Vol-122-Iss-9

The GW

GW LOOSENS REINS ON DEBT-RIDDEN MFA

GW strikes initial deal with UHS to co-fund MFA, shrink financial support

The Medical Faculty Associates lost $100 million in fiscal year 2025, suffering heavier losses in the second half despite officials’ March pledge that the medical enterprise would be in a better financial position at the end of the year, financial documents show.

FY2025’s $100 million loss — which GW reported in their consolidated financial statements published at the end of FY2026 Q1 — marks the sixth consecutive fiscal year officials have reported the MFA operated in a deficit of tens of mil-

lions of dollars and the enterprise’s second highest loss ever on record following its $107 million loss in FY2024. Officials released the public disclosure of the MFA’s debt, which now exceeds $444 million owed to GW and other lenders, days before their Friday announcement that GW reached a preliminary agreement with Universal Health Services, GW Hospital’s owner and operator, to co-fund the MFA as both parties negotiate a deal to end the University’s financial support for the medical enterprise.

The additional losses reported in the second

half of the fiscal year followed a March briefing by Chief Financial Officer Bruno Fernandes and MFA CEO Bill Elliott to the Faculty Senate, which revealed the Medical Faculty Associates — a network of health care providers and faculty linked to GW’s medical school and hospital — lost $48 million in the first half of FY2025, which covered July 1 through Dec. 31, 2024. At the time, officials said they were confident the enterprise’s financial standing would improve by the end of FY2025 compared to FY2024 — and did reduce losses by $7 million.

See MFA Page 5

FIONA RILEY EDITOR IN CHIEF

HANNAH MARR MANAGING EDITOR

GW reached a preliminary agreement with Universal Health Services to co-fund the Medical Faculty Associates as both parties negotiate a deal to end GW’s financial support for the medical enterprise, officials announced Friday afternoon. The initial agreement will allow GW to significantly scale back its financial support for the medical enterprise — which stood at $444 million in debt to GW and other lenders at the end of fiscal year 2025 — as

UHS steps in to help fund MFA operations during the remainder of negotiations. Friday’s announcement did not detail when the co-funding structure will take effect, what percentage of the MFA’s current deficit and future spending the University and UHS, which also owns and operates GW Hospital, will shoulder or whether the preliminary agreement will alter GW’s control over the enterprise’s governance ahead of a finalized deal.

Financial documents GW released this week show the MFA lost more than $100 million in FY2025, marking six consecutive years of losses — $107 million in FY2024, $78 million in FY2023, $78 million in FY2022, $48 mil-

lion in FY2021 and $43 million in FY2020.

Officials have pledged for years to bring the MFA, a network of health care providers and faculty affiliated with GW’s medical school and hospital, back to profitability but have faced mounting pressure and skepticism from the Faculty Senate as the medical enterprise continued to flounder tens of millions of dollars each year.

Friday’s announcement states GW will continue to fund the MFA’s clinical education under the preliminary agreement, as the enterprise’s physicians teach School of Medicine & Health Sciences’ students, residents and researchers.

GW Law, CPS, GWSB face layoffs as officials withhold full details of cuts

GIANNA JAKUBOWSKI

ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

Employees from GW’s law, business and professional studies schools were among the 43 staff members the University laid off Tuesday, according to information gathered by The Hatchet, as officials declined to disclose which schools and offices were targeted by the University-wide cuts. The 43 staff officials laid off at the conclusion of fiscal year 2026’s first quarter include seven of eight recruitment and admissions staff from the College of Professional Studies, at least one assistant dean from GW Law and several School of Business employees. Officials spared the Columbian College of

Arts & Sciences, Elliott School of International Affairs and Graduate School of Education & Human Development in this round of layoffs, according to emails obtained by The Hatchet, and the status of other schools remains unclear as faculty and staff did not respond to requests for comment.

Officials warned of potential layoffs when they froze hiring in July to curb a persistent budget deficit, though Tuesday’s layoffs impacted only staff. In an email sent only to faculty and staff announcing the cuts, officials said the University would also leave several vacant positions unfilled, terminate the hiring freeze and reinstate the position management review process.

University spokesperson

Shannon McClendon declined to specify where the layoffs occurred or who was affected, citing respect for employees’ privacy.

She said unit leaders informed staff of their terminations Tuesday, with each employee receiving two weeks’ notice.

The Hatchet contacted more than 230 staff, faculty and administrators requesting information on layoffs within their schools, departments and offices and received responses from about 30. The majority of respondents, all current GW employees, said they had no information or declined to comment, often deferring to the Office of Communications and Marketing.

See CCAS Page 5

Campus hate crimes, sexual violence incidents spiked in 2024: crime report

RYAN J. KARLIN SENIOR STAFF WRITER

Officials reported last week an increase in hate crimes, sexual violence and disciplinary referrals for drug law violations across all of GW’s campuses from in the calendar year of 2024 in their Annual Security & Fire Safety Report.

The report, which the University releases annually in compliance with federal law, showed significant spikes in certain crimes, with reports of rape and drug law violations across campuses more than doubling and hate crime re-

ports climbing from one in 2023 to five in 2024.

Hate crime reports, defined in the report as a criminal offense “motivated by the offender’s bias,” hit a three-year high in 2024 with three incidents of destruction of property and two incidents of simple assault compared to one report of assault on the basis of sexual orientation in 2023 and one report of vandalism based on religion in 2022. The report stipulates that 2024’s reported crimes were committed on the basis of national origin, religion or both as opposed to 2023 where the one incident

was on the basis of sexual orientation. Three of the five incidents occurred on campus.

GW Police Department disciplinary referrals to the Office of Conflict Education and Student Accountability for drug law violations on campus property spiked to 105 across all GW campuses in 2024, after 45 were reported in 2023, and 89 were reported in 2022. The report also indicated a stark increase in sex crimes across all campuses, with the number of reports of rape climbing to 17, a jump from eight reports in 2023 and 14 in 2022.

NICHOLAS WARE

NICHOLAS WARE | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

The tempietto in Kogan Plaza.

NICHOLAS WARE | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

A GW Police Department badge.

Senior official urges DHS to reconsider plan to limit international student visas to 4 years

DYLAN EBS ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

A senior GW official wrote to the Department of Homeland Security last week arguing that the department’s proposed plan to limit international student visas to four years could disrupt research and impose new costs on the University.

In a filing last Monday addressed to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Terry Murphy said the proposal from Immigration and Customs Enforcement would halt many of GW’s international students from completing their education on time and hinder GW’s ability to attract international students. The policy proposal is another example of the Trump administration’s effort to reshape international student enrollment in American universities, an action that Murphy said could weaken the nation’s talent pool and its global competitiveness.

International students make up more than 14 percent of the student body, and nearly half of them are enrolled in STEM fields — which Murphy wrote underscores their “essential” role in GW’s research mission.

“This proposed rule will create unnecessary fear, confusion and procedural roadblocks for international students, exchange visitors and universities,” Murphy wrote.

GW and other universities, including Vanderbilt University and the University of Pittsburgh, filed comments with the Federal Register arguing against the proposed rule. Both Vanderbilt and Pittsburgh said the rule would hurt international students and increase administrative costs for universities. The proposal received almost 22,000 comments from individuals and universities.

Federal officials posted the rule Aug. 28 and made it open to comments until Sept. 29. Federal agencies are generally required to publish an online notice of proposed rules in the

Federal Register. Murphy’s letter comes as GW has grappled with President Donald Trump’s administration’s new policies on international students, a group that generates substantial revenue for the University since they are mostly ineligible for financial aid. The Trump administration issued a temporary pause on student visa interviews from May to June and has instituted new rules like social media background checks and screening for “anti-American” views. In April, former Provost Chris Bracey said in a meeting that DHS also revoked a “small number” of GW international students’ visas, which ICE later restored. The administration also implemented a travel ban on June 9, barring or restricting entry into the United States for citizens of 19 countries. Vice Provost for Enrollment and Student Success Jay Goff said in August that undergraduate international student enrollment will continue to decline this year due to delays in issuing student visas from Trump’s travel ban.

GSEHD ‘right-sizing’ tied to low educationdegree interest: experts

ARJUN SRINIVAS

CONTRIBUTING

BRIE SAMANIEGO

REPORTER

Higher education experts say looming layoffs and curriculum cuts at the Graduate School of Education and Human Development reflect a national decline in interest in education graduate degrees, driven by low wages and shrinking job prospects over the last decade.

Faculty said they learned in private budget meetings with officials that, due to ongoing enrollment declines, GSEHD does not have the funding to retain most of its assistant professors and is considering cutting programs and consolidating classes to stabilize the school. Higher education experts said the enrollment drop over the last 15 years — which promoted officials to begin “right-sizing” the school — may stem from waning interest in teacher preparation programs, federal attacks on higher education and declining wages over the past decade.

University spokesperson Shannon McClendon said the decision to implement organizational changes within GSEHD was driven by declining enrollment, reflecting national trends affecting education schools across the country.

