Students blast yearlong freeze on student organization approvals
RYAN SAENZ ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
Students slammed the Division for Student Affairs’ move to freeze new student organization approvals through the 202526 academic year, saying the decision undermines community building and eliminates an opportunity officials touted to prospective applicants.
More than a dozen students argue the pause, which officials quietly implemented at the end of the spring semester to “improve the support structures” that serve preexisting groups, will block their ability to fill gaps in campus life and find community on GW’s urban campus. Students reported not learning about the pause until they tried to submit an application, with many voicing frustration over losing access to an opportunity the University previously promoted during the admissions process and some saying they will launch their groups unofficially.
University spokesperson Claire Sabin said in July that the Office of Student Life will revisit the application process after an “extensive review” of the academic year and will use the time to ensure the University is providing “equitable and well-rounded” support to the over 600 active student organizations on campus. The move appears to the be the first time officials have put a hold on student organization approvals, according to Hatchet archives.
Officials updated the DSA’s student organizations webpage to reflect the pause by July, directing stu-
dents to contact Org Help if they are looking for an organization that fits their interests. The website does not list upcoming New Student Organization Info Sessions on Org Help’s Engage page, which students are required to attend if they want to form a new student organization.
Some students said they only learned about the pause while trying to form a student group, and many worry the move will make it harder to form communities not represented by existing clubs.
“It makes me feel upset and angry and frustrated and very disappointed with this institution because this is supposed to be a school empowering students and uplifting their voices and making sure there’s all these organizations and all these events,” said Alex Villanueva, a sophomore studying biology and a member of GW’s Pre-Nursing Society. Villanueva said the society applied to become an official student organization at the end of the spring semester and didn’t hear from officials until the sum-
mer, when they informed the group of the pause to all applications. He said in not allowing students to form new groups, the University is failing to uplift students’ voices and support their efforts to form communities on campus.
He said the pause is especially disheartening for the pre-nursing society, a group he sees as a vital resource for students pursuing nursing, which hasn’t previously had a presence on campus. The GW Pre-Nursing Society first launched on Instagram in June and advertises its mission to connect students who are interested in joining the nursing field.
Villanueva said the organization plans to move forward with hosting some unofficial events, including tentatively scheduling a general body meeting but noted that attracting interest is difficult without official student organization status because the group can’t rent University spaces.
“We’re still going to continue regardless because it’s necessary, but it’s very difficult because we kind of need to be a part of GW orgs,” Villanueva said.
Thousands march through DC in protest of Trump’s takeover
DYLAN EBS
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
JENNA LEE SENIOR NEWS EDITOR
Chants of “Free D.C.” and “Trump must go now” echoed through the streets of Northwest D.C. Saturday as thousands marched to demand an end to President Donald Trump’s federal takeover of the city.
Scores of protesters gathered in Meridian Hill Park around 11 a.m. Saturday before marching down 16th Street toward the White House and then to Freedom Plaza where speakers from a slew of local advocacy organizations denounced President Donald Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops and his takeover of the Metropolitan Police Department, which is set to expire Wednesday. Since
Trump declared a “crime emergency” in the city on Aug. 11, resistance from local leaders and advocates has swelled, culminating in a protest that drew thousands resisting the federal policing of the city.
Demonstrators waved banners and signs reading “Federal troops get out now,” “Send the soldiers home” and “No fascist takeover of U.S. cities” as they marched through the blistering heat, which reached 96 degrees and prompted one woman to spray protesters with a hose from her lawn on 16th Street.
RJ Doroshewitz, a senior and the president of GW Democracy Matters, held an effigy of Trump equipped with a crown and cape as he marched. Doroshewitz said the people of D.C. are “resilient” as evidenced by the number of residents who
attended the protest. He said the high turnout proved how deeply the District’s citizens care about the state of democracy and are determined to fight back against threats to the city’s institutions.
“The residents of D.C., they’re gonna keep fighting until they’re out of the city and then they’re gonna bounce back,” Doroshewitz said.
Trump invoked Section 740 of the Home Rule Act on Aug. 11 for the first time in history, allowing him to federalize the city’s police force. On the same day he ordered the National Guard to patrol the city, leading to over 2,200 troops currently in D.C. Shortly before 2 p.m., the large crowd of demonstrators moved to Freedom Plaza as speakers advocated for the end of troop deployments in the city.
Officials reduce Vex shuttle service, exacerbating student complaints of long lines
RYAN J. KARLIN
SENIOR STAFF WRITER
GW cut the frequency of the Mount Vernon Express shuttle service by 50 percent and eliminated two buses, a move students say is worsening their yearslong reports of long lines and delays.
Vex drivers and supervisors said the University reduced shuttle frequency from every five minutes to every 10 minutes and cut the number of buses in circulation from nine to seven, a decision University spokesperson Julia Garbitt said officials made because the University acquired a new shuttle model that holds 30 instead of 25 passengers. Garbitt said officials are now permitting students to stand on the shuttles to accommodate “surges” in riders, but students say they’re still facing longer waits in line.
“The number of shuttles for GW was adjusted to coincide with our change to 10 minute departures this fall for The Vern Express,” Garbitt said in an email. Monday through Friday the
Vex now shuttles students from the Foggy Bottom to the Mount Vernon campuses every 10 minutes from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m., compared to every 5 minutes last year, according to current and past versions of the University transportation website. The shuttles run every 20 minutes from 8 p.m. until 12 a.m. and every thirty minutes until the next morning. On weekends, the Vex runs every 20 minutes from 7 a.m. till 12 a.m. — up from every 15 minutes last year — and every 30 minutes from 12 a.m. to 7 a.m., compared to every hour last year, according to the website.
The change comes after years of student reports of high wait times and unreliable shuttle schedules that date back to 2021, when students complained that long lines caused them to be late for class, work and plans on the Foggy Bottom campus.
Ten students said this semester they’ve faced longer lines at peak hours during the morning and afternoon, which has caused some to arrive late to class and
adjust their schedules to build in additional transportation time. Other students said they haven’t faced major setbacks due to longer lines but often wait or stand on shuttles during peak hours.
Grace Satter, a sophomore who takes the Vex from Foggy Bottom each morning, said lines
this semester have been especially long, forcing her to add an extra 30 minutes to her commute to account for long waits.
“I had to wait 20 minutes, and the line literally wrapped around the academic hall building all the way down to the curb,” Satter said.
‘Significant’ flooding leaves select SEH
spaces closed Monday
ELIJAH EDWARDS
CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR
Division of Safety and Operations
officials said sections of the Science and Engineering Hall will stay closed Monday as crews repair damage from a burst valve over the weekend that caused “significant flooding” to parts of the building.
Officials said in a University-wide email sent Sunday evening that they have carried out “all efforts” to ensure the building is safe for occupancy and that the “integrity” of scientific research housed in SEH is protected, although crews were unable to fully restore the building by Monday. Crews were still working Sunday evening in several laboratories and offices on the building’s west side, with some rooms showing signs of flood damage from what the email said was a broken water valve in the eighthfloor greenhouse, which caused flooding from Friday night into Saturday morning.
Christopher Brick, a history professor in the University Honors Program and head of the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project, died on Aug. 15. He was 45.
