stone artifacts known in records of early hominins. The study states that the key features of these tools allowed hominins to extract food resources, including meat and bone marrow, during times of environmental change when finding dependent food sources was particularly difficult.
The site, located in the Turkana Basin in Kenya, contains three distinct archaeological horizons, or layers,
dated to 2.75, 2.58 and 2.44 million years ago, allowing the team to track potential changes in tool making over a long period of time, according to the study.
The new site, Namorotukunan, is the earliest known evidence of the Oldowan stone tool within the Koobi Fora formation, a crucial area for finding hominin fossils, according to the study.
Between 2013 and 2022, researchers analyzed how early hominins struck stones and produced sharp-edged flakes and found that they repeated the same techniques across different periods of time, according to the study. Using portable mechanical testers in the field and lab equipment at GW, the team measured the strength and fracture patterns of different stones and found that early hominins consistently chose the same mechanically superior rock types in making their tools while ignoring others.
“We do know that there’s some consistency in under-
standing behaviors from one generation to the next,”
Braun said.
Braun said the Oldowan tools the researchers discovered were well made, which he said likely means there are older, more primitive tools yet to be discovered.
Niguss Baraki, a postdoctoral researcher who worked on the project as a PhD student at GW at the time, said the team’s findings challenge the assumption held by the scientific community that shifting climates would disrupt early hominins’ ability to use the tools. Baraki said the consistency of the technology suggests that early hominins adapted to their changing environment by using sharp flakes to access meat and bone marrow when plants were scarce and gathered rocks that allowed them to find food across different landscapes.
The environment, which the study stated was experiencing increased aridity and environmental variability, would have been more chal-
lenging for hominins and may have heightened the need for hominins to expand their diet.
“You would expect, maybe, environmental change is going to affect their ability to make or use tools,” Baraki said. “But rather, they were using the tools as an advantage to navigate the environmental challenge. It shows you how persistent the hominins were despite being exposed to the different environmental conditions.”
Kevin Uno, an associate professor of human evolutionary biology and earth and planetary science at Harvard University and one of the researchers on the study, said the team relied on multiple dating techniques to verify the ages of the tools.
The researchers did a radioisotopic analysis of volcanic ash layers and analyzed magnetic polarity reversals to “bracket” the ages of stone tool layers, according to the study. Each of these layers contained evidence that these stones were used
Foggy Bottom dog park, playground reopens after renovations
District officials reopened a Foggy Bottom dog park and playground late last month after a seven-monthlong series of renovations.
Contractors installed all-new playground equipment, improved drainage in the dog park area and added a ramp to access the park and a line of evergreen trees positioned between the playground and K Street, reopening the park on 26th and I streets after seven months. D.C. in 2016 repaired the park’s collapsing fence — which District officials determined presented a safety hazard — but neighbors said the work was incomplete as dilapidated equipment and an inadequate drainage system remained and that the park required additional renovations.
The D.C. Council approved funding to renovate the 26th and I streets park in 2017, but the project didn’t receive funds from the District until 2022 and didn’t begin construction until early 2025. A series of complications, including changing contractors, caused officials to scale back the project, ditching an original plan to move the playground further from K Street.
The Foggy Bottom Association, a neighborhood organization promoting the civic, cultural, social and economic welfare of Foggy Bottom and West End, created a committee in February and ran an electronic survey in March to select a name for the park, FBA President John George said. FBA President John George said the outcome of the survey, which allowed community members to
suggest names, was “Greens Court Park.” The name refers to a historic alley in the block west of the park occupied now by the Potomac River Freeway.
“We are doing it more as a reflection on our history so that people can recognize that over time, things changed, but we don’t forget,” George said. George said the current park renovations are a continuation of efforts community members have engaged in since the 1980s to create a space for children to play outdoors
in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood, especially for young families and mothers.
“They got together, and they petitioned the city in order to buy a fence and some limited playground equipment,” George said of the neighbors in the 1980s. “So that corner, where the current children’s park is, was a very grassroots effort.” George said he observed a desire among neighbors for dog park improvements in a survey of the neighborhood in 2020 but said CO-
VID-19 and permitting issues with both the D.C. departments of general services and parks and recreation delayed the work.
“On this particular project, I think because resources were diverted elsewhere, there just wasn’t the attention that this particular project needed,” George said.
DGS initially in 2024 planned to move the dog park altogether to a location further from K Street, a change George said would alleviate concerns about traffic noise and crossing a large road. He said
for toolmaking and also to butcher meat for survival, according to the study.
“We can date volcanic ash layers because they contain tiny minerals that are atomic clocks,” Uno said. These clocks counted the continuous usage of the tools over the 300,000-year span, suggesting that hominins could adapt to the changing environments and climate.
“Even as the environment changed, sometimes becoming drier or more open, the stone tools were essential and versatile to survival,” Uno said.
Uno said that while some tools were used to hunt animals for vital meat food sources, researchers can’t always tell exactly how they were used, but they were a versatile instrument in these early humans’ toolkits.
“I think across this 300,000 years of continuity of using the same tools suggests they were essential and versatile to our survival under fluctuating climate conditions,” Uno said.
District agencies recognized the annoyance and danger of K Street, so they put up the trees to improve its environment.
The Foggy Bottom and West End Advisory Neighborhood Commission endorsed DGS’s initial plan to swap the playground and dog park in April 2024, but nature-preservation concerns — particularly about protected “heritage trees” along the site’s perimeter — pushed officials to reconsider the design. DGS scrapped the swap and scaled the project back to renovations, delaying the timeline further as officials drafted a revised plan until November.
2A04 Commissioner Ed Comer said in July 2024 the move stemmed from a contractor’s determination that large trees nearby prohibited construction required to swap locations. The ANC unanimously approved the simplified renovation plan in November, and construction began in February after the Public Space Committee issued permits in December.