GSEHD’s enrollment dropped 35 percent from 2014 to 2024 — from 1,479 to 958 students. The school’s enrollment declined 29 percent between 2020 and 2024 alone, from 1,341 to 958 students.

“The challenges facing GSEHD are consistent with those at schools of education nationwide, as demand for certain programs shifts and higher education continues to navigate volatility,” McClendon said.

Jennifer Delaney, a professor of higher education at

the University of California, Berkeley, said declining interest in teacher preparation programs — like elementary and special education — over the past decade has contributed to lower graduate enrollment in education programs nationwide.

Teacher training programs, like elementary education and early childhood special education, are some of several programs GSEHD offers, along with programs on counseling and education administration.

In 2011, 33 students graduated from GSEHD’s elementary education program, and 39 graduated from early childhood special education, according to enrollment data. In 2023, those numbers fell to eight in elementary education and seven in early childhood special education.

Delaney said enrollment in teacher preparation programs has remained low, likely due to a recent decline in the K-12 student population, which has resulted in fewer teaching job openings and made the profession less appealing.

“This is not a GW-specific issue,” Delaney said. “It’s really a change in teaching as a profession nationally. And it’s enrollment drops in K-12 education, so there’s less demand for teachers, and then enrollment drops in teacher training programs.”

Sarah Ray, an assistant professor of human and organizational learning, said that although the June email warning certain professors about possible layoffs was just a caution, she learned from committee service that GSEHD currently lacks the funds to retain many of those professors beyond this academic year.

“Budgetarily, there does not appear to be a budget to support assistant professors, much less existing full faculty or associate faculty,” Ray said.

Foggy

International undergraduate student enrollment declined from 1,416 in 2019 to 794 in 2024, marking a 44 percent decrease. Graduate international enrollment rose slightly from 2,515 in 2019 to 2,548 in 2024.

Officials said in August the drop in international students is expected to decrease the University’s revenue this year by around $10 million, as international students often receive little financial aid and pay full tuition.

Murphy wrote the rule could push prospective students to universities abroad that offer more flexible immigration policies, weakening the United States’ STEM pipeline and shrinking GW’s ability to recruit top researchers and scholars.

“If those opportunities are curtailed, and students know they cannot change programs when their interests evolve, adjust their educational objectives as career goals shift, or pursue additional study to strengthen their qualifications, many will simply choose institutions in other countries that allow them that freedom,” Murphy wrote.

CRIME LOG

THEFT II/FROM BUILDING

Health and Wellness Center

10/1/2025 – 5 p.m. to 6:05 p.m.

Open Case

A male GW student reported personal belongings stolen from an unsecured locker. Case open.

BLACKMAIL

2109 F Street NW

10/1/2025 – 1:54 p.m.

Open Case

A male GW student reported being blackmailed by an unknown person over email. Case open.

THEFT II/FROM BUILDING

GW Law School

Reported – 9/30/2025

Open Case

A female GW faculty member reported their laptop stolen. Case open.

BLACKMAIL

Somers Hall

9/29/2025 – Multiple times

Open Case

A male GW student reported being blackmailed by an unknown person over social media. Case open.

LIQUOR LAW VIOLATION

2000 Block of F Street NW

9/28/2025 – 1:09 a.m.

Open Case

GW Police and GW Emergency Medical Response Group responded to a report of an intoxicated female GW student. EMeRG emergency medical technicians conducted a medical evaluation of the student and transported them to GW Hospital for further medical treatment. Case closed. Referred to CESA.

—Compiled

by

Bryson Kloesel

Bottom restaurant owners report sales drop amid National Guard, ICE presence

SARAH GROSS STAFF WRITER

Local business owners say the presence of the National Guard and federal immigration enforcement in the District has slowed sales at Foggy Bottom restaurants and prompted them to hold training sessions in preparation for possible raids.

President Donald Trump on Aug. 11 ordered National Guard troops to patrol the District, and local restaurant owners say their presence — which officials expect will last through the end of the year — has chilled foot traffic and hurt sales. The owners also said they’re concerned for their employees’ safety following an immigration raid at Circa in Foggy Bottom late last month and as the Metropolitan Police Department continues collaborating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“In terms of what happened at Circa, some other restaurants and staff members are definitely on edge and worried about such things, as am I,” said Jeremy Pollok, Tonic At Quigley’s owner. Since the federal surge began in early August, federal government statistics show officers have made over 3,500 arrests in D.C. as of Sept. 29, with 40 percent being immigration related. This hike comes in spite of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s indication that MPD would not assist in immigration enforcement after Trump’s crime emergency — which allowed him to federalize MPD for 30 days — expired on Sept. 10.

ICE raided Circa at Foggy Bottom on Sept. 24, University officials confirmed, and allegedly took or questioned between six and 15 people, according to firsthand accounts shared by the Immigrant Liberation Coalition at GW on social media.

GW owns the building the Circa is located in, and a

spokesperson from the University and the restaurant’s manager declined to answer questions. A spokesperson from Circa Bistros, which operates Circa at Foggy Bottom, and ICE also did not return requests for comment.

Pollok said the raid at Circa put his staff “on edge” and left them worried if a similar raid could occur at Tonic.

“You can open up to the whole umbrella of everything that’s been going on over the last year,” Pollok said. “It has, everybody I know, for the most part, on a little bit of edge, a little uncomfortable, a little uncertain.”

Pollok said soon after Trump’s inauguration the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington reached out to share resources and literature explaining employees’ rights and emergency contact information. Pollok said since Trump’s inauguration, he has conducted training with his staff and shared information sheets about what to do if ICE comes to the restaurant.

Foggy Bottom business owners in May said they were preparing for the pos-

sibility of immigration enforcement visiting their establishments after ICE said they delivered 187 notices of inspections to restaurants.

Pollok also said Tonic’s sales have decreased about 10 percent since Trump deployed the National Guard, which he attributed to people who live in Virginia and Maryland and work in the District opting not to go out to eat or drink in D.C. due to feelings of unease related to federal presence.

Pollok said the ongoing government shutdown could exacerbate the decline in sales. He said Tonic usually experiences around a 15 percent decrease in sales during government shutdowns — the most recent was in 2019 — and is preparing for a further drop off by offering a “shutdown special” to attract and support federal workers. The Congressional Budget Office estimates about 750,000 federal employees are currently furloughed due to the shutdown, with another portion working without pay and a smaller number stopping work entirely.

The decline in foot traffic comes as D.C. restaurants struggled to regain prepandemic sales levels amid

increased operating costs and declining revenue. Local restaurant owners in April said Initiative 82, a measure to raise the tipped minimum wage to match the regular minimum, put upward pressure on labor costs and federal layoffs led to slower business, causing them to raise prices and cut labor.

Restaurant owners in August said they cut staff and slowed hiring to compensate for increased labor costs and tariffs enacted by Trump. They said the D.C. Council’s decision to slow I-82’s implementation did not ease those pressures.

Gabriel Pio, general manager of Bodega Taqueria y Tequila on I Street, said Bodega has seen a decrease in sales since Trump deployed the National Guard in August. He said widespread anxiety among customer contributed to the decline.

“Our business kind of reflects people’s state of mind,” Pio said. “When people feel unsafe coming into the city, unfortunately, it does affect our workers and our bartenders and our cooks because we don’t have business and we don’t have shifts.”

LEXI CRITCHETT | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR

The Tonic At Quigley's sign hangs above the 21st Street entrance.

ARWEN CLEMANS | SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR

Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Terry Murphy at an April Faculty Senate meeting.

IFC fall recruitment surges after first-year student eligibility expands

RYAN

Over 70 students joined one of GW’s eight fraternities last month, marking the highest number of accepted bids during fall recruitment since fall 2021 after the Interfraternity Council allowed first-year students to rush this semester.

Out of the 92 students who rushed for one of GW’s eight social fraternities, 75 accepted bids — an 80 percent increase in the number of students vying to join a fraternity compared to last fall’s recruitment process, according to a University spokesperson. The increase comes after the IFC announced in August they would open up the fall recruitment process to all students, removing a policy requiring potential new members to complete at least 12 credit hours at GW before rushing.

A University spokesperson said in an email about 37 percent of the 92 students rushing this fall were firstyear students.

This fall recruitment had the highest number of accepted bids since fall 2021, when 121 students joined an IFC fraternity after officials briefly paused the 12-credit requirement to allow the incoming first-year class to better connect with the campus following pandemic-re

lated restrictions hindering social life at GW. Following the reimplementation of the 12-credit policy in fall 2022, recruitment plummeted, with only 22 students joining fraternities.

The uptick in fall rush participation marks a departure from a trend in IFC recruitment where more students rushed in the spring than fall since the reinstatement of the policy starting with the fall 2022 rush cycle.

Former Iowa superintendent arrested by ICE never won GW award: officials

DYLAN EBS ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

Officials denied ever handing out an award that an Iowa school superintendent, who made national news after Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested him last week, claimed GW gave him in 2013 when he was a high school principal in D.C. Ian Roberts, the former Des Moines Schools superintendent, claimed on the resume he submitted for the superintendent job that GW awarded him the D.C. Principal of the Year award in 2013, when he was Anacostia High School’s principal, but a University spokesperson said GW has no record of ever handing out the award. The discrepancy is one of several multiple media outlets have uncovered after ICE arrested Roberts, who now faces federal charges for being in the U.S. illegally and in possession of firearms.