Brick went to high school in Long Island, New York, and graduated from GW in 2002 with a bachelor’s degree in history and international affairs and returned to GW a few years later to work on the project, which was established as part of the history department in 2000 in order to make the papers of Eleanor Roosevelt publicly accessible online so that more people could learn about the former first lady’s personal accomplishments.
Colleagues and friends remember Brick as a kind and generous person who went out of his way to ensure students excelled both in and outside of the classroom and as a researcher who was dedicated to bringing Roosevelt’s legacy to life.
“His teaching, mentorship and warm smile will be greatly missed by everyone in the UHP,” Bethany Cobb Kung, a professor and director of the honors program, said in an email.
Cobb Kung said Brick taught his first course, which focused on the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights document, in the honors program in fall 2020. She said he was able to teach the course in the following years and also experimented with a new class which he first taught in fall 2024 titled autobiography and history that examined the memoirs of historical figures, like Benjamin Franklin and Frederick Douglass, and the historical context of how they rose to prominence in their time.
Cobb Kung added that Brick “radiated” a passion for history and always attended the student-faculty dinner that the honors program held every semester, where she had wonderful conversations with him about his work and students.
“Chris was a kind and generous teacher, and I always looked forward to bumping into him around campus,” she said. Brick is survived by his parents, sister, three aunts, three uncles and several nephews and nieces, according to his obituary.
HATCHET FILE PHOTO
Christopher Brick poses for a portrait in 2019.
ARWEN CLEMANS | SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR
Students walk through the breezeway between Rome and Smith halls.
KAIDEN J. YU | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Protesters march up 16th Street toward the White House Saturday.
MATHYLDA DULIAN | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR
Students wait to get on the Mount Vernon Express.
GW to update hybrid staff policy, restricting remote work days
GIANNA JAKUBOWSKI ASSISTANT
Officials will no longer allow hybrid staff to work remotely both Mondays and Fridays each week starting in January, a change that will force the majority of GW’s hybrid staff to rearrange their work schedules.
Chief of Staff Scott Mory and Vice President and Chief People Officer Sabrina Minor said in an email to staff late last month that the “minor adjustment” of requiring staff to work in person on either Mondays or Fridays starting Jan. 1 will ensure campus offices are properly staffed during normal business hours. The new policy comes after officials this summer reviewed the current hybrid work policies and heard reports from community members that campus buildings are “noticeably empty” at the beginning and end of the week, along with officials’ desire to strengthen campus culture.
Staff Council President Kim Fulmer said officials consulted her and Staff Council Vice President Mindy Galván during the decision-making process for this new policy. Although staff may have to rearrange their working schedules to accommodate other responsibilities, officials had to find a middle ground between staff and officials’
needs, she said. In the email to staff, officials said the University also formed a working group of staff and administrators to examine additional flexibility measures to provide staff in the future that could change its hybrid and remote policies, though GW maintains its current definition of hybrid staff for the remainder
of the academic year.
“It is really important to the administration that there be a larger staff presence working on-site on Mondays and Fridays,” Fulmer said in an email. “Conversely, it is really important to hybrid staff that their current number of work-from-home days not be taken away or reduced.”
CRIME LOG
FRAUD 1D/FRAUD
Dakota Apartments
Date and Time – Multiple Open Case
A female GW student reported receiving an email from an unknown sender inquiring about a piano sale. Once the student sent payment to the sender, the sender stopped responding. Case open.
THREATS TO DO BODILY HARM, PANHANDLING
2400 Block of New Hampshire Avenue NW
9/3/2025 – 5:41 p.m.
Open Case
A female GW student reported a non-GW affiliated person asked her for money and then threatened her. The student called the Metropolitan Police Department but left before officers arrived. Case open.
THEFT 1/FROM BUILDING
Townhouse Row
9/2/2025 – 9:50 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Closed Case
A female GW student reported her sorority chapter’s composite photo stolen. The student called back later and said she found it, and it was not stolen. Case closed.
DRUG LAW VIOLATION
Lafayette Hall 9/2/2025 – 11:43 a.m.
Closed Case GW Police and an Area Coordinator responded to a report of a suspicious odor. Upon arrival, police made contact with a female student who surrendered contraband. Case closed. Referred to Conflict Education & Student Accountability.
LIQUOR LAW VIOLATION
2109 F Street NW
8/31/2025 – 3:32 a.m.
Closed Case GW Police and EMeRG responded to a report of an intoxicated female student and transferred the student to GW Hospital for medical treatment. Case closed. Referred to CESA.
LIQUOR LAW VIOLATION
2100 Block of I Street NW
8/30/2025 – 11:07 p.m.
Closed Case GW Police and EMeRG responded to a report of an intoxicated female student and transferred the student to GW Hospital for medical treatment. Case closed. Referred to CESA.
—Compiled by Bryson Kloesel
New students embrace GW, DC despite federal law enforcement presence
First-year and transfer students anticipated a heightened military presence on and near campus following President Donald Trump’s federalization of law enforcement in the District last month but found GW largely unaffected by troop activity.
Over 20 new students said upon arriving on campus, the lack of federal presence around Foggy Bottom has allowed them to acclimate to GW and embrace D.C. as their new home, while emphasizing the move would not have swayed them from coming to the University. Still, they said the timing of Trump’s crime emergency declaration — which he issued roughly a week before fall move-in — sparked anxiety, as many braced for armed patrol near dorms and Metro stations amid a broader deployment of federal agents across the city.
Ainsley Sullivan, a firstyear student majoring in cognitive science of language, said the surge in law enforcement made her dread moving to the District because news outlets and social media made the surge appear that she’d be entering a city crawling with law enforcement on every corner. Since she’s arrived at GW, Sullivan said the law enforcement presence on campus hasn’t been “too scary” because she has only seen National
Guard troops standing around at Metro stations and the National Mall.
“Reading the news and stuff is like, ‘Well, that’s pretty bad,’ but it’s not as aggressively here,” Sullivan said. Sullivan said she was worried that civil classroom discussions may be more difficult in light of the Trump administration’s actions in the city because of how polarizing political discussions can be.
“I don’t mind talking to people of different political orientations, but it’s sort of gotten to a point where everyone wants to fight with each other,” Sullivan said.
Bella Carver, a sophomore transfer student from Dickinson College, said the initial surge in law enforcement was “scary” because social media and news reports made it appear to her that she was about to move to a hot spot of clashes with law enforcement.
“I thought it was going to be directly on campus or directly around where we were,” Carver said. “It wasn’t really like that when I got there.”
Carver called the National Guard presence in the city “unnecessary,” adding that the troops she’s seen appear unhappy and out of place. In recent weeks, some guardsmen have been assigned to beautification work — including trash pickup and landscaping — to assist the
understaffed National Park Service.
“It just feels very random to me,” Carver said.
Carver said the surge should not stop people from living their lives, including deciding where they want to live or go to school. She said the National Guard’s presence hasn’t appeared to help anything in the city so far.
“I don’t think that should be a thing that takes away it because it really hasn’t taken away from my experience that much at all,” Carver said.
Austin Foddril, a sophomore transfer student from the University of Miami, said he hasn’t been bothered by the presence of troops and federal law enforcement. He said as a military kid, he’s been surrounded by troops his whole life and has gotten used to them.
“They’re just doing their job, and it makes sense when you look at the crime rates,” Foddril said.