“DDOT has since planted a pretty substantial set of trees to act as a buffer,” George said.
George said he is unsure when phase two of the renovations, which will involve installing a water system to bring the park into compliance with D.C. regulations, will begin. Officials haven’t shared which parts of the park will close again during the second phase of construction.
The D.C. Council must approve the name before it appears on official maps and documents. The park is currently listed in D.C. data sources as “26th & I Street Playground.”
KAIDEN J. YU | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Members of the National Guard patrol Navy Yard in August.
CARSTEN HOLST | PHOTOGRAPHER
A woman pets her dog at a Foggy Bottom dog park.
JESSICA ROWE REPORTER
JUWON KIM REPORTER
Officials say GW committed to DEI within legal limits
Bautista said she has also noticed a decline in the quantity and quality of ODECE programming since Trump took office for his second term, which she attributed to officials generally shying away from promoting diversity initiatives due to concerns of GW becoming a federal target.
In August, officials said they were conducting a “careful review” of a Department of Justice memo warning that universities receiving federal funding would face “significant legal risks” if they continued to promote or engage in “discriminatory” DEI practices. University spokesperson Shannon McClendon confirmed that GW’s review of diversity programs to ensure compliance with federal law is ongoing.
University President Ellen Granberg said in an October email to the community members that the University is consulting its general counsel office to maintain inclusivity on campus as it conducts a review of DEI programs to determine whether any changes are required to comply with civil rights and anti-discrimination laws.
key advisers about the compact before officials confirmed a week later GW is not considering accepting it.
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Three of GW’s 12 peer schools have entirely shuttered their DEI offices and five have renamed them since January under pressure from the Trump administration to eliminate all mentions of DEI — opting instead for terminology like “Office of Belonging and Engagement” or “Academic Excellence and Opportunity.” University spokesperson Skyler Sales declined to comment on if the University is considering shuttering or renaming the ODECE or if the University has issued internal guidance directing staff to use alternative language instead of DEI.
McClendon said as federal actions and guidance on DEI evolve, it is difficult for officials to provide “concrete outlooks” on the current state or future of GW’s initiatives. She said the University recognizes the uncertainty surrounding federal actions on DEI is causing concern for community members and understands the community’s desire and “continued call” for clarity about how federal actions affect the University.
In October, Trump also offered a compact to all universities, which would grant them preferential federal funding in exchange for implementing a series of institutional reforms, including entirely eliminating DEI programs. A University spokesperson in mid-October said officials would confer with
MFA
McClendon said higher education institutions are seeing “broader trends” and experiencing “varied impacts” on DEI efforts. She said the University maintains its commitment to DEI initiatives within the “bounds of the law” and in alignment with GW’s educational mission.
McClendon said officials in September postponed the Diversity Summit from this semester to spring 2026 to allow for a “reimagined experience” shaped by community input.
Jane West, a first-year creative writing and English major, said she did not hear about officials postponing the Diversity Summit a second time — an announcement they tacked on to the bottom of a Sept. 17 GW Today email. She said GW’s lack of communication about the state of diversity initiatives on campus indicates they are not willing to outwardly discuss DEI and are attempting to hide the moves they make to end or delay initiatives.
ODECE’s former vice provost also left GW over 16 months ago, and officials at the time pledged to launch a national search for a successor before officials confirmed they halted the search nine months after the start of Trump’s second term. McClendon said officials have kept the search for a new ODECE vice provost on pause to allow new leadership to gather community input and evaluate GW’s future needs for the position with the “additional lens” of evolving federal guidance.
Sales said the University’s strategic framework, which officials debuted last month, specifically commits to a “fully inclusive environment.” The framework mentions supporting “intellectual diversity” but does not use the terms “equity” or “inclusion,” nor the full term “diversity, equity and inclusion.”
Antonella Ortega, the SGA Senate’s DEI director, said students have become more vocal about officials’ moves in recent weeks and have started to press officials for more outright protections and support for diversity programs through resolutions and internal meetings. Over three dozen students attended an SGA meeting late last month where senators passed a resolution calling on officials to reject federal interference in campus diversity initiatives.
“I feel like, especially GW as a campus, we’re so political, and we always speak up about what we think,” Ortega said.
paid consulting
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MFA CEO Bill Elliott shared the enterprise’s FY2024 Form 990 with The Hatchet after the paper requested the form under an Internal Revenue Service policy that requires tax-exempt organizations to provide copies digitally upon request before they are posted online. The form is not yet publicly available on sites like ProPublica, which displays Form 990s after IRS processing.
The MFA’s status as a nonprofit organization requires officials to report its revenues and expenses to the IRS using the Form 990 each fiscal year, which begins July 1 and ends June 30.
Elliott declined numerous requests for comment on The Hatchet’s questions about the form.
Here is a breakdown of the MFA’s FY2024 Form 990:
Changes to the MFA’s governing documents
MFA Officials in FY2024 added then-GW Hospital CEO Kim Russo — who served as CEO from 2016 until she stepped down earlier this year to the MFA’s board. As CEO, Russo also simultaneously served as the vice president for the D.C. region of UHS, the group the University and MFA have ongoing negotiations with to end GW’s financial support for the medical enterprise, until she left the role in April.
Elliott declined to comment why the MFA added GW Hospital’s CEO as an ex officio trustee to the Board in FY2024, also declining to discuss the benefits the MFA anticipated from having the hospital’s top official involved in the enterprise’s governance. He declined to comment whether adding Russo to the board played a role in the University and MFA’s decision to enter negotiations with UHS this year. As part of the governance
Faculty senators raise freedom of expression concerns after staff member’s departure
FSEC ahead of Friday’s meeting temporarily elected Orti — who seconded Cohen-Cole’s resolution to undo FSEC, saying he sensed confidence in the committee had diminished — and Amita Vyas, one of the six who called on Schultheiss to resign, as co-chairs of the committee before the senate reconvened Friday to hold a formal vote.