“The University has no

record of awarding such recognition to D.C. principals, and did not present this award,” the spokesperson said in an email.

Roberts asked Des Moines officials to include a GW’s award in a 2023 press release announcing his hiring, according to The Des Moines Register, which first reported the discrepancy Wednesday. He also claimed on his resume that he built partnerships with organizations, including GW, while serving as a principal in Washington, D.C., Des Moines CBS News affiliate KCCI reported, though the University spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment about whether that claim was accurate.

Roberts’ lawyer did not respond to multiple requests for comment about Roberts’ claim that GW had awarded him Principal of the Year in 2013. Spokespeople for D.C. Public Schools and Des Moines

Public Schools did not return requests for comment about Roberts’ affiliation with GW.

The Des Moines Public Schools Board on Friday sued the consulting company it used to vet candidates for Roberts’ position, alleging a breach of contract as the company failed to properly vet Roberts as a candidate and referred Roberts for consideration even though he could not legally hold the position. Des Moines Public Schools Board Chair Jackie Norris said in a release Roberts should have never been a finalist and that the firm failed to do its job.

“The Des Moines School Board is also a victim of deception by Dr. Roberts, one on a growing list that includes our students and teachers, our parents and community, our elected officials and Iowa’s Board of Educational Examiners, and others,” Norris said in a statement to NBC News last Wednesday.

Aston director says shelter not ready to up tenants amid local, federal pressures

BRYSON KLOESEL

CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR

As the city moves to increase the number of shelter beds available to the District’s homeless residents, both in response to President Donald Trump’s D.C. takeover and as part of a broader four-year plan, Foggy Bottom’s local housing refuge isn’t yet prepared to up its capacity.

D.C. officials opened the Aston — the District’s first noncongregate housing program — in November 2024 on New Hampshire Avenue in a former GW dorm with a starting capacity of 50 tenants, which officials raised to 100 in January, though it has the space for 90 additional beds. Local advocates have called on D.C. officials to utilize all available beds at The Aston as the Trump administration have ratcheted up unhoused encampment sweeps this year, and shelters around the District have bolstered capacity in response to federal pressure on encampments, particularly after Trump federalized D.C.’s police force in August. The Aston has remained close to its 100-resident capacity with an average of 91 tenants in its third quarter, according to a quarterly progress report officials released in August.

Aston Division Director Jeremy Jones said the facility requires additional resources from the city to complete building renovations and hire additional staff in order to raise resident capacity. The Hatchet toured The Aston on Friday with the facility’s management and saw

that some common areas and units were unfinished or under construction.

Jones said ongoing construction has prevented residents from moving into 23 beds in rooms on The Aston’s first floor, which can accommodate people with mobility issues. But he said leaving some rooms vacant gives the facility flexibility to welcome residents who do not wish to or cannot live safely with a roommate.

“For any program when you’re putting people into rooms, and they don’t know each other, there’s always that level of unknown,” Jones said. “But I think having the proper staff that can handle those situations is just as important.”

The Foggy Bottom and West End Advisory Neighborhood Commission, which includes The Aston,

passed a resolution in June calling on Ward 2 D.C. Councilmember Brooke Pinto to express support to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser for increasing the shelter’s resident cap from 100 to 190, staggering the uptick with an intermediate target of 150.

The resolution cited smooth operations at the shelter, intensified clearings and mounting pressure from Trump to eliminate encampments. It came after Trump’s March executive order calling on the National Park Service to promptly remove “homeless or vagrant encampments” on D.C.’s federal land, which caused local officials to accelerate clearings.

The calls to raise The Aston’s capacity also come as the Trump administration has partially used homelessness in the District as jus-

tification for his takeover of the city starting in August, saying homeless residents in the city needed to move out “immediately.” The move prompted the District to add more than 100 shelter beds, and city officials said 80 additional residents accepted shelter during the surge in clearings in August and September.

Jones said facility admissions increased more in January than when Trump declared people without housing should leave the District or face eviction and imprisonment in August.

To raise The Aston’s capacity, the facility’s management must get approval from Pinto because the July 2023 agreement Pinto signed, allowing the D.C. Council to greenlight the shelter’s conversion from a GW dorm to a city-operated housing facility, sets a maximum capac-

ity at 100 residents.

Jones said he has not heard from Pinto’s office about raising the cap but said any increase should be done gradually to avoid overwhelming the facility. At a June ANC meeting, a representative for Pinto said the councilmember is looking to continue working toward the 100-person threshold to ensure continued smooth operations.

Pinto did not return a request for comment.

The Aston’s opening marked one of the first steps in the city’s larger plan to open six homeless shelters through 2028, which will ultimately add more than 500 beds for unhoused residents. D.C. plans to open its second-ever bridge housing model this fall at 25 E Street, near Union Station, adding 190 beds.

Officials, faculty slow institutional neutrality discussions after push last year

EVA

Officials are continuing to review whether GW will implement institutional neutrality after former Provost Chris Bracey announced the University was engaging in discussions around it last spring, although faculty interest in the policy has waned as they shift their focus to what they see to be the University’s more pressing issues. As more and more universities moved toward implementing institutional neutrality after the outbreak of the war in Gaza, Bracey spearheaded the University’s top leadership’s interest in such a conversations — which included his comments in April about how officials would “likely” bring an institutional neutrality presentation to the Board of Trustees and would form a task force to make recommendations about adopting a policy over the summer — though the status of those talks are unclear after he stepped down as provost in June. Faculty leaders’ interest in such conversations with officials dwindled over the summer after the Faculty Senate voted to return a resolution opposing the policy to committee in April, as they sought to clarify the resolution’s wording — a move higher education experts

supported as they encouraged both faculty and officials to focus on the University’s immediate issues.

University spokesperson Kathy Fackelmann said officials are continuing to review the University’s stance on institutional neutrality — a comment that came three months into Interim Provost John Lach’s tenure. She said officials will engage with community members if they were to begin considering adopting such a policy.

“If the University does consider adopting a position on institutional neutrality, we will actively engage with faculty, staff and students as part of the process,” Fackelmann said in an email.

Co-Chair of the Faculty Senate’s Committee on Professional Ethics & Academic Freedom Dwayne Wright, who stepped into leading the committee that sponsored the institutional neutrality resolution in May, said the committee decided to table the resolution after the Faculty Senate Executive Committee didn’t include the policy in its charge to the committee chairs with tasks to consider addressing during this year’s senate term. He said the committee’s focus has since shifted to what he described as “more immediate threats,” pointing to the University’s growing budget deficit — which resulted in the layoffs of 43 staff members on Tuesday — and an August letter from the Department of Justice accusing GW of be-

ing deliberately indifferent to campus antisemitism following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attacks.

Wright also added that leadership and membership changes within both the Faculty Senate and the PEAF committee, which took effect at the start of the new senate term in May, have further complicated the resolution’s future, as it remains unclear where the new senators and

committee members stand on the issue of institutional neutrality. He said the committee met with Lach in late August, where there was no mention of institutional neutrality because nobody asked about it, and Lach didn’t mention the subject.

“I haven’t talked to Provost Lach about it,” Wright said. “I haven’t heard anything from anyone in the provost office about this since

the resolution was sent back, so it might not be a current priority of the administration or personally of the provost.” Adopting a stance of institutional neutrality would require GW to refrain from issuing statements regarding any social or political issues, specifically those that do not directly affect the University’s mission. Institutional neutrality would mean University President Ellen

and

ARWEN CLEMANS | SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR

Faculty Senate members sit during an April meeting.

ABBY BROWN | PHOTOGRAPHER A banner encouraging students to rush hangs on the Delta Tau Delta fraternity house.

KAIDEN J. YU | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Division Director Jeremy Jones makes a bed in The Aston.

KAIDEN J. YU | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Jeremy Jones gathers items on a shelf in The Aston.

GW may struggle to afford new $100k employee visa fee: experts

DYLAN

Immigration experts said a new federal policy requiring employers to pay $100,000 for each new H-1B visa could make it nearly impossible for universities to hire international faculty and researchers without shouldering significant costs.

The executive order, which President Donald Trump announced Sept. 19, targets “certain nonimmigrant workers” entering the country on H-1B visas, the temporary work visa for foreign professionals, which universities use to hire foreign-born professors, lecturers and researchers for up to six years. The experts said the $100,000 fee, which only affects new H-1B applications, could strain GW’s budget and risk discouraging highly skilled scholars from choosing to work in the United States.

The International Services Office said it will evaluate the full implications of this proclamation and encouraged the GW community to reach out to the office in a Sept. 21 update to community members. A University spokesperson declined to comment on whether GW will continue to sponsor H-1B visas and if the University has been in contact with the Trump administration about the changes.