Foddril said the surge in officers would have made him more likely to come to GW, mostly because it makes him feel safer. He said he visited D.C. many times in years past and had felt unsafe walking around the National Mall at night.
“I like knowing that when I go outside, I don’t have to worry about that stuff,” Foddril said.
Officials provided guidance on the increased law
enforcement in the District in an email to community members Aug. 19 — a week after Trump’s deployment and at beginning of fall move-in — stating officials do not anticipate any “direct impacts” to campus operations, but students should carry their University and government identification on them at all times in case law enforcement officials ask for identification.
Eliot Glusker, a sophomore transfer student from the University of Vermont, said her parents were more worried about the presence of National Guard troops in
the city than she was, adding that parents were concerned her friends of color could be targeted by increased law enforcement.
“It definitely was not something that I thought was going to be a direct threat to me,” Glusker said. Glusker said the influx of officers and National Guard troops would not have swayed her from coming to GW because the resources available to her at GW, like the alumni network, are too valuable.
“If I got accepted tomorrow and this was happening in D.C., I would still be like,
‘Oh, that’d be a really interesting place to be in right now,’” Glusker said. Erin Bradford, a first-year majoring in psychology and philosophy, said she didn’t feel threatened by the surge in law enforcement but rather unhappy with the decision to federalize the MPD and deploy the National Guard in the city. She said she felt sympathy for those affected by the surge, particularly the more than a dozen unhoused individuals whose tents have been cleared by authorities. “I’m not petrified over it, but I’m still unhappy about it,” Bradford said.
JERRY LAI | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The 1918 F Street building, which houses the office of the president, the provost and the chief financial officer.
MATHYLDA DULIAN | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR
Students browse posters Friday at the Kogan Plaza poster sale, which sets up shop every fall.
MATHYLDA DULIAN | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR Sophomore transfer student Bella Carver poses for a portrait in Kogan Plaza.
ANC struggles to fill vacancies, leaving residents unrepresented
Seven months after Foggy Bottom’s governing body secured enough commissioners to break a two-month period of inaction, dysfunction, infighting and structural flaws are hampering recruitment efforts and leaving nearly half the neighborhood without local government representation.
The Foggy Bottom and West End Advisory Neighborhood Commission’s quorum problem — the body is required by D.C. law to fill at least five of its nine seats — looms with four seats still vacant, despite efforts by commissioners since January to recruit community members to serve. Members of the ANC and Foggy Bottom locals say the body’s dysfunctional meetings, marked by commissioner infighting and structural flaws with local government, hamper the ANC’s ability to recruit new members, leaving swaths of the neighborhood without representation and undermining community trust.
The commission is only one vacant seat away from falling below its mandated quorum, without which the body can host community meetings but cannot pass resolutions or conduct official business. The body lost its ability to conduct official business in the first two months of 2025 because can-
didates only ran in four of the neighborhood’s nine single-member districts during the 2024 election.
ANCs advise District agencies, boards, commissions and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on policy matters by passing resolutions which District agencies are required to give “great weight” to under city law. They can also manage neighborhood grant funds, with Foggy Bottom’s ANC distributing $12,000 to local nonprofits in 2021.
ANC 2A — spanning Foggy Bottom and West End — represents 18,658 people, according to the 2020 census counts. The vacant single-member districts 2A02, 2A05, 2A06 and 2A07 leave 8,143 people without representation on the body.
Commissioners and community members say when the ANC has more vacancies, it is less efficient in conducting official business. Malec said if the ANC doesn’t have the ability to file protests against proposals like business applications and liquor or cannabis licenses, it can’t deliver community goods through tools like community benefit agreements.
“There are roughly 8,000 constituents that don’t have a representative on the commission — 8,000 people that don’t have an advocate or a representative on their behalf,” said 2A03 Commissioner and Chair Trupti Patel.
GW's broad AI guidelines leave faculty wrestling with student usage
ARJUN SRINIVAS
As artificial intelligence usage among students has boomed over the last two years, professors have utilized GW’s flexible AI policy to mold the technology’s role in the classroom how they see fit, with some instituting policies to curtail its usage while others are encouraging students to embrace it as a tool.
Given GW last updated its guidance on generative AI use in 2023 — during the technology’s earliest stages — faculty said they’ve crafted their own policies to adapt to how the technology has advanced in the past two years and its application to different academic fields has evolved. While some faculty have emphasized presentations and group projects to crack down on usage, others said they are encouraging their students to use AI as a tool for writing, studying and exploring their interests.
GW’s official guidelines for generative AI use, created in April 2023 by thenprovost Chris Bracey, said it is permissible for students to use AI as a means to find ideas, but students are not allowed to submit AI-generated content for evaluation by professors.
In August 2023, the Office of the Provost released additional guidelines for faculty, encouraging professors to reinforce what plagiarism is, include a declaration of academic honesty on assignments for students to fill out and have students submit draft submissions so professors better understand what a student’s voice sounds like. The statement also affirmed that the guidelines are suggestions for professors to implement in their classes and are not binding policies.
University spokesperson Skyler Sales said individual programs may provide additional guidelines more tailored to how their department sees fit, while adhering to GW’s academic integrity policy.
“We will continue to update this guidance as need-
SCOTUS ruling could slash contraceptive access for Medicaid recipients: study
AIDAN FARRELL ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
The Supreme Court decision in June to strip Medicaid recipients of their right to enforce access to their provider of choice will make contraceptive care more expensive for low-income Americans, according to a study published last month.
The study — authored by Kari White, an assistant professor an Emory University, coauthored by Julia Strasser, an assistant research professor of health policy at GW, and conducted in collaboration with Planned Parenthood officials — found that allowing states to exclude qualified healthcare providers from Medicaid funds would prevent lower-income Americans from accessing affordable contraceptive care as their treatment would no longer be covered by insurance. The study comes after the Supreme Court ruled earlier this year in Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic that Medicaid enrollees could not enforce access to providers via federal lawsuits, which means states can now deny Medicaid funds to healthcare providers for reasons independent of the providers’ qualifications.
Under federal law, Medicaid enrollees can seek care from any qualified provider willing to serve Medicaid patients, a right referred to as the free choice of provider provision. This right is protected by the ability of individuals to sue for access if a state blocked them from using Medicaid funds to see a certain provider. In the Medina decision, the Supreme Court removed this right, meaning states can now restrict access to Medicaid funds for certain providers — including those that offer family planning services, like Planned Parenthood — based on ideological grounds rather than provider qualification.
“This ruling will create substantial and unnecessary barriers to low-income individuals accessing care from the pro-
ed and as technology, education, and research evolve, and we welcome input from the entire GW community as we work together to navigate and prepare students for our rapidly changing AI-enabled world,” Sales said.
Nicole Bartels, a professor of political science, said AI is on the minds of every professor on campus. She said after political science faculty noticed an uptick of students using AI on tests and written assignments in the spring semester, many within her department started holding conversations over the summer to discuss how to combat cheating.
She said ideas like verbally discouraging students from using AI and emphasizing in-class activities were among the ideas brought up in the meeting and that she has begun utilizing them in her classes.
“At the end of the spring semester, we all sort of indicated to each other that we needed to have a conversation about how are we going to deal with this moving forward,” Bartels said.