“On a personal note, I believe that following a series of unfortunate events, FSEC is ready to move forward and to commit to a collaboration to conduct important business expected from us by this senate,” Orti said in his first report as chair.
Several faculty senators also raised concerns about GW’s commitment to freedom of expression after officials confirmed in September that a staff member who called Charlie Kirk’s assassination “fair” in a personal social media post is no longer employed by GW, calling on officials to reexamine their policies and make the community aware of the guidelines they should follow. Faculty senators denounced Anthony Pohorilak’s apparent firing as
inconsistent with the University’s commitment to freedom of expression, but Granberg declined to confirm whether officials dismissed Pohorilak, saying she could not comment on personnel issues.
Officials in September confirmed Pohorilak was no longer employed by GW due to the impact his social media post had on his ability to fulfill his professional responsibilities and that he was not authorized to speak on behalf of the University.
Faculty senator Phil Wirtz said he worries faculty and staff are increasingly feeling like they can’t express themselves freely in public, pointing directly to Pohorilak’s departure.
“I just want to express my own concern when I start hearing about people being fired through expressing their opinions here and people being afraid to reveal the members of committees,” Wirtz said. “That’s just not the GW I know or I want to be part of.”
In response, Granberg called faculty and staff’s fear of speaking their minds a “very important topic” and noted that it is an issue affecting higher education more broadly. She said the
topic warrants a more indepth conversation and added that the Faculty Senate and University officials could have a joint discussion to address questions surrounding the issue.
“Certainly I, and I am certain John agrees, want an environment that is characterized by free expression and academic freedom and the way in which those things are connected,” Granberg said. “But I would be a fool if I didn’t realize that there are elements happening in our country that is causing that to close in a little bit.”
Faculty senator Ilana Feldman said the University should evaluate its rules to ensure employees feel institutionally protected in the current “climate” and are “robust enough” to guarantee employees are protected in the case of pubic pressure on Granberg, Interim Provost John Lach and the Board of Trustees. She said the procedures shouldn’t allow officials to punish or fire employees for their academic work or freedom of speech.
Faculty Senator Arthur Wilson said he was “embarrassed” to hear that a GW employee no longer worked at the University following
changes, MFA officials also expanded the eligibility of those who could serve as “chair trustee” to include directors of specialized MFA departments, like for cancer and surgery.
MFA officials also eliminated its chief physician executive position — then held by Sidawy — as both a trustee and officer of the MFA. The form indicates the position no longer exists. Elliott declined to comment why officials removed the chief physician executive position as both a trustee and an officer.
MFA officials also amended the number of trustees University President Ellen Granberg can appoint to no fewer than one and no more than two. They also updated the
Board’s audit committee’s responsibility to review additional reports, like audited financial reports, institutional policies, legal issues and conflicts of interest, which GW’s Office of Ethics, Compliance, and Risk previously monitored.
Elliott declined to comment why officials updated the Board’s audit committee’s responsibilities to include those reports. He also declined to comment whether the various governance changes had played any role in the MFA’s $107 million losses in FY2024.
MFA paid BDC Advisors almost $2 million before spring 2024 restructuring
MFA officials paid BDC Advisors — a health care consulting
firm and one of five independent contractors reported on the form — $1,944,000 from January 2023 to December 2023, according to the tax form. The payment marks the first to the firm that appears on the form and provides insight into the behind-the-scenes work officials wouldn’t publicly disclose as they tried to solve the MFA’s financial losses.
Elliott declined to comment on the specific consulting services the firm provided the MFA.
BDC partners with senior health care experts to solve problems within health care enterprises, including those dealing with complex financial and delivery challenges, according to its website.
BDC’s Chief Administrative Of-
his comments about Kirk, calling the staff member’s comment “innocuous” and a national overreaction. He suggested officials consider rehiring Pohorilak as part of the University’s commitment to free speech.
Lach said he’s looking forward to his planned meeting with the Faculty Senate Committee on Professional Ethics & Academic Freedom — a group of 37 faculty and staff charged with overseeing administrative and faculty policies — Tuesday to discuss faculty members’ academic freedom. He added that he expects the group to discuss the University’s new Office of Access and Opportunity’s processes that officials are setting up in relation to academic freedom.
“The discussion with PEAF will also include examining the role of academic freedom within the context of allegations and investigations of discrimination, bias, and harassment, as GW must keep our campus free from such behaviors without having a chilling effect on academic freedom,” University spokesperson Shannon McClendon said in an email about Lach’s upcoming meeting with PEAF.
ficer Nina Minnehan said the firm, GW and the MFA have a “very constructive relationship,” though the nature and scope of services BDC provided the University and MFA are confidential. Minnehan added that BDC does not have any current active engagements with GW or the MFA.
“We are not at liberty to disclose any details of any past or current relationships with our clients,” Minnehan said in an email.
Contributions and gifts declined by 71 percent as the MFA lost all government grants
The form shows contributions and grants to the medical enterprise declined by 71 percent during FY2024, from $12.7 million in FY2023 to just under $3.7 million in FY2024 after the federal government did not contribute any grants to the MFA for the first time since FY2019. The MFA only received contributions from “related organizations” in FY2024, its tax forms show, though the enterprise hasn’t reported other sources of contributions since FY2020.
The MFA first reported receiving government grants in FY2020 that have fluctuated in each year since — $8.9 million in FY2020, $15.5 million in FY2021, $5.6 million in FY2022 and $9.9 million in FY2023.
The lack of government grants in FY2024 led the MFA to report its lowest level of contributions and grants the medical enterprise has received since FY2019 — the year prior to the MFA starting to receive government grants — which stood at $972,066. Elliott declined to comment on the factors that led the MFA not to receive any government grants in FY2024 and how a lack of government grants impacted the enterprise’s financial standing in FY2024, given the MFA ended the fiscal year with its highest recorded loss.