GW sponsored 147 new H-1B visa petitions between fiscal years 2020 and 2025, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data. The fee could require GW to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars per year if the University maintains the same level of H-1B visas. It previously cost employers between $2,000 and $5,000 per new petition.

Universities are exempt from the government’s yearly 85,000 cap on new H-1B visa approvals. As of June 30, U.S. colleges employ more than 16,700 workers on H-1B visas — about 5 percent of the total of H-1B visas granted during fiscal year 2025, according to Inside Higher Ed. Chad Sparber, an economics professor at Colgate University who has published research about H-1B visas and productivity and this year penned an op-ed on the H-1B visa, said the new $100,000 fee is effectively designed to dismantle the program, making it financially impossible for most universities to hire international scholars.

“No university can afford $100,000 to sponsor a foreign worker. That part’s just not going to happen,” Sparber said.

Sparber said some of his best work has come from working with international faculty, including academics from Italy, Spain, Japan and Nepal. He said taking away that opportunity for collaboration is “terrible” for American productivity and limits interactions between academics of different back-

grounds.

“Those are collaborations that don’t happen in a world where we don’t have something like the H-1B that facilitates skilled workers coming into the country,” Sparber said.

Sparber also said if universities can’t afford the H-1B fee, it could lead to larger class sizes and fewer research opportunities for students since universities might not be able to hire as many international faculty.

“We’re kind of at the mercy of whatever the federal law is,” he said.

Sparber added that if universities aren’t exempted, the fee could especially hurt economics and STEM departments because foreign-born scholars are more prevalent in those fields.

“Econ is a field that’s that’s got a very high representation of foreign students, and that’s going to be true. And physics, chemistry, math, computer science, and yeah, those programs are going to really suffer,” he said.

Britta Glennon, an assistant professor of management at the University of Pennsylvania who has also researched the H-1B visa, said many universities will not be able to afford the $100,000 fee for each H-1B visa due to possible budget constraints.

“I think it’s going to be very difficult for universities to pay that fee,” she said. “I mean, that’s basically doubling a lot of faculty salaries. So it’s not a small fee.”

Glennon said some institutions may attempt to find ways to work around the fee, like getting a waiver from the Department of Homeland Security. The order says that the Secretary of Homeland Security can issue exemptions if the hiring of a foreigner is in the country’s “national interest” and does not pose a national security risk.

“There’s the short-term consequence of universities and the private sector all being probably unwilling to pay that fee in most cases,” Glennon said. “I think there are exceptions, but most positions and most companies and universities are going to be unable to pay that.”

Subodha Kumar, a professor of statistics, operations and data science at Temple University, said it is unclear if universities will be exempt from the fee, though he said universities will have an opportunity to make the case for an exemption if they can argue their work is in the national interest for the United States.

“Nobody has clarity on that because first of all, the wording is unclear,” Kumar said. “The Homeland Security is not saying much about it.”

Joann Weiner, associate professor of economics, said she thinks universities with more funding will be able to afford the visa but said universities with smaller endowments might not be able to.

“There’s a lot of different types of academia, just like there are a lot of different types of companies,” Weiner said.

Remote patient monitoring may prevent pregnant patient fatalities: study

ALYSSA WISMAR REPORTER

GW researchers found in a study last month that using remote patient monitoring during pregnancy may lead to fewer fatalities in patients and their infants.

The study, co-authored by Lauren Rosenfeld, a medical resident at GW Hospital, suggested that the more frequently pregnant patients utilized RPM technologies, like blood pressure monitors, the more likely they were to detect preeclampsia, or high blood pressure, during the prenatal and postnatal periods. Preeclampsia is one of the leading causes of mortality in pregnancies, and Rosenfeld said she hopes the study’s findings reach wider audiences and encourage more patients to use RPM technologies to feel reassured in monitoring their health.

“Remote monitoring for reassurance is so much of what medicine is in general, like making a patient feel like they understand their body and what’s going on with their body,” Rosenfeld said.

RPM is a telehealth service that uses digital devices, like pulse oximeters — which detect oxygen levels in blood — and thermometers, to collect health data from patients in their homes and automatically transmit it to health care providers for review and analysis, according to the American Medical Association. The study employed the Babyscripts digital health platform, which allows patients to remotely track gestational weight gain and blood pressure as well as receive scheduled education about pregnancy symptoms.

Researchers reviewed the medical charts of 823 pregnant patients who used Babyscripts to track health conditions like preeclampsia during their pregnancies, according to the study. The study states that researchers also tracked patients’ engagement with Babyscripts, defined by the percentage of weeks during pregnancy in which the patient submitted at least one remote blood pressure measurement.

“We went through each of the studies to identify the populations, the key points, the summaries and kind of the takeaways, so that we can figure out as a group, kind of where the field is going from here,” Rosenfeld said. After reviewing records and engagement with Babyscripts, researchers identified a pattern in the data that suggested higher engagement may improve preeclampsia detection.

Studies have shown that the use of RPM technologies has skyrocketed since the COVID-19 pandemic, when telehealth services became more popularized, and patients and health care providers have continued to use it as a more convenient way to track health developments for patients with chronic conditions in real time. The service must be administered by a physician who determines the service is medically necessary and is broadly covered by Medicare.

A 2025 study by the American Heart Association showed that in the last five years, hospitals offering RPM services increased 40.3 percent.

Rosenfeld said, alongside the high risks preeclampsia poses for mothers, the condition can also affect infants through nutrient deficiencies that can lead to fetal growth restrictions, bleeding and still and pre-term births.

“It’s a term that we measure or that we use to understand one of the negative consequences of pregnancy,” Rosenfeld said.

Rosenfeld said she hopes the study will continue to inform and reach women from around the world to detect as many cases of preeclampsia as possible, which was her motivation throughout the research.

“It’s the idea of our services to reach populations that wouldn’t otherwise have medicine or otherwise have access to health care,” Rosenfeld said.

Experts in maternal health and life sciences said the study highlights the significance of the technology in lowering maternal mortality and the need for health care providers to emphasize patient engage-

ment during pregnancy.

Sarwat Naz, a licensing manager at GW’s Technology Commercialization Office, with a specialty in life sciences, said RPM technologies are helpful, but their success depends on the level of usage and engagement from patients.

“This suggests that these kind of digital health tools are not just diagnostic tools but can also reflect patient motivation and also health literacy,” Naz said.

Naz said she had experience with another kind of digital health monitoring system, Text-To-Quit, where GW researchers found that this technology, a text-message-based smoking cessation program, helped smokers to quit by providing them information and a resource to reach out to to assist them in stopping smoking.

Naz said while the study is useful for the detection of the disease and vitals, the technologies will not work without the application drive from patients to use them. She said continuous pushes from health care providers for women to continue to use RPM throughout their time after pregnancies could fix this, especially if they have multiple pregnancies, and could broaden the technology’s reach.

“I feel that just having the tool is not enough. I think we need to provide, we have to lay the groundwork for precision maternal health with tailored intervention,” Naz said.

Liz Borkowski, a researcher at the GW Center of Excellence in Maternal and Child Health, said with how serious the consequences of preeclampsia are, it is crucial to spot it early on, rather than waiting until it is detrimental to the mother and child. She said RPM could help with earlier detection.

“Especially as you know, if people are coming into pregnancy with higher blood pressure, like we know in terms of the population, higher blood pressure is a concern,” Borkowski. “So it is common enough that it makes sense to really devote resources towards figuring out how to catch it sooner.”

US must boost foreign aid to combat rising climate displacement: study

ARIANA NAZIR REPORTER

The United States must scale up its foreign health assistance and shift toward proactive aid rather than emergency response to address the health risks connected to global climatedriven displacement, a report GW researchers released late last month found.

The working paper — authored by experts from GW’s Redstone Global Center for Prevention and Wellness and the CORE Group, a D.C-based convener of practitioners and public health professionals — found that if the United States increased foreign health assistance for displaced people in countries subject to extreme weather events, mainly in the Global South, the country would be able to prevent deaths and promote safety and security.

Timothy Holtz, chair and director of the Redstone Center and co-author of the report, said in an email that U.S. foreign aid would provide flexible funding, technical expertise and early-warning

systems to help communities in developing countries prepare for climate hazards, reducing health risks and limiting further forced displacement.

“Health assistance for, and empowerment of, displaced populations — including women, children, older adults and people living in poverty — aligns with core American values of helping the most at-risk populations, averting deaths and alleviating human suffering,” Holtz said in an email.

Researchers developed many of the report’s proposals during a June roundtable convened by the Redstone Center and CORE group at the Milken Institute School of Public Health, which brought together a group of experts across academia, policy and research organizations. Participants shared insights on trends in health issues over the last two decades caused by environmentally induced displacement and strategies for the U.S. government to effectively channel resources.

Since taking office in January, President Donald

Trump has targeted foreign aid through a series of rollback efforts, beginning with a January executive order that froze funding for 90 days — a move that experts and aid organizations say disrupted supply chains and continues to delay assistance.