She said when AI first “made its entrance,” it was easier to distinguish between generated responses and a student’s work, but with newer versions of the technology it’s become harder for professors to detect.
OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has continuously enhanced the chatbot since its 2022 debut. The latest version, GPT-5, launched in August 2025,
introduces major upgrades, including significantly improved writing capabilities and an optional “thinking” mode that allows users to trade speed for deeper, more accurate responses.
“AI gets better, it learns,” Bartels said. “So I think from two years ago versus where it is now, is a lot more difficult to make that very clear distinction of, like, this is AI.”
In 2023, professors’ AI said they were focusing their AI policies on redesigning their syllabi to prevent cheating amidst increased academic integrity violations. A 2023 study by Tyton Partners found 50 percent of professors were worried AI would negatively impact learning.
Bartels said she redesigned her syllabus this semester, requiring students to use a lockdown browser when taking assessments outside of class and implementing an activity where students are given an AI’s response to a question and have to mark up what the response got wrong or is potentially missing.
“I had to think outside the box of how better to assess students and what their knowledge was and not just what they fed into,” Bartels said.
But other faculty members encourage AI use more in their classrooms, including Tara Sinclair, the chair of the economics department, who said she views AI as a tutor students can ask questions to when they need help completing assignments for her courses.
vider they chose,” Strasser said in an email.
The study used data collected from all 587 Planned Parenthood facilities across the U.S. in 2024 and tracked the visits of women between the ages of 15 and 49 with incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty level, which is dependent on household income. It found that states that had either not expanded Medicaid or excluded Planned Parenthood from Medicaid funding accounted for only about 3 percent of Medicaid-covered non-abortion services in 2024, which demonstrates that patients lacked access to reproductive services in states where policies limit Medicaid.
Reproductive healthcare providers have struggled in recent years amid conservative’s pushes against abortion, with 20 Planned Parenthood clinics shutting down in the first half of 2025 after the Trump administration froze $66 million in federal funding for family planning clinics. Medicaid can only finance abortions in narrow circumstances due to the Hyde Amendment — which limits federal expenditures on abortions to cases of rape or incest or if the pregnant person is at risk of dying because of the pregnancy. But organizations targeted by federal cuts that provide contraceptive services
and abortions, like Planned Parenthood, also provide other healthcare services that Medicaid can pay for. In the past 10 years, 14 states have attempted to block Planned Parenthood from receiving Medicaid funds. The states’ moves have typically been blocked by legal action in federal court, often by Planned Parenthood itself, but the Medina decision closes this avenue. States have also worked to strip Medicaid access. The Affordable Care Act includes a provision that expanded Medicaid coverage to adults with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, however, a 2012 Supreme Court decision made the expansion optional for states, of which 40 have adopted expansion as of 2025. The study said if more states exclude healthcare providers on an ideological basis in the future, it will “adversely affect” healthcare outcomes for medicaid patients.
“We have already seen the effects of states enacting similar provisions, including in Texas where use of effective contraceptive methods decreased and births increased following the exclusion of Planned Parenthood from a state-funded family planning program,” Strasser said. “If other states pass policies like this one, we know that access to care and health outcomes will worsen.”
DC sues to remove National Guard as Congress allows police takeover to expire
D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb sued to block President Donald Trump’s National Guard deployment in the District on Thursday, as Congress moved to let Trump’s emergency control over local police expire on Wednesday.
Schwalb asked the D.C. District Court to declare Trump’s deployment of more than 2,200 National Guard troops from seven states and D.C. unconstitutional and to issue a permanent injunction, alleging that the deployment is unconstitutional and a violation of federal law. This marks his second lawsuit against the federal government since Trump ordered the takeover, and it comes as congressional leaders declined to extend the 30day federal control over the Metropolitan Police Department.
White House officials have said Trump plans to extend National Guard deployment until the end of December, while Mayor Muriel Bowser and other local officials are working to end to the president’s “crime emergency” while maintaining cooperation and collaboration with federal law
enforcement officers beyond the 30-day period.
Republican Congressional leaders will not hold a vote to extend Trump’s emergency authority over D.C. police before it expires on Sept. 10, a decision a senior Senate staffer told the Washington Post was reached in mutual agreement with the White House. Congress would need to pass an extension for the takeover of local law enforcement to proceed past the 30-day limit.
Schwalb said in the suit Trump’s actions — includ
ing ordering guard members to conduct law enforce
ment, refusing to allow the District to issue orders for troops within their jurisdiction and allowing troops to carry weapons — go against federal law and the Constitution. Schwalb said in the suit the Trump administration’s failure to seek and obtain consent from the Mayor violates the D.C. Home Rule Act and the Emergency Management Assistance Compact.
“The forced military occupation of the District of Columbia violates our local autonomy and basic freedoms,” Schwalb said in a statement on X. “It must end.”
The suit argues that D.C.
residents did not ask for the deployments, adding that the troops’ presence — which began on Aug. 11 — is “unlawful” and a violation of the D.C. Home Rule Act. On Aug. 11, Trump declared a “crime emergency” in the city and invoked Section 740 of the D.C. Home Rule Act, giving him the power to bring the MPD under federal control.
Schwalb also alleges in the suit that Trump is overstepping his position in the city by attempting to police the District, something that only the D.C. mayor can do. Section 740 of the Home Rule Act allows Trump to federalize the MPD for up to 30 days, after which the emergency invocation automatically expires unless Congress approves an extension. The D.C. National Guard also answers to Trump.
White House Spokesperson Abigail Jackson said Trump has the power to use the National Guard in D.C. to protect federal property and aide law enforcement.
“This lawsuit is nothing more than another attempt — at the detriment of D.C. residents and visitors — to undermine the President’s highly successful operations to stop violent crime in D.C.,” Jackson said.
COLLAGE BY MATHYLDA DULIAN GW’s official guidelines for generative artificial intelligence use.
CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR
BRYSON KLOESEL
CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR
KAIDEN J. YU | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
ARWEN CLEMANS | SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR
A Foggy Bottom Historic District sign on 25th Street NW.
BRYSON KLOESEL CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR
RACHEL SCHWARTZ | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The Planned Parenthood building at The Carol Whitehill Moses Center in NoMa.
OPINIONS
The extent of flood damage in Guthridge Hall on Friday afternoon.
After fighting for Gelman’s hours, students must face GW’s budget battles
When news broke that officials would temporarily end Gelman Library’s overnight hours due to staffing shortages, the decision swiftly dominated campus discourse. Students and parents voiced their frustration and demanded its immediate reinstatement. The Student Government Association quickly responded to the community’s concerns, meeting with officials the next day and announcing that GW would reinstate Gelman’s overnight hours in the coming weeks. Officials’ commitment to reversing the decision showed that student voices can drive change when they speak up about resources that matter most to them. But the incident also exposed that much of the community didn’t know about the root cause: the hiring freeze, which a library employee said left the building understaffed and unable to remain open around the clock.
GW implemented a hiring freeze in July and said officials would likely lay off staff and faculty as they cut budgets for fiscal year 2026 to address a long structural deficit and President Donald Trump’s attacks on higher education. The decision came after officials announced in April that GW would reduce its FY2026 budget by 3 percent and asked each dean and division leader to submit plans to cut their budgets while preserving student resources. The hiring freeze and looming budget cuts will inevitably disrupt campus resources. The cut to Gelman’s hours was just an early example of this.