KAIDEN J. YU | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Faculty Senator Phil Wirtz listens during Friday’s meeting.
From
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ARWEN CLEMANS
The Medical Faculty Associate’s fiscal year 2024 Form 990.
OPINIONS
This isn’t the GW experience we’re paying for
STAFF EDITORIAL
University-wide cuts to budgets, resources, campus operations and personnel have rippled through the community over the last few months. As an editorial board, we understand more deeply than most students the financial and operational pressures reshaping GW. At the same time, we cannot ignore that these reductions are eroding the student experience the University promised us — and the one we are paying for.
Since the start of fiscal year 2026, officials have quietly suspended students’ ability to form new organizations, closed District House and University Student Center eateries on the weekends, ended 24/7 security in some upperclassmen residence halls and cut the frequency of the Mount Vernon Express shuttle by 50 percent. They discontinued Counseling and Psychological Services’ walk-in counseling hours, announced looming cuts in the Graduate School of Education and Human Development and temporarily reduced Gelman Library’s overnight hours. They slashed the Student Bar Association’s budget, halted the School of Business’ peer mentorship program and at the end of FY2026’s first quarter, laid off 43 staff.
We have repeatedly extended grace to officials when discussing staff layoffs, reductions to campus resources and the uncertain future of GW’s graduate schools, always acknowledging the University’s financial hardships and grounding our critiques in that understanding. But months later, it’s clear that officials are making these decisions without consulting students — GW’s paying customers. In doing so, the University is taking students’ understanding for granted.
The struggle to accept these cuts is compounded by officials’ repeated inability to be honest
Iwith students about what these changes really are.
What’s more, explanations for cuts only surfaced when The Hatchet asked for them, as opposed to proactive, public communication to the community. For many of these cuts, officials made no announcement at all.
This week, we opened our editorial board meeting to other Hatchet staff members, and one thing quickly became clear: Everyone in the room had either been directly affected by these cuts or knew someone who had. One staff member spent months organizing a new student group, only to learn at the last minute that the Division for Student Affairs had quietly frozen all new organization applica-
tions. GW has long marketed itself as a place where students can build community by creating their own organizations. They are a cornerstone of the GW experience, and their suspension represents a real and meaningful loss for students who rely on them for community, identity and opportunity.
Staff members have had a similar experience with the new dining hours. Many campus dining locations are now closed on weekends, and the few that remain open — mainly the dining halls and GW’s Panda Express — often shut down earlier at night. But in our meeting, several of us noted how disruptive these limited hours have been, especially for students who rely on meal swipes. Some students
Students must strengthen media literacy amid press restrictions
n October, the Department of Defense announced the formation of a “next generation” press corps to report on the Pentagon Press Association and the U.S. military after dozens of established media outlets withdrew from the association instead of accepting Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s new reporting rules restricting reporters’ movement, requiring Pentagon approval for publishing even unclassified information and allowing the DOD to revoke credentials for reporters seeking material that wasn’t authorized by the department. The news outlets taking their place are largely conservative-leaning or non-traditional media outlets.
This shift raises significant questions about transparency, press access and who gets to shape political narratives in D.C. It is crucial that students pursuing careers in fields like political communication, journalism, international affairs and political science disciplines — who rely on access to accurate and transparent information to form their own opinions and guide their studies — understand the implications of these new rules. Students should view this as a call to strengthen their own media literacy
by challenging narratives, comparing outlets and not taking official versions of events at face value. For GW students preparing to enter media, policy or communication fields, this shift shows a growing need for their reporting and communication strategies. Understanding how narrative control operates within powerful institutions is not only key to interpreting the news, but it’s essential training for those who will one day produce or influence it. As future policymakers and advocates, GW students should consider this a moment of reminder that distributing information comes with accountability. Students need to leverage their proximity when interning with these national institutions by asking the tougher questions, pushing for transparency and elevating the voices that tends to be excluded. Doing this, they have the opportunity to model exactly the kind of integrity and curiosity a democracy depends on. For GW students, this is a reminder that media literacy and critical consumption are vital now more than ever. There are also ways students can engage more with diverse outlets. The diversity of news sources is crucial for developing an informed understanding of how narratives shift depending on who is telling the story. At GW, the School of Media & Public Affairs doesn’t rely on one outlet or even one perspective in
its classes and studies how a story is covered by different outlets, how some may emphasize access, and how others may emphasize scrutiny. Recognizing differences in framing prepares you to ask smarter questions. In class discussions, student media projects or even casual conversations, students should ask questions, like “Who benefits from this narrative?” and “What’s being left out by the outlets?”
Moving forward, the shift at the Pentagon press corps should not be understood as purely partisan — it is a structural change with real consequences. It’s about power, not party, and how control over information shapes what the public sees, regardless of right or left. What this says is that this is a strategic control, just as critical news outlets withdrew under rules that limit independent reporting rather than broaden it.
Asking the questions, seeking the news sources, attending the events, pushing the boundaries of access and holding all institutions, governments and media accountable is our responsibility. Staying informed and questioning whose voices are dominant is one of the first steps toward ensuring accountability of the government agencies and media institutions that shape public understanding of national security and foreign policy.
—Gaëlle Timmer, a first-year majoring in political science, is an opinions writer.
Ghave been forced to spend their own money simply because they couldn’t find an open campus option that accepted meal swipes. For students living on tight budgets, the choice between losing a shuttle route, a library hour or a dining option may have mattered — they might have preferred one trade-off over another if given the chance. But officials never asked. They did not administer surveys, host town halls or offer opportunities for students to help decide which resources they could live without. The Vex now running less frequently and cramming more students onto each bus, reduced security in upperclassmen residence halls and the elimination of CAPS walk-in hours all represent cuts to
resources that directly affect student safety and mental health. As students, we have every right to be dissatisfied with the way GW is implementing these cuts. When we chose to attend this University, we did so with certain expectations about the support, safety and stability we would receive. GW is no longer meeting some of those expectations.