That same month, Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio began dismantling the United States Agency for International Development, the country’s primary foreign aid provider, which officially ceased operations in July. Late last month, the Supreme Court ruled that Trump could withhold $4 billion in foreign aid previously approved by Congress.

The roundtable discussions reflected on recent trends of climate and conflictinduced migration, like the 120 million people currently displaced because of conflict, urbanization and environmental hazards, such as heat waves, extreme weather and rising sea levels, the working paper said. The study specifies that nearly half of displaced people are hosted in countries exposed to extreme

weather, like Myanmar and Niger.

The paper warns that forced and environmentally induced migration increases the risk of a wide range of health challenges, like measles, uncontrolled diabetes, injuries, maternal health hazards and mental health issues, as migrants are often subject to crowded conditions and lack access to care while moving from place to place. The health challenges mean the United States must invest in solutions, like community-led, locally focused interventions as well as disease prevention and adaptation efforts in order to address not only immediate needs but also the longerterm resilience of vulnerable populations, the researchers found.

Steven Hansch, an adjunct faculty member at Milken and co-author of the paper, said the roundtable’s discussions of displacement and climate change, which he said were two of the biggest pressing issues facing the world, will allow the Redstone Center to con-

nect NGOs with each other to facilitate communication to become more forwardplanning and address these issues proactively before environmental disasters strike.

“Relief is always too late, responding to problems after they’ve already killed people, which is how things normally go,” Hansch said.

Despite the need for proactive strategies, Hansch said recent developments in U.S. foreign health assistance, particularly given cuts in the USAID, show a counterpro-

ductive trajectory. He said even though the U.S. government is still funding humanitarian aid, it has pulled back from almost all of its health funding.

The report states global humanitarian efforts are losing “technical capacity” due to a decline in U.S. foreign assistance.

“A lot of people feel like we just lost leadership,” Hansch said. “We’ve lost a lot of good programs. We’ve lost a lot of good research. We’ve lost a lot of good networks.”

MATHYLDA DULIAN | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR

A blood drive participant gets their blood pressure measured last year.

TALAN MASKIVISH | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

The White House on Pennsylvania Avenue.

SGA, SBA leaders to pursue joint initiatives spurred by University-wide cuts

Student Government Association and Student Bar Association leaders plan to hold joint leadership meetings, organize collaborative events and coordinate policy efforts this semester after University-wide budget cuts strained funding for GW Law student organizations.

SGA Vice President Liz Stoddard and SBA Vice President Quinn Biever said improving communication between their leadership, co-sponsoring programs and helping student organizations share resources and identify alternate funding sources will help both groups navigate the University’s 3 percent fiscal year 2026 budget cut, which has reduced student organization funding pools, cutting nearly $50,000 from the SBA’s budget and potentially affecting the SGA’s spring allocations. Stoddard and Biever said increased collaboration will also allow the two bodies to coordinate advocacy and raise shared concerns with University administrators, like calling on officials to be more vocal against federal immigration activity on campus.

“Our syllabi are different, but the issues that we’re facing are collective and unifying,” Stoddard said.

Stoddard said she campaigned on building closer ties with the SBA after noticing that the two student governments, which both represent law students, rarely interacted despite sharing similar responsibilities, like advocating for students and allocating funds to organizations. Stoddard attended the SBA’s Sept. 23 meeting to outline her plans for increased collaboration, and Biever said he will attend the

SGA’s Oct. 13 meeting to hear from student leaders about how the two bodies can further coordinate.

The SGA, which serves as the entire University’s student representative body, reserves three seats in the SGA Senate for law students and requires that at least one of seven justices on the SGA’s student court be appointed from the law school.

Stoddard said she wants the SGA and SBA to make more policy decisions and resolutions that support each other, like a unified message calling on administrators to better inform students about federal immigration activity on campus. Immigration and Customs Enforce-

ment agents raided the restaurant Circa at Foggy Bottom on Sept. 24, with University officials confirming federal agents detained “a number of individuals” but did not specify how many and said they had no evidence any GW community members were affected.

Stoddard denounced the raid at the latest SGA Senate meeting on Sept. 29 and said she would work to hold University administrators “accountable” for student safety.

She added that the SGA should pass supportive resolutions of graduate student unionization on campus, even if it means the University administration “gets mad” at student leaders and work to include

SBA leaders in meetings with top University officials. Biever said the collaboration efforts began after SBA Senator Punam Chopra, who also serves as an SGA policy adviser, connected him with Stoddard over the summer. He said after discussing shared challenges like University funding cuts and student safety concerns, both student government bodies agreed to explore more formal collaboration.

Biever said both governments could benefit from more coordination due to tighter budgets across the University, including a nearly $50,000 cut to the SBA’s budget this year. He said collaboration between

the SBA and SGA could help student groups share resources or cut costs for large programs, “broaden and strengthen” student voices and help limited funds “go farther.”

“If it can save money on one end, it can help other organizations on another end, and that’s crucial, given the current budget situation of the school,” Biever said.

Biever said as he’s heard heightened student concerns about safety due to the increased presence of ICE agents and National Guard troops in D.C. since August, he thinks law students could apply their education in a “practical manner” by offering legal insights about protesting safely and informing students outside the law school of their rights when interacting with law enforcement.

Chopra, an SBA senator and SGA senior policy adviser, said she hopes collaboration between the two bodies can break down barriers between schools and help students connect across disciplines. She said greater cooperation could make students “stronger together” by encouraging inclusivity by ensuring more student voices are represented in policy discussions, instead of the SGA’s small number of law student representatives.

Madison Yohe, the SGA Senate’s chief of staff, said the SGA aimed to become more collaborative with graduate and law students after hearing feedback leading into this year from graduate students who felt the body did not do enough to represent their interests and voices on campus.

Omer Turkomer, the SBA’s attorney general and an SGA law student senator, said many law students are unaware of the opportunities available outside of the law school because it is an “insulated community” from the rest of the University.

MFA’s operating deficit reached record-high $110 million in FY2025

From Page 1

“We’re going to come to the end of the year, we’re going to look at this number, and it’s going to be better,” Elliott told the Faculty Senate in March. “It’s not going to be where any of us want it to be, I’ll tell you right now. We’re not going to solve every problem at the MFA this fiscal year.”

The report also states that GW has in total loaned $370,904,000 to the MFA by the end of FY2025 since before GW began reporting loans to the MFA on their financial statements, with more than $98 million being loaned during FY2025. The medical enterprise has accumulated $117 million in debt to other entities outside of GW since GW gained control, which could include EagleBank, who was the MFA’s primary external lender as of FY2023. Elliott said in March the operational changes officials had implemented during the first half of FY2025 would be reflected in the MFA’s performance in the second half of the fiscal year that would lead to a lesser number in losses in the second half of the year, though the enterprise lost more in the

second half compared to the first half of the year, totaling roughly $52 million lost.

Elliott also said the MFA has worked to increase its revenue by ensuring it fully utilizes its equipment by performing additional tests and procedures, when applicable to the patient, that would bring in additional revenue for the enterprise, something officials previously weren’t doing.

Officials also declined to comment on if the MFA has solved all of its “operational issues.” Officials also declined to comment on why the MFA saved only $7 million this year compared to FY2024’s losses after officials implemented these changes and why they didn’t save the $11 million Elliott pledged.

Financial documents to date show the MFA has lost at least $78 million each year for the last four fiscal years — $100 million in FY2025, $107 million in FY2024, $78 million in FY2023 and $78 million in FY2022, which has resulted in GW and other lenders loaning the medical enterprise hundreds of millions of dollars to keep afloat.

The MFA spent more than $503 million and pulled in more than $393 million in revenue in FY2025, operating in a slightly less than

$110 million budget gap. Both the medical enterprise’s expenses and revenue increased in FY2025 compared to FY2024, where the MFA spent more than $485 million

and brought in slightly more than $377 million in revenue.

The MFA’s patient care revenue decreased more than $4.5 million in FY2025 to $308 million, compared to

$313 million in FY2024. The medical enterprise’s revenue labeled as other increased by more than $22.5 in FY2025 to $57.5 million, compared to $35 million in FY2024.

CCAS, Elliott, GSEHD spared from University-wide layoffs: emails

From Page 1

Last week’s layoffs came after months of officials affirming their commitment to avoiding mass cuts, framing other reductions as necessary measures to prevent them. Chief Financial Officer Bruno Fernandes told the Staff Council in April that officials were not actively discussing laying people off as the University grappled with a yearslong deficit that prompted them to cut FY2026 budgets.

In July, officials said they did not anticipate mass layoffs and told the Staff Council they did not have plans for University-wide personnel cuts. Chief of Staff Scott Mory said in July that potential layoffs would not happen all at once and would depend on how unit leaders adjusted their budgets.

Officials implemented July’s budget reduction measures — including a hiring freeze, limits to non-essential discretionary spending, voluntary temporary reductions to leaders’ salaries and a review of procurement contracts and capital expenditures — to combat its structural deficit but said on Tuesday that “continued pressures” ultimately prompted the layoffs.