While these impacts will be felt across the student body, the reaction to Gelman’s overnight closure revealed students’ troubling lack of awareness about the deeper systemic challenges the University is grappling with. This disconnect highlights an urgent need for students to educate themselves about the University’s financial challeng-
STAFF EDITORIAL
es in FY2026. The consequences of administrative decisions will directly impact students. We need to be fully informed to make educated decisions about when and how to use our voices to advocate for the resources we care most about preserving.
As students learned of the cut to Gelman’s hours, they flocked to Instagram to express confusion over what many seemingly saw as an unfounded decision. In conversations around campus, many criticized the decision without mentioning the reason behind it. Losing access to a key campus resource unsettled many students, and it’s no surprise they focused on it. But budget pressures mean more cuts are coming, and officials won’t be
able to preserve everything. It’s crucial that students understand the University’s financial challenges and potential cuts, so they can respond to future news with an informed perspective that considers both student concerns and officials’ position. In the coming months, staff layoffs and departmental budget cuts will likely lead to changes in some student-facing resources. The hiring freeze officials implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic is evidence of this. In 2020, officials stopped most hiring, halted base and matching retirement contributions for faculty and staff, laid off 339 staff and froze all employee salaries to mitigate the $180 million pandemic-induced budget gap that
GW’s transparency problem pushed me to leave my staff position
It was with a mix of excitement and sadness that I left GW last May to take a position with more growth potential at another university. Excitement because I was growing and moving up in my career but sadness because I was leaving so many wonderful people and a community I truly cared about. During my time at GW, I served first as an operations assistant to two departments in the School of Engineering & Applied Science and then as a department supervisor for a large department in the Columbian College of Arts & Sciences. I also served on the Staff Council for two years. I loved GW and the people I worked with, but the University’s misguided priorities and a lack of transparency from top officials drove me to leave the University.
Despite persistent faculty, staff and student calls for transparent leadership and communication, the University — through emails sent and signed by former Provost Chris Bracey — repeatedly tried to distract the community from the issues they raised. The community repeatedly asked for financial transparency, called to disarm the GW Police Department and requested that officials hire more staff. Bracey and other top offi-
cials actively ignored these concerns, focusing instead on issues that were not in the best interest of the University community. When Bracey wrote to address the community’s concerns, he trivialized the issues. He assured us the University was in a fine financial state, making it seem that the community was overreacting to the looming financial issues and especially to high staff turnover at GW. Guidance that top University officials provided has been nebulous, making it difficult for leaders to manage their jurisdictions. This created deep distrust between the community at large and the administration.
As a staff member, it was truly disheartening to watch the institution actively work against itself. The University is spending far too many resources on properties in and around the Foggy Bottom-area, while neglecting the student, faculty and staff experience. Again and again, the GW community watched as the administration hemorrhaged money to acquire yet another piece of real estate in Foggy Bottom, while at the same time the GW community was told the administration did not have the finances to make improvements to current buildings, hire more professors or give raises to hardworking staff that the administration has referred to repeatedly in emails to staff and in Staff Council meetings as the “backbone” of the University.
The GW community has repeatedly watched the tuition at GW climb higher and higher, making it one of the most expensive institutions to attend, while at the same time paying its leaders more and more, including giving Bracey an undeserved $400,000 raise, and former University President Thomas LeBlanc, whose mismanagement of the University led the faculty to hold a vote of no confidence in him, an even more undeserved severance package. The GW community has seen all of this and made a note of where the administration’s priorities lie — and it’s not with the true betterment of the University, its faculty, staff or students.
Finally, I need to stress that this mess does not fall squarely on University President Ellen Granberg. On the contrary, this dates back to the disastrous tenure of LeBlanc, who led an era of gross financial and resource mismanagement at GW. Granberg inherited a University desperately in need of administrative culture reforms, and she needs to work from the top down to rebuild a strong community.
As I close, I call on the GW community to speak up for the betterment of the University. I feel strongly that if the community unites and refuses to succumb to the divide-and-conquer tactics of the former provost, positive change will happen.
—Emily Lewis is a former GW staff member and Staff Council member.
fiscal year. Students could expect similar outcomes in the year ahead. As the community braces for the effects of the hiring freeze and budget cuts, it is essential that students approach changes with the understanding that some adjustments will be unavoidable. Students must be strategic, informed and deliberate in choosing what to fight for. Officials’ announcement that they will reinstate Gelman’s 24/7 access in the coming weeks exemplifies the power of student advocacy when it comes to campus resources. Students’ demands aren’t always met with action, but it’s our responsibility to fight for the issues and resources we care most about.
In the coming months, students should reflect on the promises and
resources that attracted them to GW. These could include a a 24/7 library, diverse selection of courses, lower student to faculty ratio and the opportunity to start a new student organization — which officials suspended through the academic year. Identifying and advocating for the preservation of priority resources will be essential as officials navigate operating the University within a reduced budget.
Beyond advocating to preserve campus resources, students should care about what’s happening at GW. As a politically active community, these developments are part of a much larger story unfolding in higher education nationwide. These changes, many stemming from recent federal actions, will have lasting impacts on universities, like GW, and the value of the education they offer. As a student body that prides itself on political awareness, everyone should stay informed about the major developments reshaping higher education.
There is also immense value in discussing these issues directly in classrooms where faculty and staff can share insights about the budget deficit and hiring freeze. Normalizing these conversations allows students to ask questions and gain a clearer understanding beyond official University announcements. Ultimately, this dialogue can help ensure students remain engaged in the financial challenges affecting not only GW but the higher education landscape at large.
Heading into FY2026, it’s critical that students understand the hiring freeze, budget cuts and the reasons for them. Only with a clear grasp of these realities can they strategically direct their advocacy and influence the decisions that will shape their education. Being fully informed empowers us to strategically decide when and how to defend the resources we care about most.
Privilege of conscience is no excuse for political inaction
Conscience should be what pushes people to do the right thing. It means discerning when society is hurting and taking action accordingly. But in today’s America, it has come to mean something else: having the privilege to ignore what’s happening in our country. We cannot excuse this attitude anymore. We must remember the issues and people worth fighting for and take action on campus, across D.C. and nationwide.
Millions of Americans are exercising this “privilege of conscience” right now. As democratic and educational institutions weaken, election integrity is being attacked by the government itself, and D.C. itself is under unprecedented federal control, vast swaths of the country are looking away, including some in the GW community. They assert that there’s nothing they can do about what’s going on in the country. But as America’s political situation intensifies, we need to stay cognizant of what is occurring, so we don’t forget to fight for what’s being taken. This is not a new phenomenon. During politically tense times, people always look away, but the stakes are now higher than what most of us
have seen in our lifetimes. Over the past few weeks, American democracy’s most well-known venue — D.C. — has become a showcase for federal muscle. A renewed outcry from the D.C. community and the nation at large has established a strong opposition to these moves.