We are the ones currently paying tuition and will eventually become the alumni GW hopes will donate. We appreciate hearing GW’s long-term goals, like meeting full demonstrated financial need and expanding dining options, but these plans won’t likely materialize until after we’ve graduated. Expecting current students to be patient while stripping away the resources we rely on now is not a reasonable ask.
GW needs to recognize that the well-being of its current students is a strategic priority. Prospective students pay attention to how universities treat their communities. If they see GW cutting essential services with no student input, they may think twice about enrolling at a school that acts unilaterally on matters that directly affect students’ safety, stability and daily lives. GW is a tuition-dependent university — students are not just stakeholders, but the core of the business model. If officials want future alumni who feel connected enough to give back, they must first ensure that students’ four years here are worth valuing. Continued silence, opacity and topdown decision-making only breed mistrust.
Students should not shy away from expressing their dissatisfaction or demanding better. As tuition-paying students and future alumni the University hopes will donate, our voices carry real weight. It’s time we use them.
Students need better AI guidance than what GW offers
enerative artificial intelligence is dominating our academic lives and future career fields. At GW, we see professors incorporating AI into their lesson plans and students using it for work that is meant to reflect their own work. Generative AI usage at GW has grown significantly over the past year, yet officials have only encouraged professors to address generative AI as opposed to making specific regulations or substantial efforts to ensure the entire community understands AI in a larger context. In the absence of official generative AI regulatory policies at universities like GW, the local D.C. government should be establishing concrete policies for K-12 schools to protect children in the digital world and prepare them before they get to college.
GW’s generative AI guidelines list general policies regarding AI, like intellectual property and plagiarism. Most rules state it’s up to faculty to implement individual policies, which result in different standards for each class. The rules mostly discuss what is considered cheating and what is acceptable usage of generative AI. Even so, with
the lack of a standardized AI policy and lesson plans, GW has yet to release concrete guidelines on how they plan to educate and prepare students for a world with generative AI.
GW has undeniably begun efforts to understand generative AI, but officials still tout very general policies and so far haven’t appeared to take more meaningful efforts to hear from students. This is especially essential because so many GW students use generative AI, with some using it for all of their assignments or integrating it into their daily routines. There may even be GW students developing social dependency on chatbots, but there are no protective efforts from GW’s AI policies or GWTAI to inform these students of the potential dangers.
Younger generations must be educated and protected from potential misuse of generative AI, and if universities cannot provide this for their students, then local governments must act instead.
As of now, D.C. has no AI commission, unlike Delaware and Maryland, but has established an AI advisory group, and an AI task force. In neither the task force nor the advisory group is there mention of integrating student perspectives or even regulations of AI across K-12 and higher education. Rather they
focus on cybersecurity and surveillance of data. As of now, D.C. has introduced legislation but still has not passed a regulation on generative AI use. At GW, a similar issue exists, where standard rules exist but are already outdated compared to the complexity of generative AI used by students now. Telling students which part of the academic process can be assisted with generative AI is not enough as students will continue to use it without authorization. Although efforts from D.C.’s local government will directly apply to public schools, unlike GW, it will set a precedent in education that private schools will be encouraged to follow. There must be real efforts to educate students on generative AI’s limitations and its echo chambers and research done on our students to see what the best way possible is to regulate generative AI. The government must find ways to understand and therefore regulate it or at least have specific metrics for it. This will require engaged actions from officials to drive legislation forward at the state and national levels. Generative AI is only becoming more prominent, and there must be urgent adaptability to learn and regulate generative AI.
—Priyanka Dubey, a sophomore majoring in cognitive neuroscience, is an opinions writer.
Priyanka Dubey Opinions Writer
CAROLINE MORRELLI | STAFF CARTOONIST
Gaëlle Timmer Opinions Writer
THE SCENE CULTURE
We saw a bunch of our favorite bands, and we always talked about how fun it would be to get to do it ourselves. And here we are tonight, so thank you.”
Eight years ago, Jared Gozinsky spotted Zach Blankstein peering into his Phillips Hall practice room while he played the drums. Thirty minutes later, a conversation about music sparked a partnership that lasted through college and persists today.
On Saturday night, the GW alums and their band, Couch, brought the shared passion they discovered in college to a sold-out crowd at the 9:30 Club. Gozinsky and Blankstein, joined by their five bandmates, took the stage as part of the band’s “Big Talk Tour,” performing songs from the namesake album they released last month.
“This is really special for all of us but especially Jared and me,” Blankstein told the crowd at the 9:30 Club. “We met at GW, we went to college here. We would come to concerts like every weekend here.
Strobe lights flashed as the seven members of Couch walked on stage, met with cheers from a packed crowd who swayed and danced to songs, like “Jessie,” “On the Wire” and a jazzy rendition of “Toxic” by Britney Spears. From the saxophone and trumpet to the drums and electric piano, the band’s genre-blending songs were driven by bold lead vocals that kept the groovy concert moving.
Blankstein, a 2021 graduate and the group’s manager and guitarist, said he majored in communications with a minor in music while at GW.
He said being involved in GW’s music scene was an integral part of his college experience, noting he joined the GW Jazz Orchestra, the Student Musicians Coalition and the formerly called Colonial Brass pep band. He also formed the student band Standard Issue with fellow
GW students, which Gozinsky later joined and which performed at venues like DC9 and Songbyrd Music House.
Gozinsky, a 2022 graduate and the group’s drummer, said he studied exercise science, but all of his extracurricular activities centered around music, as he joined the Colonial Brass, Student Musician Coalition, GW Wind Ensemble, GW Latin Band and the GW Jazz Orchestra.