GW is not currently planning additional University-wide reductions, a spokesperson said. They

said Huron Consulting — a controversial consulting firm with a history of recommending layoffs at universities that the University in August confirmed they hired — was not connected to the layoffs. Here’s what we know so far about the staff layoffs across GW’s schools:

GW Law

GW Law laid off several staff members, including Assistant Dean for Environmental Law Studies Randall Abate, Dean Dayna Bowen Matthew said Friday during a virtual discussion with law students about the future of the school’s environmental law program.

Law students during the virtual conversation said they were worried about the future of the environmental law program without a leader, but Matthew said the elimination of Abate’s position doesn’t change the school’s commitment to the nine students currently concentrating in environmental law at the juris doctor level. Matthew said the school’s decision to eliminate Abate’s position was solely financial.

Abate said in an email that he must find new employment “immediately,” noting that his last day at the University is Oct. 14 — two weeks after he was “blindsided” by the news of his termination.

“I will land on my feet, but I’m very concerned for the students,” Abate said in an email. “They deserve much better.”

More than 10 GW Law community members who worked with Abate said they were “shocked” and “devastated” to hear of his termination and noted the great impact he had on their professional and academic careers at the University.

Awista Ayazi, an adjunct professor at GW Law, said Abate is “singlehandedly” the reason she entered academia and began teaching at the law school. She said she had never considered teaching until Abate encouraged her to lead a course on human rights and environmental protection.

College of Professional Studies

CPS Dean Liesl Riddle said in an email to faculty and staff at 11:24 a.m. on Tuesday, several hours before officials sent the Universitywide announcement to faculty and staff, that the recruitment and admissions internal team will consist of two associate directors as of Oct. 1 — one position that has been filled and a second position that officials are currently hiring for, which is down from eight staff prior to the layoffs.

Riddle said in the email CPS created a new associate dean for

enrollment management & student life role who will provide oversight for Noodle and the two new associate directors for recruiting and admissions. She said officials would post the new job posting online on Sept. 30, though the posting is not available as of Sunday.

School of Business

GWSB Dean Sevin Yeltekin said to faculty and staff in an email obtained by The Hatchet “several” staff members in GWSB were laid off, adding the decision within GWSB reflects broader “organizational needs” and “strategic realignments.” Murat Tarimcilar, the chair of the Department of Decision Sciences, said in an email most staff laid off from GWSB were from the undergraduate and graduate programs offices.

Yeltekin said in her email announcing GWSB’s layoffs said they were “scheduled” by officials, though officials never indicated a timeline that layoffs would occur.

Schools confirmed to be unaffected by layoffs

GW did not lay off staff in the CCAS, GW’s biggest school, according to an email CCAS Dean Paul Wahlbeck sent to faculty and staff Tuesday night.

Interim GSEHD Dean Lionel Howard said in an email Tuesday

In FY2025, the MFA’s expenses fluctuated more significantly than its revenue streams, with medical supply costs rising $24.6 million to $89.4 million.

that was obtained by The Hatchet that the school did not layoff any staff, though he also said the layoffs were “scheduled.”

Benjamin Hopkins, the senior associate dean of academic affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs, confirmed ESIA did not lay off any staff last week. Two program directors at the Milken Institute School of Public Health said the school also did not have any layoffs.

Schools where layoffs remain unconfirmed

It remains unclear if staff from the School of Engineering & Applied Science, the School of Medicine & Health Sciences and the School of Nursing were affected. The Hatchet reached out to department chairs, faculty and administrators for each of these schools. No one out of the 12 SEAS department chairs, administrators or faculty senators The Hatchet emailed returned a request to comment. Four out of the 28 SMHS administrators The Hatchet reached out to said they did not have any information regarding the layoffs, and 18 department chairs did not reply.

Kim Fulmer, the president of the Staff Council, declined to comment further on the layoffs after the Staff Council sent an email Tuesday evening to staff.

GRAPHIC BY AN NGO

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY KYRA WOOD

Student Bar Association Vice President Quinn Biever and Student Government Association Vice President Liz Stoddard.

OPINIONS

Officials’ opacity on layoffs betrays community trust

Officials laid off 43 staff members last week — the most significant round of personnel cuts since the COVID-19 pandemic — directly attributing the decision to the University’s growing budget deficit. The announcement, delivered exclusively to faculty and staff via email. In the days that followed, officials remained tight-lipped, refusing to explain how they selected employees for the layoffs or which departments and schools were affected.

Officials’ decision not to share this information is especially concerning given that they had for months framed budget decisions as efforts to avoid layoffs and indicated that any personnel cuts would be gradual and managed at the individual “unit” level. But last week’s announcement departed from that narrative, as the layoffs came en masse and occurred abruptly at the end of fiscal year 2026’s first quarter. The lack of transparency about which areas were affected, how the decisions were made and why the layoffs were necessary now leaves key stakeholders who are directly impacted and financially invested in the University without the information they deserve. Their secrecy also suggests that University leadership does not see open communication as an obligation, even to students and their families who were excluded from the original message.

Officials have justified their decision not to disclose which specific schools, departments and offices were affected by citing a need to protect the individuals impacted. So far, communication from officials around these decisions has come across more as a courtesy than a responsibility. But as the ones making and enforcing these decisions. The community deserves real-time, consistent communication and clear explanations about the reasoning and process behind

STAFF EDITORIAL

major choices, not just occasional updates. Additionally, officials’ lack of transparency last week about where the cuts occurred becomes even more problematic when contrasted with the messaging they offered in the months prior. Chief Financial Officer Bruno Fernandes told the Staff Council in April that officials were not discussing layoffs, adding that avoiding such cuts remained a top priority. And in July, officials stated in interviews and to the Staff Council that they did not anticipate mass layoffs like those seen during the pandemic, nor did they have plans for “holistic layoffs across the University.”

This rhetoric mirrors officials’ earlier messaging. In May, they

justified their 3 percent cut to GW’s FY2026 budget as a necessary step to avoid University-wide layoffs. That’s why these sweeping University-wide layoffs came as a surprise for our editorial board — and, we assume, for much of the community. Not only had months of communication suggested layoffs were unlikely, but we also understood that any cuts would be handled within individual departments and only considered on a broader scale if the deficit significantly worsened. That understanding, based on the University’s own statements, now feels misleading, which makes it even more urgent that officials explain what changed. When prior messaging turns out to be incomplete or inaccurate, transparent

DC’s FY2026 budget prioritizes corporations over community needs

D.C.’s fiscal year 2026 budget, which took effect Oct. 1, wrongfully prioritizes policies that benefit large corporations, like the Washington Commanders, while cutting funding for social services, like mental health care, which will disproportionately affect marginalized communities. As part of the broader D.C. community that interacts with the local economy daily, GW students engage with the local economy daily and need to understand how the proposed 2026 budget will negatively affect D.C. residents, including local GW students, and call for an economic system that better supports all constituents.

Many policies will leave the most vulnerable communities behind, especially when it comes to health care, compounding federal cuts to Medicaid that will go into effect over the next several years. With these changes, it’s going to be up to the community, including GW students, to come together and support one another by volunteering for nonprofits that aid the community, communicating over the phone or in writing with elected officials and raising residents’ awareness about the effects of recent policies.

Many community mem-

bers cannot afford to wait for these potential economic improvements to take place. People need health care, housing and basic necessities now, and many rely on the social services that are set to lose funding. Job growth and overall economic development from city improvements may help the community in the future, but these goals cannot be prioritized over the immediate needs of D.C. residents.

Furthermore, hundreds of millions of dollars will be going toward the Capital One Arena and Nationals Park in the next two years. The reasoning behind these investments is the hope that they will bring more sports fans to the area, therefore increasing revenue. While this sounds appealing, we must acknowledge where that money is coming from — essential health care services.

Further benefiting the already wealthy, the budget gives businesses the ability to appeal “onerous taxation” that may stand in the way of business people investing in commercial property. This benefit is added on top of federal tax breaks passed by the House of Representatives earlier this year. The reality of this situation is that it is only advantageous to, wealthy businesses. Small business owners and low-income residents who already struggle with rent, inflation and stagnant wages are unlikely to benefit. Funding for these stadium improvements and tax breaks is taking priority over

essential public services. Among the programs on the chopping block is the Child and Adolescent Mobile Psychiatric Service, which serves as an emergency response service for children and teenagers experiencing mental health emergencies, like suicidal or homicidal ideations. Bowser’s budget is cutting more than half of the funding for the 15-yearold program, based on the argument from city officials that school mental health staff are already providing assistance.

Many D.C. residents are also losing their health care plans. The 2026 D.C. budget includes cuts to Medicaid eligibility, so about 25,000 residents will be moved off Medicaid and onto less comprehensive plans. Thousands of others will lose coverage altogether as the budget plans to phase out D.C.’s Health Care Alliance program by 2027.

GW students have both the privilege and responsibility of being part of the nation’s capital, so it is essential that we engage with the local government. I urge you to learn more about what’s at stake with the FY2026 proposed budget and to get involved with community service organizations, like Bread for the City or Community of Hope, that work to alleviate some of the challenges coming to the forefront.