Still, life has gone for those in D.C. and at GW. The capacity to compartmentalize political crises alongside entertainment spectacles is uniquely American. The way products and people are marketed to us intentionally by large corporations makes paying attention to our favorite TV show and being aware of democratic backsliding at the same time nearly impossible. Some go to brunch under occupation. Some stream Netflix as institutions collapse. Some ignore the brutality on the streets of Foggy Bottom on the way to class or during a night out on U Street. This is privilege. In D.C., barricades and checkpoints are becoming commonplace. For immigrants worried about deportation with arrest, the costs of conscience are immediate. There are millions of people threatened by the Trump administration’s nationwide crackdown, and still that’s not enough to get everyone across the country to care. Perhaps fascism isn’t real until people from the GW community who aren’t immigrants or people of
color are affected. Conscience was never meant to be passive. Conscience without action is comfort. Action without conscience is impulsivity. A worthwhile use of conscience requires risk and sacrifice, and in a world where education itself is becoming a challenge, this is no easy feat.
We are living through a preview of unchecked executive power. If armed troops can patrol American streets in the name of a manufactured crisis, what other “emergencies” will justify even harsher authoritarian measures? If educated students and citizens continue to opt out of standing up for others, how much more ignorance can the system take before we all suffer?
The privilege of conscience says, “It’s not my problem.” The responsibility of conscience says, “If it can happen there, it can happen here.” And those who are familiar with American foreign policy understand this is a strong arm that has been crushing the civilian “enemies” of the U.S. for centuries. The irony of turning a blind eye when it comes home is absurd. The barricades in D.C. are not shadowy symbols. They are warnings. And this privilege of conscience, the temptation to look away, may be the most dangerous indulgence of all.
—Noah Edelman, a senior majoring in journalism, is an opinions writer..
Noah Edelman Opinions Writer
ABBY TURNER | STAFF CARTOONIST
Emily Lewis Guest Contributor
THE SCENE CULTURE
GW’s Skateboarding Club brings frontsiding, filmmaking to campus
Some student organizations duke it out for meeting spaces on campus. Others try to book Kogan Plaza months in advance for their events. GW’s Skateboarding Club battles it out with International Monetary Fund security guards for skating spots. What started a few years ago as a group of friends interested in skateboarding turned into a student organization last year of more than 50 people who organize events with other local student skate groups and cruise streets both on and off campus. Members said the club is a way for a group of friends to foster a community of student skaters at GW, adding that the club makes it easier to find students with similar interests outside of GW’s intense professional culture.
Ichiro Miyasaka, a senior studying international affairs, said he began skating at the age of five after his grandma bought him a Hot Wheels skateboard from Walmart, and he carried that passion to GW, where he and his friends would skate together around D.C. He said former GWSC president Marco Mastropietro suggested registering as an official club to get funding for organizing events and renting cars for skate trips and had a “key role” in making the club happen.
He said the club aims to be as “self-supporting” as possible to remain fairly independent from the University.
He said members hope GW will build skate-friendly places in the future, where they can practice their tricks. But for right now, he said the group’s favorite spot is between 20th and H streets, on the corner of the IMF building, which they have dubbed “bump to bump” — a skate trick involving hitting two objects without touching the ground in between — because of the two ramps on the sidewalk.
Miyasaka said skate sessions
can range from two people to 10, with skaters often organically circling “in and out” at the same location throughout the day. He said despite the over 50 people technically in the club, the core group tends to participate in the sessions most frequently.
Cooper Johnson, a junior majoring in international affairs and religion, said GWSC is less of a club and more of an “anarchist state.” While other student organizations fill out When2meet forms to schedule general body meetings, Johnson said a skater will shoot a text to a group chat of about 50 members with a location to meet and skate three hours later.
Still, he said the title of “club” is a “facade” for a built-in friend group and community of all levels of skaters — but said the official title makes it seem a bit more significant. A member since his freshman year, Johnson said he was “ushered in” to the circle when the group’s founder saw him skating in Shaw and asked if he wanted to join the skate club he was starting at GW.
An over 14-minute-long video featuring members’ tricks, jumps and ollies, Johnson said the film emulated the professional skateboarding practice of compiling clips of a skater’s most impressive moves into somewhat of a highlight reel. After years of filming and editing, he said the club packed into downtown’s Recessions Bar and Grill — which Miyasaka said has been “the spot” for the group to hang out and play pool since his freshman year — last spring to view the culmination of their skate hangs.
Lucian Koh, a sophomore studying political science, said he heard about the club through his freshman-year roommate who reached out to the former club president. Koh said he’s been skating for 10 years and joined the club to meet other skaters on campus.
“The whole point of skateboarding is that it’s not structured,” Koh said. “Anybody can do it, there’s no coaches, there’s no goal, necessarily. It’s more just about doing it.”
‘Sandwich
history
CULTURE
Images of a man with his arm drawn back, hurling a sandwich, have been stenciled, plastered, erased and repainted on surfaces across the District since August. What the portrait, which harkens political street artist Banksy’s “Flower Thrower,” captures is just a snapshot of the frustrations felt by Washingtonians that led up to former Department of Justice employee Sean Charles Dunn throwing a sandwich at a Customs and Border Protection agent on Aug. 10. The incident went viral, with spray paint and poster installations of “sandwich guy” cropping up all over D.C. — next to Call Your Mother in the West End, in Adams Morgan and in Georgetown — and with posts across X, formerly known as Twitter, TikTok and popular Instagram account WashingtonianProbs.
Protest, unrest and unease have rippled through the District since President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard to D.C. on Aug. 11 after declaring a “crime emergency” and taking federal control of the city.
On Aug. 10 Sean Charles Dunn was videotaped having a heated altercation with Customs and Border Protection agents, which ended with him pitching the sub sandwich in his hand at
the agent. Federal prosecutors attempted to file a felony indictment against Dunn, a former Department of Justice staffer, but a grand jury returned the indictment on Aug. 26 and federal prosecutors filed lesser charges. Since then Dunn’s sandwich slam has become the face of D.C. citizens’ discontent with the Trump administration’s federal takeover in the District. Cleaning crews have been taking down posters only for the images to be speedily put back up without a trace of the artist’s identity. After the art piece made its debut, it has become a ubiquitous symbol around D.C., with local artists selling the image emblazoned on stickers, shirts and other merchandise. Protest art has long been woven into the fabric of D.C. Black Lives Matter Plaza, a street installation of the words “Black Lives Matter” in bright yellow paint was originally created by D.C. native and artist Keyonna Jones in 2020 and was made permanent with the help of D.C. officials in 2020. Jones made the piece in response to Black Lives Matter demonstrations that swept the nation in 2020 in order to bring awareness to the movement and show the District’s support for Black Lives Matter.
This past summer, the National Mall has been the stage for protest art against Trump’s policies, including the ‘Dictator Approved’ sculpture that appeared this past June, depicting a golden thumb
crushing the head of the Statue of Liberty. The same anonymous artist sculpted a poop statue on top of former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s desk displayed in October 2024 on the National Mall in front of the Capitol, where it “honored” the Jan. 6 rioters who broke into the U.S. Capitol in 2021.
Lisa Lipinski, associate professor of art history, said artists have become involved with political movements in the District through creating pieces that point toward and bring attention to advocating for causes or pointing messages toward officials.
Lipinski said the symbol of the man in the painting, Dunn, has come to represent the movement against the presence of the National Guard in the District.