Starting in 2019, Blankstein said the Boston-based band is composed of himself and five friends who met while growing up in Massachusetts, along with Gozinsky, the only non-Bostonian, who joined Standard Issue after a prior member studied abroad. Blankstein said Couch was in search of a drummer and thought Gozinsky’s talent and down-to-earth personality would be an apt match for the band.
Gozinsky said after a Standard Issue show was rained out, the band decided to host a spontaneous pop-up show to make up for their canceled one in the middle of
Kogan, with “a bunch” of friends attending.
Blankstein said going to GW as opposed to a school in New York City meant he existed in a less competitive music environment, which gave him ample opportunities to solidify his position in the music sphere.
He said many of his tour-preparation techniques and instincts hailed from his time at GW, where he and Gozinsky would spend many hours in the old practice rooms in Shenkman Hall’s basement. He said their routines were “kind of the vibe” of Couch now — eating “sh*tty food from Gallery” and spending the whole night “making noise,” prepping for Standard Issue performances.
Blankstein said the pair frequently attended the 9:30 Club while at GW, including for a performance by guitarist Cory Wong, whom Couch later opened for during his U.S. and Europe tours. He said the venue’s rich history — including Nirvana, Bob Dylan and The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ shows
— has cemented the 9:30 Club as one of the most iconic music locales in the nation.
Gozinsky said the band as a whole is familiar with the District’s music scene, previously playing at Songbyrd Music House in 2021, Pearl Street Warehouse, the Atlantis and opening for Wong at the Anthem last November. He said because Couch began to tour in 2021 — before he graduated from college — he would have to fly across the country to shows in the fall and spring semesters.
Gozinsky and Blankstein both said their ideal after-show journey would include a “pilgrimage” to their “staple” spot, Ben’s Chili Bowl on U Street, and a late-night trip to the monuments, paying homage to their GW roots.
“Zach and I both have had this experience of being there and hoping to one day play at the 9:30 club,” Gozinsky said. “And you know now that it’s a reality and also having sold it out, is really a very surreal feeling for us, and it’s really, really exciting.”
Need some wings? This Red Bull student ambassador has you covered
As students shuffle across Kogan Plaza and spill out of Duques Hall with eyelids heavy and backpacks dragging, Heidi Amin loops by in her blue and gray Mini Cooper, ready to swoop in with a can of Red Bull for anyone running on fumes.
Amin, a senior studying marketing and known on campus as the “Red Bull girl,” has been a student marketer for the company for two
years, also acting as the team lead for the 11-person cohort of students across the DMV since July. She said her role as Red Bull ambassador has allowed her to exercise her creativity, coordinate a full-scale campus brand event and find moments for students to stop, smile and grab a can of energy between classes amid their busy school days.
Amin said the job encompasses more than jetting around in the Mini Cooper around campus and knowing how to skillfully paral-
First-year Olivia Kelly said she knew exactly what was happening when she heard sounds of beatboxing and melodies outside of Thurston Hall’s third-floor study room. Sitting at a table and hanging out with friends, Kelly looked up as a suited up a cappella group poured through the doorway, launching into the smooth, unmistakable harmonies of Jeremih’s “Birthday Sex” aimed at her as she celebrated her 19th birthday. She watched in awe, cackling as the group crooned, “It’s yo’ birthday, so I know you want to ride out/Even if we only go to my house,” pointing at Kelly and hitting sharp notes that had the entire study room erupting in laughter.
“This guy did not break eye contact for a second, besides to move and close his eyes and grind the air like the entire time,” Kelly said.
Kelly’s singing surprise was performed by a cappella group Sons of Pitch, a 17-member group founded at GW in 2003, who started officially offering GW students birthday serenades to the tune of Jeremih’s 2009 hit at the end of October. The now 25 serenades the group has done — which include the 1.5 minute song arrangement and walking to the students’ venues of choice — cost $20 and can be booked by direct messaging the Sons of Pitch on Instagram and booking a time slot on the Calendly they share.
Junior and Music Director of Sons of Pitch Samuel Schwartz said the group was inspired to perform the piece after seeing University of
lel park, instead depending on marketing savvy and creativity. She said the team does “boots-on-the-ground marketing,” with students serving as the face of the Red Bull brand for their consumers on college campuses and around Capitol Hill. Amin said marketers formulate their own weekly schedules, with a typical shift consisting of first picking up the Red Bull Mini Cooper — which features a large replica of a can on top — picking up the energy drinks and then
Wisconsin-Madison’s Fundamentally Sound a cappella group perform the song on TikTok and amass 6.4 million likes, following Indiana University’s Another Round, who started the trend in late September.
He said before the group posted on Instagram in late October advertising the serenades, students had already started reaching out to them asking them if they would do it.
Schwartz said the group wanted to have some “fun” before they start rehearsing for the quarterfinals of the Mid-Atlantic International Championship of Collegiate
A Cappella in March, an annual vocal competition featuring college a cappella groups across the country and will be using money raised from the serenades toward funding the costs of the competition.
Schwartz said the group had to make a Calendly in order to keep up with the number of requests after advertising services on their Instagram, which he said has reached more than 20 per week. Because not all members can attend each serenade due to classes and other commitments, he said the group has had to turn down more than 25 people’s requests.
heading out to her designated spots, depending on the team’s decided upon itinerary for the day. Once at their spot, they hand out free Red Bulls to people at work, students studying and tourists poking around some of D.C.’s most famous spots.
Amin said that being known as the “Red Bull girl” has felt “really cool,” serving as an on-campus alter ego. She added that the nickname has made her instantly recognizable and allows her to bring the brand to life,
whether she’s driving the Mini Cooper or handing out energy drinks to students on campus. Amin said she believes student marketers have helped boost interest in the company, encouraging students to buy their own Red Bull beverages. She noted that, while drinks like Celsius are often more popular for everyday use, students are increasingly drinking Red Bull for a caffeine boost during the day.