—Willow Harrington, a sophomore majoring in political science and psychology, is an opinions writer.

communication isn’t just preferred. It’s the minimum required to begin rebuilding trust. As of July, the University was grappling with a $24 million budget deficit — a fraction of the $180 million shortfall during FY2020 that triggered 339 staff layoffs to save $32 million. Since the deficit climbed by $10 million between May and July, it’s possible the gap has widened further, but officials have not released an updated figure. To maintain transparency with the community, officials must clarify why the layoffs were necessary at this time and disclose how much the University expects to save from them. We can’t be left to guess whether a growing deficit forced this decision. If that’s the case, they

need to say so.

For years, officials indicated that GW was in a strong financial position — all while only vaguely alluding to an underlying deficit. Even when news emerged about GW’s revenue falling short of its 2023 goals or its net worth declining in 2022, officials did not frame these developments as cause for immediate concern.

Chief Financial Officer Bruno Fernandes described the revenue shortfall as “some tightness,” while Joe Cordes, co-chair of the Faculty Senate’s Fiscal Planning and Budgeting Committee, reassured the community by stating that “GW basically is a financially sound institution” when discussing the net worth. It wasn’t until April that the University formally disclosed a yearslong “significant and unsustainable gap” between revenue and expenses. A shift in rhetoric like that might make sense if the deficit were the result of sudden external pressures, like former President Trump’s policies targeting higher education. But that’s not the case. This shortfall appears to stem from long-standing structural issues, making it all the more troubling that the community wasn’t informed earlier, when there may have been more time to prepare or respond. Officials can’t expect trust from a community they haven’t fully informed. When decisions of this magnitude that affect livelihoods, workloads and the student experience are made behind closed doors, limited communication is unacceptable. If officials believe these cuts were necessary, they should be willing to explain why clearly and directly to everyone affected. That includes outlining what changed, how decisions were made and what impact the cuts are expected to have. Moving forward, officials must treat transparency not as a choice, but as a responsibility.

Conversations at GW reflect, reinforce harmful gender norms

The U.S. news media often emphasizes progress toward gender equality, but my experience as an international student at GW has revealed a more complex reality. I have found that gender norms at GW are not absent, but rather more subtle, often manifesting in hidden biases and assumptions, especially around women’s roles in professional spaces. Acknowledging these dynamics is the first step toward creating the inclusive and truly progressive community GW aspires to be.

In a country like Pakistan, gender norms are explicitly enforced, often by a woman’s family, as clearly defined rules. Women are discouraged from working and instead told to focus solely on household and familial responsibilities. Any woman who enters the workforce is thus met with criticism, resistance and stigma by their family and society. Here in the United States, the narrative is different. Women may be expected to “do everything” — like having a successful career, managing the house and raising kids. A 2020 United Nations Report revealed that 74 percent of workingage men are part of the labor

force compared to only 47 percent of women around the world. The cause isn’t simply economics — it has a lot more to do with culture. I have heard some women who are students at GW state that it is better not to work and rely on their partners for income. This led me to believe that while people in this current political and social climate in the United States may not voice such norms frequently or publicly, they still hold them. When gender norms aren’t openly voiced, it’s easy to assume they no longer exist. At GW, I initially believed that these outdated beliefs did not, especially given the University’s public commitment to equity and inclusion. But through one-on-one conversations, I began to find that many still quietly hold traditional views about gender roles. Even when these views aren’t spoken aloud, their consequences are tangible.

During my time at GW, I have heard countless statements like “Engineering is more of a man’s field” and even “Working women don’t make good life partners.”

One of my friends at GW recently dropped engineering as a major, and someone told her, “Ya, engineering’s a little hard for a girl.” That comment is one I vividly remember. At GW, 52 percent of civil engineering majors are women, which, on

the surface level, looks great, but it’s important to note that GW is also a school with primarily female students. I was not expecting to hear those very same views that I’ve always wanted to escape from at GW. If this dialogue or these views exist here, at a primarily liberal school in a country that has progressed more when it comes to gender equality, it can serve as a microcosm of how the United States hasn’t actually progressed as much culturally as many seem to believe.

This cycle of gender norm reinforcement is self-perpetuating, as these attitudes are often absorbed by future generations. It is an especially alarming issue at higher education institutions that are meant to be progressive and are built upon the very idea of equality. Ignoring this issue only leads to its normalization and deepens the stains in systems that claim to operate on principles of fairness and equality.

It is essential, at a school like GW, where around 61 percent of the student population consists of women, to understand the global dimensions of this problem and challenge such norms and barriers — whether they are loud, explicit and traditional or modern, subtler and muted.

—Minahil Umar, a sophomore studying economics and business, is an opinions writer.

Minahil Umar Opinions Writer

CAROLINE MORRELLI | STAFF CARTOONIST

Writer

CULTURE

Guitar-playing fireman harmonizes campus, Firehouse

Engine 23

KAVYA

From fighting fires to gathering crowds by rocking the electric guitar, one firefighter has created a community outside the firehouse Engine Company 23. Lieutenant Mick Uranko has become something of a GW campus celebrity because of his electric guitar skills, with students and faculty frequently gathering outside firehouse Engine 23 on G Street to listen to, and sometimes even join in on, his riffs. Uranko and his fellow firefighters said his guitar shredding generates a sense of connection between the firehouse and the broader campus community, using music as a vessel to bring people together and making residents more aware of the firehouse’s critical role in Foggy Bottom.

Working as a firefighter across D.C. for 15 years — including departments in Adams Morgan, West End, Lincoln Park and now Foggy Bottom — Uranko said he’s always had a drive to try new, creative things and share them with the people in his life. For 10 years, he said he worked as an award-winning DJ for clubs and weddings in addition to firefighting. He said he was the owner of his own music production company, Uranko Productions, allowing him to build a solid foundation in the music industry — but he had never played an instrument before he picked up the guitar two years ago.

“I used to be an award-winning wedding DJ, and I used to Club DJ before that, so I did that for 10 years,” Uranko said. “So the performance side of it, that’s why I’m able to just put myself out there, because I used to DJ for hundreds of people — and I didn’t even know who they were. I’m the one responsible for making the event amazing.”

After becoming a single father to a five-year-old daughter, he said his schedule became much busier with family commitments, leading him to leave his DJing career. Uranko

said he began learning how to play electric guitar when he first arrived at the Foggy Bottom station a little over two years ago, serving as a creative outlet and a means of evolving as a person.

While working as a lieutenant at the Lincoln Park station, he said a fellow D.C. lieutenant reached out and asked if he would switch assignments with him to D.C. Engine 23 in Foggy Bottom. Uranko agreed and said he now continues to make the three-to-four-hour drive down to the District every three days, equipped to fight fires and jam out.

Beyond his firefighting and entertaining pursuits, Uranko said he also works as a travel agent and owns his own woodworking business. He said he asks students for input about designs he could make conducive to improving dorm living, like a portable shelf for lofted beds. Given the firehouse’s location in Foggy Bottom, Uranko said he and fellow firefighters have the opportunity to connect with GW students, seeing them “light up” when they come in and take tours.

Uranko said he has spent lots of time perfecting the guitar over the past couple of years, and by using different apps or listening to the bass on YouTube he has learned numerous strumming techniques and chords. During his commute to Foggy Bottom from his home in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, he said he often listens to his favorite songs with the bass isolated from the backing track, allowing him to only hear the guitar instrumentals and crunch in the extra practice time, even when he’s away from his guitar.

Uranko added that he believes music is almost a “universal language,” a timeless force that brings multiple generations together. He said this rings true for him and his daughter, one of his biggest motivators to continue playing every day.

Despite mostly playing 2000s and ’90s classic rock or emo, Uranko said one of his favorite songs to play

is “Everybody Wants To Rule the World” by Tears for Fears because it serves as a point of connection between him and his daughter. He said the duo took a trip to Disney World during his time as a travel agent, and she heard the song while on one of the rides she was scared to go on.

Uranko said in his profession as a firefighter, people are usually calling for help on “their worst day” when they do not know how to solve a problem. He said the resolution the firehouse provides to those in need gives the workers a sense of instant satisfaction, knowing they made a difference that day.

Firefighter Technician Tim Williams said playing guitar is Uranko’s special way of breaking the walls between the firefighters and “immediate civilians,” helping bring the members of the firehouse and the students of GW a little closer. Motivated by Uranko’s music, Williams said many students and faculty have stopped by the house, receiving tours and connecting with the firefighters. He said this gives community members not just entertainment on their walk home but a greater understanding of the inner workings of the firehouse.

Firefighter Jajuan Murray, who works similar shifts to Uranko and is a close friend of his, said Uranko’s playing has evoked a sense of curiosity among community members to explore the firehouse, and Uranko’s extroverted personality has opened up the world of firefighting to the visitors. He said this helped change the dynamic of the firehouse, further cementing its ties to GW students, which makes it a “fun” environment.

“I consider him a friend and even family because of how close we are,” Murray said. “We eat together, we sleep in the same house, we have our own dynamic with just talking to each other. We just enjoy each other’s presence, so it’s really nice having him and all the guys here.”