Lipinski said although she has seen pieces of protest art, especially that of the “sandwich guy” circulating on social media, it is important to have a “physical manifestation” of the art in a public space to emphasize messages from activists, artists and organizers, for all to see. Christopher Britt, author and professor of Spanish literature at the Department of Romance, German and Slavic Studies has investigated how artists and intellectuals in Spain and Latin America have used movements to respond to political upheaval. Britt said the “sandwich guy” piece is a “mediated spectacle,” a sensationalized view of reality, as Dunn has be-
come somewhat of a symbol and local hero for expressing his frustrations. He said protest art is another avenue through which dissent can take place, which has been seen historically in avantgarde movements in the 1900s in Europe and the Americas.
Gayle Wald, professor of American Studies, said she characterizes protest art as not only visual but can take material and sonic forms, like sculptures. She said due to the many kinds of context this art can be found in, it is an “amorphous category,” as it can be used for various causes and promote different messages.
She said examples include the “SILENCE = DEATH” movement in the 1980s, where AIDS activists reclaimed the pink triangle symbol that was used in Nazi persecution of gay people, creating a “template” for future protest art. Wald said “I AM A MAN” placards used during African American labor strikes in Memphis were assertions of “personal dignity,” sending messages to onlookers as well as empowering the workers themselves.
Wald said the “sandwich guy” art has been “witty” and reflects the “outrage” that D.C. residents feel due to Trump’s “theatrics” in declaring an emergency on the city.
“The sandwich is also comic — a way of mocking the federal government’s very serious threats to the civil liberties and safety of DMV residents,” Wald said in an email.
For students who run marathons, the only thing that rivals the thrill of the race is the chance to tell everyone they’re in it. Outside of GW’s Division I track and cross country athletes are Revolutionaries who crave the runner’s high just as much as collegiate athletes and put in the work to prove that a passion for running can exist outside of University teams. In the nation’s capital, ranked the second fittest city in the country by the American College of Sports Medicine in July, GW students click right into the fitness culture, saying the running community’s support for one another uplifts them to do better each time they enter their name in a race, with many participating in the Marine Corps Marathon on Oct. 26.
Junior Mitch Archer said he first started running for his high school’s track and cross country teams, competing in his first race at the 3M Half Marathon in Austin, Texas, before stepping back due to
the time commitment required for training. He said he got back into the swing of running after discovering GW’s running culture and has since completed the Delaware Marathon last spring and is now preparing for the 2025 D.C. Half Marathon on Sept. 14.
Archer said the running culture at GW gets more athletes involved and that they encourage one another to practice and race better. Members of GW’s several running groups, like GW Club Running, GW District Dashers Run Club and Runnin’ Revs, can be seen zipping around campus and the District on a daily basis.
Junior Natalie Quinn said she got her start in running in middle school but didn’t start marathon training until the summer before her junior year of college. She said competing in the Marine Corps Marathon this October will be her first race.
Quinn said she competed in NCAA cross country and track for GW her freshman year of college, before quitting after her first year and taking a year off from running to remedy her mental burnout and take a physical break. After her time off, Quinn said she started marathon training, and the transi-
tion from running with teammates to running solo was an adjustment, attempting to keep herself “accountable” in continuing the sport on her own.
She said after making the adjustment she has found a deeper joy in running because of her improved “mental headspace with running in general,” and she said marathon training was partly inspired by wanting to do something “fun.”
Quinn said a deeper inspiration for her training is running to raise money for the Alzheimer’s Association after her grandfather passed away from the disease a few years ago. Marine Corps Marathon runners can sign up to run with charity partners, including the Alzheimer’s Association, through the marathon organization.
Quinn said her endurance from running cross country for GW has helped her acclimate to marathon training. She said she excelled more in track than cross country in college competition, so the transition to marathon training has gone better than she anticipated, and it’s been “fun to switch it up.”
Senior Matthew Carrera said he decided to start running during the winter months to stay active during Club Tennis’ offseason. While
KRIS PARK | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Natalie Quinn poses for a portrait in front of the Smith Center.
NICHOLAS WARE | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
A mural on U Street NW depicts a man throwing a sandwich above the words “Free D.C.” COURTESY OF ICHIRO MIYASAKA
Gluck ollies over a rail in front of Western Market.
GAMES SPORTS
Volleyball bests Georgetown, NCCU during weekend contests
Volleyball (2-4) picked up its first two wins of the season this weekend, including a win against crosstown rival Georgetown University, despite losing one of its key players to injury this weekend in the Smith Center.
The Revolutionaries went 2-1, starting Friday off with a convincing 3-0 win against North Carolina Central University, dropping their second match of the day 1-3 to Temple University and defeating Georgetown on 3-1 on Saturday afternoon.
Senior setter Dilara Elmacioğlu — who has started every game for the Revs thus far — suffered an apparent left leg injury in the first set against Georgetown, stifling the key piece that runs their offense.
GW’s win against Georgetown is a rare feat, as the Revs have only won one of their yearly matchups against the Hoyas since 2021, securing a 3-1 victory in 2023 in the midst of a 7-22 season. Georgetown has struggled out of the gate this season, opening up with a 1-5 record — their only victory coming against NCCU.
Here’s a breakdown of the Revs’ play this weekend:
Match 1: GW 3 –NCCU 0
The Revs dominated throughout most of their contest against NCCU Friday, taking all three sets and netting their first win of the season. Their ability to capitalize on aces, with 9 in the match, and a balanced hitting attack, with 46 kills
on the day, helped deliver them the victory.
Although the Revs saw a tight first set due to their low hitting percentage of .143, they were able to pull ahead 25-22. The Revs continued to take care of business during the final two sets, winning 25-17 and 25-14, respectively, after improving their hitting percentage to above .300.
Senior middle blocker
Ciana Tejada — last year’s team leader in kills — took the court for the first time this season late in the second set. Reifert said the delay was related to a preexisting shin injury, which kept her out of the first few matches.
Fourteen of the 16 players on the roster saw the court during the match.
Match 2: GW 1 –Temple 3
Despite a strong start in their second match on Friday, the Revs fell to Temple in four sets with scores of 2521, 19-25, 22-25 and 16-25. GW opened with a solid .233 hitting percentage in the first set but saw a steep decline to just .120 overall, dropping below .100 in the final set.
Defensively, GW struggled to contain the Owls’ attack, finishing with just six blocks while allowing 17 kills from Temple sophomore Christiana Greene. On offense, sophomore outside hitter Cayla Cogan led the Revs with 14 kills and added four overall blocks.
Match 3: GW: 3 –Georgetown 1
The Revs took down crosstown rival Georgetown in the final match of the weekend series, winning 3-1.
In the first set, Elmacioğlu
went down with an apparent left leg injury and was carried off by GW athletic trainer Cameron Phan. She did not return for the remainder of the match and was walking on crutches with her lower left leg wrapped after the match.
After Elmacioğlu’s injury, Sophomore setter Abby Markworth took over, knotting 29 assists in the contest.
“When she went down, I was completely confident in Abby coming in and running the show,” Reifert said. “And she did. She ran a great show.”
Elmacioğlu led the team in assists last season with 628 and had 191 assists this season before going down. Markworth and Elmacioğlu are the only setters on the team.
The Revs captured the first set 25-14 to open the match, notching a .536 hitting percentage and a combined 13 kills between Tejada, Cogan and freshman outside hitter Ava Webster. The second set saw more of the same, with the Revs taking Georgetown 25-19.