“I’ve had people come
up to me and be like, ‘Dude, I’m addicted now. I love Red Bull,’” she said. She said a month ago, she brought the brand to life on campus through Red Bull Tetris, a global brand project with life-sized Red Bullbranded infrastructure, a DJ, a photographer, Tetris cubes and backdrops in Potomac Square.
“It’s actually the best student job in the world,” she said. “And I truly couldn’t imagine doing anything other than this.”
Junior and Sons of Pitch member Jacob Schwartz said he arranged the piece for the group on MuseScore, a software used for composing and writing out music notes. Schwartz said he serves as the main soloist for the serenade and has garnered attention on TikTok for his passionate dance moves, like pointing to the birthday person and thrusting in the air. While in class, he said, his friends pulled up the TikToks of the serenades that appeared on their for you pages, with his dance moves front and center. Schwartz said in the same class, the professor even pulled up the video on the classroom projector for everyone to see.
First-year Ava Scharbo said she hired Sons of Pitch for Kelly’s birthday last week after her friend had mentioned wanting to be ser-
enaded for her birthday earlier in the semester. She said she initially requested the serenade in early October, long before Sons of Pitch began officially offering them publicly, which she got for the initial price of $15. Ksenia Rabij, a first-year and friend of Scharbo and Kelly,
NICHOLAS WARE | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The Sons of Pitch perform the song “Birthday Sex” in a Thurston Hall study room.
KAIDEN J.YU| STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Couch’s Zach Blankstein plays the guitar in front of a sold-out 9:30 Club crowd Saturday.
KAIDEN J.YU| STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Fans cheer as Couch performs at the 9:30 Club on Saturday.
SPORTS
The inked sleeves, stenciled storylines of men’s basketball
MILO ROSENZWEIG
REPORTER
Junior guard Jean Aranguren carries his home and his family with him everywhere he goes. The evidence is all over him.
On his left forearm lies the face of a stoic indigenous Venezuelan woman with deep-set eyes, looking outward, a reminder of the women who raised him before he left his hometown of Valencia, Venezuela and headed to the states to pursue basketball: his mother, sisters and grandmother. Inches away, inked in red, sit the coordinates of the house he was raised in and a shattered clock, its hands fixed at 2:35 — the moment his father passed away.
Aranguren is one of nine Revolutionaries covered in tattoos, described by several players as a medium for selfexpression and touchstones amid the adversity they’ve faced. Those symbols of religious faith, insignias of family loyalty and personal passions are hard to miss when Revs take the court, donning sleeveless jerseys with their ink exposed.
Although Aranguren has now completed a sleeve on his left arm, he said he plans to add a depiction of the jungle to his torso, representing the life he left behind to pursue college basketball. But the tattoo Aranguren wants most is simpler: Olympic rings, which he said he would only get if he reaches his dream of representing Venezuela on the national stage.
Redshirt junior Garrett Johnson, having battled through nine rounds of chemotherapy in the summer of 2023 to treat a tumor in his hip, said tattoos have guided him and his teammates through the personal strife they’ve endured. Johnson is in the process of completing a sleeve on his right arm,
which he began in 2023. “You have a lot of guys on this team who have been through a lot of adversity and different things,” Johnson said.
Johnson got his first tattoo just before his freshman campaign at GW in 2023, a cursive design around his right wrist bearing the names of his aunt and grandfather and the dates they died. He said he was inspired by how his aunt persevered through her own battle with cancer, often returning from chemotherapy to teach students or rallying to go on a hike.
“They gave me the blueprint for just how to handle tough things,” Johnson said.
In the spring of 2024, on the heels of his impressive freshman year, Johnson added a depiction of the stairway to heaven. When he tore his ACL shortly thereafter, which cost him the entirety of his sophomore season, Johnson spent his recovery months mapping out the designs for the remainder of his right arm.
This spring, upon receiving a recommendation for an artist to complete his sleeve, passed along from then-teammate Gerald Drumgoole Jr., Johnson visited tattooist Karl Bautista in Rockville, Maryland to enhance his right arm. There, Johnson added the phrase “faith over fear” near his elbow, expressed literally with a fraction bar between the words faith and fear.
He also added the date of his tumor diagnosis and on the underside of his forearm an eyeball he calls “God’s eye,” whose tears are meant to water the tree tattooed just beneath it, symbolizing growth through struggle. On his tricep, he got the number nine stacked vertically three times inked — showcasing the number he wears on the court while also signifying
the chemotherapy treatments he underwent.
Similar to Johnson, religious faith is central to junior guard Trey Autry’s life and is expressed through symbols running the length of his left arm. Autry’s ongoing relationship with his faith informed his decisions for the remaining space on his left arm, he said.
Last year Autry, Johnson and an expanding group of teammates decided to attend church services regularly, which he described as a transformational experience where they watched Drumgoole get baptized and saw Johnson lean into his faith amid the devastation of sitting out another season.
In August, just months after Johnson, Autry visited
Bautista to complete his left arm sleeve. There, Autry added a depiction of Jesus Christ to the crown of his shoulder — an angel, wings spread, surrounds the cursive phrase “all in God’s time.”
He said he plans to add to his right arm, chest and back eventually but that he needs a break after the painful process of inking his left.
Autry said tattoos are an integral part of the broader culture of basketball, a trend he attributed to NBA Hallof-Fame player Allen Iverson who played a major role in making visible tattoos a mainstream style in the NBA and other sports. He also said the players inspire each other’s tattoo choices and is convinced he played a role
in getting freshman guard Jalen Rougier-Roane — who arrived at GW with scripture on his left forearm — to add more tattoos.
The upper half of Rougier-Roane’s left arm now displays the Maryland flag entwined with a Maple Leaf, a symbol of his dual citizenship in the United States and Canada, and above, the sun blazes on his shoulder, with the phrase “you are my sunshine” written vertically to its left. To the right, in the same format, are the words “you are my son shine,” which he said he dedicated to his mother, of whom he is the only child.