In the third set, the Hoyas mounted a comeback, leading throughout and winning the set in a decisive 25-15. The Revs eventually won the fourth set and the match 25-21.
The Revs came up short against the Hoyas the last season and lost to local rivals American University and Howard University last month.
Next up, the Revs will take on University of Maryland, Baltimore County in the Smith Center Friday at 6 p.m.
Water polo opens season with 2-7 record, national ranking
After two grueling weekends facing national water polo powerhouses like University of Southern California and University of California, Los Angeles, the Revolutionaries returned home with just two wins, but also a No. 19 national ranking to show for it.
Despite their losing record, the Revs picked up a key win over No. 15 University of California, Santa Barbara and played five of their first six games against ranked opponents — all on the road in California during Labor Day weekend. In the Collegiate Water Polo Association coaches’ poll released on Sept. 3, GW earned 11 points — tying them for 19th nationally with the United States Naval Academy, before dropping three straight games before this week’s poll.
The team briefly tied for No. 20 down the stretch last season, after a seven-game win streak in which the team won every game in October. The bout against UCSB opened the Revs’ season at the Triton Invitational in La Jolla, Calif., on Aug. 29, where five goals from senior utility Adonis Vlassis helped lead GW to an 8-4 victory. That game was
followed by a matchup with Occidental College in which the Revs dominated and picked up a 20-8 win. The Revs led the Tigers 11-2 at half, and Vlassis continued his strong day, adding six more goals.
The following day, the Revs took on No. 2 USC, losing to the Trojans 23-9. The ten-time national champions and 2024 NCAA runner ups, the Trojans, opened up to a 6-1 lead by the end of the first quarter and never took their foot off the gas, outscoring GW 14-5 in the first half and 9-4 in the second.
GW followed that up with two more losses against ranked opponents at the Triton Invitation, falling to No. 6 Long Beach State 19-8, No. 14 University of California Davis 11-9 and No. 12 University of California San Diego 19-12.
The Revs led UC Davis 3-2 at halftime, but six straight goals by the Aggies in the second quarter helped secure their victory.
After running the gauntlet in California, the freshly ranked Revs played in the Princeton Invitation in New Jersey, beginning on Friday with a 17-8 loss against Santa Clara University. Later on Friday the Revs took on number-oneranked and reigning NCAA
Golf tees off in Japan after summer of culture building
champion UCLA, losing 21-6. In their final game of the weekend, GW took on No. 14 California Baptist University, falling 18-16 in overtime.
The team will next travel to Annapolis to compete in the Navy Invitational with ninthranked Princeton University among the teams scheduled.
This offseason, the team looked to the transfer portal to replace goalkeeper Luca Castorina, who finished his graduate season last year. In his three final seasons at GW, he earned MAWPC All-Conference Second Team three years in a row.
On Thursday, Athletics announced that they hired Castorina as an assistant coach for the 2025 season, saying in the release that he will be focused on “getting the goalies ready for competition.”
“Luca has been an integral part of GW water polo for the better part of six years,” Head Coach Barry King said in the release. “GW added Montenegro-native graduate student Vasilije Marinkovic who previously played for Mount St. Mary’s for one season. In the team’s opener against UCSB, Marinkovic had 18 saves to help ward off the Gauchos.
MILO ROSENZWEIG REPORTER
In the wake of a year plagued by injury and roster upheaval, golf is looking to use its “warrior culture” to find success in a season that includes tournaments in Japan and Mexico.
Golf struggled through the bulk of last season, with a notable midseason slump resulting in last-place finishes at tournaments in October and February and an eighth-place finish at the 12-team Atlantic 10 Championship in April. After spending the summer recruiting and reimagining the team’s identity, the team opened their year Wednesday at the Pan Pacific University Golf Super League in Shizuoka, Japan, finishing seventh in the 12-team competition.
“Last year was a little bit of a rebuilding year for us,” Head Coach Chuck Scheinost said. “ Scheinost said he was proud of how his team responded to the adversity they faced, which included a top-half placement at a tournament in Washington and a top-three finish by Barahona at a tournament in North Carolina.
“It was a journey last year, to say the least,” Scheinost said. Junior Benji Garcia Moreira said the team spent the summer pinpointing team-wide goals that would help translate practice performance into competition success, developing strategies to hold teammates accountable for mistakes and allow personal successes to foster team wins.
Scheinost said he looked to the transfer portal to fill two vacancies, ultimately signing junior Evan Eichenlaub from Babson College and sophomore Maxime Lam from Henderson State University. Eichenlaub previously competed at the Division III level and was a 202425 PING All-American Honorable Mention. He led Babson with a 73.64 stroke average across 22 rounds. Lam, who hails from Paris, France, was named to the NCAA Division II PING All-Region Team during his freshman campaign at Henderson State.
“I think we really picked up two great additions to the team because for us it’s not just about finding the best players,” Scheinost said. The efficacy of golf’s off-season efforts were tested this week as they opened the 2025-26 season in Shizuoka, Japan, at the Pan Pacific University Golf Super League. But despite the new additions, the team largely fell short in their Eastern Hemisphere debut.
Barbachano shot a 144, two over par, tying for the No. 29 individual spot. Additionally, Eichenlaub shot a 148, six over par, and earned a shared No. 54 spot while Lam tied for the No. 72 spot. The final round of the tournament was canceled due to inclement weather posed by Typhoon Peipah.
The competition presented a drastically different commencement to the season than recent years. The Pan Pacific University Golf Super League was golf’s only tournament competing against both American and international universities, including universities from South Korea, Ireland, Taiwan and Japan, this season.
To combat extreme jet lag, Scheinost created a sleeping regimen for the golfers, who left D.C. in the early hours of the morning Aug. 29 and were not allowed to sleep until boarding the plane, where they could sleep only on the first half of the flight. The Monterrey International Invitational, set to be hosted by GW in late October, will take place in Monterrey, Mexico, the hometown of both Moreira and Barahona.
“It makes it special for me to go back home and play,” Moreira said. “I think Rodrigo might say the same, where he’s a little more excited.”
The team struggled at the event last season, finishing in last place after shooting 876 collectively, 12 strokes over par. Scheinost said that in addition to poor playing performance, several personal circumstances, including the loss of his own father, deviated the team’s focus from golf exclusively as they managed their grief.
“It was a tough event for us last year, but I think we’re excited to go back and hopefully get some revenge,” Scheinost said.
Even in early September, with one tournament completed, Scheinost is eyeing the spring with their “ultimate goal” being an A-10 Championship — something he has not accomplished in his 12 seasons at GW.
And the goal is not Scheinost’s exclusively. Moreira said he and his teammates have “set their minds” on an A-10 Championship victory, adding that the following months will be dedicated to its pursuit.
“Winning is a byproduct of doing the right things,” Scheinost added. “It’s a byproduct of doing things right every day because winning is not a sometimes thing. It’s an all the time thing.”
KAIDEN J. YU | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
.Members of the Volleyball team cheer after winning a game against Georgetown University on Saturday.
soccer goalkeeper Tom Macauley’s save percentage,
LILY KRAMP | PHOTOGRAPHER
Senior setter Dilara Elmacıoğlu sets the ball Friday during a game against Temple University.