“That’s my favorite person in the world,” Rougier-Roane said.
Unlike Johnson or
Breaking down the early-season scoring depth of men’s basketball
Six men’s basketball players are averaging double-digit scoring throughout the first four games of the season, a feat which underscores the team’s strength: its depth.
This comes after the Revolutionaries opened the season to a 4-0 record and eclipsed the top-70 in Kenpom rankings — up from 81 at the start of the season — behind their impressive scoring depth, which has given Head Coach Chris Caputo a myriad of options in putting together lineup combinations. As the team looks ahead at a long season with legitimate Atlantic 10
championship hopes, these early signs of roster depth and versatility provide true reason for optimism that they could pull off winning the conference and potentially head to March Madness for the first time since 2014.
Nine Revs have played at least 19 minutes per game so far this season, compared to seven down last year’s stretch, reflecting the balanced attack GW levies against opponents. That lineup depth has allowed the Revs to ride the hot hand as the offensive has exploded with three straight games scoring at least 95 points — the first time the team has done so since 1968. Following the team’s win against American University
last Wednesday, Caputo said his roster’s depth and selflessness are “real,” which gives the team the opportunity to pour on a high number of points by focusing on what’s best for the team over their individual performances.
Caputo said that the team’s “firepower” is something he hasn’t seen in his over two decades as a coach, which includes stops at A-10 rival George Mason and the University of Miami.
“I don’t think we’ll have many nights where everyone gets shut out,” Caputo said. As Caputo has brought in talent from the transfer portal and through freshmen signings, he’s constructed a squad that is not reliant on one or two
Men’s basketball takes down Old Dominion University 96-73 for fourth consecutive win
Men’s basketball (40) beat Old Dominion University (2-2) 96-73 Saturday night in the Smith Center, marking four straight victories to open the season.
After leading by just 3 points at halftime, GW opened the second half with a 24–6 run to quickly pull away from the Monarchs, led by redshirt senior forward Rafael Castro, who paced a scoring surge that produced four Revolutionaries in double figures. The win continues GW’s early momentum under Head Coach Chris Caputo as the Revs look to build on last year’s performance and display their impressive depth against nonconference competition.
Caputo said postgame that the team made key
players. That’s seen in redshirt junior Garrett Johnson’s status as the team’s sixth man in the two games he’s been back since his injury. Before he tore his ACL in the buildup to the 2024-25 season, Johnson was pegged by Caputo as the team’s best player with impressive versatility, size and 3-point shooting ability. As he reentered the lineup this season, Johnson has provided a jolt of offense coming off the bench in both games as he’s worked to adjust to his first gameplay in well over a year. After contributing 13 points in 19 minutes last week against American University, Johnson finished second on the team against Old Dominion with 17 points in an
halftime adjustments to turn the game around, particularly on the defensive end.
Autry, graduate student guard Tre Dinkins — who estimated he’s spent almost 100 hours getting tattooed — has no constant theme across his body. His ink stretches from a quote from Martin Luther King Jr., to an illustration of him standing beside his father in front of a basketball hoop and a multi-colored puzzle piece logo, in honor of his brother who has autism. Dinkins’ right leg features NBA icon Kobe Bryant’s symbol, and the word “misunderstood” represented visually, the prefix “mis” beneath his kneecap, the word “stood” just above. “You don’t want something on your body that you can’t live by,” Autry said.
increased 27 minutes. The depth has also helped the team weather several injury hiccups during the young season, with Johnson missing the team’s first two games battling knee tendonitis and junior guard Trey Autry missing the team’s most recent game with an ankle injury.
When Autry returns — which Caputo said is “getting closer” to happening — the Revs will possess a multi-prong attack that’s dangerous for all 40 minutes. If GW remains selfless in its play and exploits this depth and versatility throughout the season, the team will be one of the best in the A-10 and the best Revs squad in at least a decade.
Cross country falls short at regionals, ending season
Senior cross country runner Michael Bohlke broke GW’s 10k program record at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regionals Friday but fell short of qualifying for NCAA Nationals after he placed 18th — 10 spots away from securing a qualifying spot.
Bohlke ran a time of 30:16.7, breaking the Revolutionaries’ previous record, which stood at 30:49.5, and his own personal record of 31:00, enough to place 18th, though he fell 40 seconds short of the top four individual finish he had been aiming for. His 18th place finish at the regionals marks the highest of any GW men’s cross country runner in the program’s 34-year history.
GW remained strong on both sides of the ball to
“I was proud of our guys that they were able to mentally focus against what I thought was a very dangerous opponent, and they showed that in the first half of their shooting,” Caputo said.
Bohlke had a slow start, only running in 24th place at the first mile marker before climbing up 12 places in just two miles, though he later fell back in the pack during the second half of the race and ultimately finished in 18th place. Bohlke had eyed an individual finish in the
top four, which would have automatically qualified him for the NCAA Nationals if the team as a whole had not finished in the top two at regionals — which they didn’t end up making, instead placing ninth. On the women’s side senior Sarah Mitchell and sophomore Hadley Mahoney ran times of 21:00.4 and 21:07.9 respectively, finishing 42nd and 46th in a race of 210 runners. Mitchell and Mahoney contributed to their team finishing in ninth out of 30 teams, the team’s second-strongest NCAA performance in their program history behind their sixth place finish in 2021. Although no Revs will be advancing to the NCAA Nationals, both teams have had strong performances this season, punctuated by Bohlke’s individual title and the women’s team placing second in the A-10 Championships. The women’s team will now look forward to their first meet of the indoor track season while the men’s will rest until outdoor track in the spring.
ETHAN TSAI STAFF WRITER
Aranguren
PHOTOS BY LEXI CRITCHETT AND MATHYLDA DULIAN
Top: junior guard Jean Aranguren, bottom: redshirt junior forward Garrett Johnson and right: graduate guard Tre Dinkins show off their tattoos.