Renovated ropes course seeks to tie GW student, faculty groups together

COLIN POLIVKA REPORTER

SOPHIE STARR REPORTER

A ropes course that immerses students in team bonding and nature restarted operations underneath the shade of the Mount Vernon Campus’ trees last month.

The GW SUMMIT Outdoor Challenge Course celebrated its reopening in September after being closed for over five years, offering GW groups ranging from student organizations to department faculty and staff the opportunity to participate in community-building activities on the Vern. The course features 14 ropes elements and was relaunched by officials to be a team-building activity for campus communities, with each station being named after topics related to George Washington, like Washington’s Crossing the Delaware, where teams use two narrow boards to move a group across three wooden platforms. Located between Hand Chapel and West Hall, the course primarily focuses on promoting leadership, communication and problem-solving skills through physical activity. The course is open to GW student organizations and academic and administrative departments. Mount Summit is the course’s signature obstacle, where groups must work together to climb a smooth-sided wall, requiring trust and logical planning.

Officials held the course’s grand reopening on Sept. 5, where students could test out obstacles and learn more about the course. The course had a new edition since its 2020 closure, the “Whale Watch,” which makes participants steady themselves on a seesaw-like, unbalanced wooden platform.

GW spokesperson Skyler Sales said the Summit Low Ropes Course was closed in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and underwent renovations earlier this year that lasted multiple weeks. Sales said the Summit is available to rent for GW students, nonprofit, com-

munity and corporate groups, as well as GW faculty, staff and affiliates.

“The Summit has 13 unique elements and offers participating groups and individuals a unique opportunity to develop and strengthen team-building, leadership, communication, and problem solving skills, all in a fun outdoor environment,” Sales said.

Lucy Puentes, GW’s senior outdoor director and the course’s manager, said the course is a “unique asset” to the campus, as there are no other low ropes courses in the District. Puentes said construction of the course occurred last winter, where contractors rebuilt old elements of the course and added in new ones to make it “usable.” Puentes said the “funny looking” structures are designed for building teams, trust and communication skills. She said guides who lead each group through the course can tailor groups’ experiences if they have goals in mind, whether it be conflict resolution or getting to know each other, each custom experience will look different from the next.

Junior Addison Horkey, a student staffer at the course, said she applied to work at the ropes course over the summer, having previously worked at a high ropes course in high school with different courses.

She said although students cannot visit freely, the ropes course’s first group to visit was a living and learning community on the Vern.

Horkey said due to GW students being “very one-track minded,” prioritizing their careers, it can give students a feeling of solitude. She said the ropes course avoids this mindset because the activities require participants to collaborate to succeed in each challenge.

“I think that the importance of the ropes course is that all of the activities cannot be completed by one person,” Horkey said. “You are just physically unable to. There’s a lot of reliance on other people, both their ideas and their input and also physically their support for your safety.”

Students revise study times, habits after officials rolled back Gelman’s hours

Late nights in the library have long been a keystone of the college experience, but now with Gelman Library’s stunted late-night hours, students are reshaping the way they approach their study sessions.

Officials in August ended almost three decades of 24-hour, seven-days-a-week Gelman access for students due to a “temporary staffing issue” that occurred during the University-wide hiring freeze. Although Student Government Association President Ethan Lynne posted on Instagram in late August that Gelman would be reinstating their 24-hour operations within a “few weeks,” there is no clear answer as to when Gelman will fully reopen, leaving students to search for other late night study options — whether it be cramming into residence hall rooms during late-night hours or reforming their study habits, bringing nocturnal study sessions

into the daylight. For now, Gelman continues to operate on a modified schedule — opening from 7 a.m. to midnight Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday and 8 a.m. to midnight on Sunday. Gelman’s website states that the library “will resume 24-hour operations as soon as it is possible to do so.”

Devin Gilbert, a sophomore studying international affairs and international business, said he previously used Gelman after midnight multiple times a week in previous semesters especially during midterm and finals seasons. Citing an already hefty tuition bill, Gilbert said the reduction in hours is frustrating given the University’s decision to increase tuition this academic year by 3.5 percent, which raised the total cost of attendance to over $94,000.

He said while working on an economics assignment this past week, the clock was ticking toward midnight when an over-

head announcement at 11:30 p.m. reminded students that they would have to pack up and leave within the next 30 minutes. Gilbert said his late-night study hours have had a change of venue to his residence hall room.

Abigail Canalejo, a senior studying sociology, said she used to frequently study in Gelman past midnight but now finds herself at home, where she said she is less productive. Although she said her off-campus housing is quieter than a residence hall, she has trouble focusing at home, citing distractions that she did not experience at Gelman, like the temptation of going to sleep.

“You just have no interruptions,” Canalejo said. “It’s a lot easier to stay focused and stuff, especially in late-night study sessions.”

Previously, Canalejo said she would go to Gelman with the intention of staying until two or three in the morning. But now, she said, without the cubicles surrounding her, she is tempted

to go to sleep in her apartment rather than staying up. Sophomore Jai Gough was optimistic that she and her friends would not get kicked out of Gelman one night after hearing the 45, 30,

ADNAN MASRI | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Lieutenant Mick Uranko plays his guitar outside of Firehouse Engine 23 on G Street.

JACOB ROBERTS | PHOTOGRAPHER

GW’s SUMMIT Low Ropes Course on the Mount Vernon Campus.

SPORTS

Club hockey blanks Georgetown in first Battle of DC victory in years

SAMANTHA BURCHARD

REPORTER

SOPHIA CAPUTO

REPORTER

Men’s club ice hockey (3-3) shut out Georgetown University 3-0 in their annual Battle of DC showdown in front of a rowdy crowd at Capital One Arena on Saturday, claiming the first victory of the crosstown rivals’ three matchups this year.

The victory marked the Revolutionaries’ first win in the Battle of DC in at least six years, snapping a losing streak that included back-to-back 3-0 defeats to Georgetown in 2023 and 2024. The win also extended the Revs’ momentum, giving them a twogame winning streak following their dominant 20-3 victory over Princeton University on Friday.

“It’s a long time coming,” senior captain Ethan Redden said. “I’m a senior. This is our first [Battle of DC] win. So it’s a good feeling. It’s really fun. Everyone showed up today.”

The matchup started off slow for ten minutes as GW struggled to fight through the Hoyas’ aggressive and sharp defense until freshman forward Reilly Piersimoni broke through their fortification and scored a goal with just under nine minutes in the first period. That goal came after the Hoyas blocked five previous attempts by the Revs and raised Piersimoni’s total to 12 goals in just five games, placing him firmly as the Revs’ top scorer early in his college career.

Fans supporting the Revs created an electric atmosphere after the first goal, with their screams

filling the arena with energy and GW’s fanbase vastly outnumbering Georgetown’s. GW players said after the game the support boosted their confidence on the ice.

“It makes it 10 times more fun playing in front of these people, and we want to go out there and play hard for them,” junior goalie Sage Yoke said.

GW fell to Georgetown in all three of their matchups last year, which junior forward Denis Smekhov said made the win more significant — especially considering the two schools’ infamous rivalry. The 2023 Battle of DC was notably intense, defined by aggressive defensive play and heightened tensions between the two D.C. rivals, culminating in a commanding 3-0 victory for Georgetown. The previous year,

the teams battled to a hard-fought 2-2 tie at Capital One.

“When you play such a big rival like Georgetown, obviously it makes it even more exciting, especially shutting them out 3-0, huge win,” Smekhov said.

The progression of the first period was quickly offset by the aggressiveness and physicality from the Georgetown defense in the second period, which featured many falls and skirmishes and a Georgetown player losing their helmet.

“These guys, we can’t take them lightly you know. We’re happy with the win right now, but they’re a pretty good team, and they work hard as well — they’re physical,” Redden said.

Still, the Revs were able to add two more to their scoring column

Virginia Tech bests swimming and diving in season opener

ETHAN TSAI STAFF WRITER

Men’s and women’s swimming and diving opened their season with a challenging loss against top program Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in a dual meet Friday and Saturday.

The men fell 218-81 and the women 211-89 to the Hokies in the Smith Center, who boast top-tier programs and are ranked 15th in the nation for men and 22nd for women last season after a 10th-place finish at the 2025 NCAA Championships. Despite the deficits, the Revolutionaries executed well in the longer-distance events, winning three out of four of the distance freestyle events, in addition to wins in three of four dive events.

Senior Ava Topolewski notched two of GW’s three swim event wins, clocking a 9:53.60 in the 1000-yard freestyle — where she finished more than six seconds before the Virginia Tech runner up — and victory in the 500-yard freestyle after she registered a time of 4:50.42.

Topolewski is one of the Revs’ most decorated swimmers in recent seasons after she was named A-10

All-Conference First Team in each of her three seasons at GW. She also participated in both the NCAA Championships and U.S.

Olympic Team Trials in her sophomore year, a feat she shares with just two Revs teammates.

While the scoreboard favored the Hokies, Topolewski said the earlyseason meet allowed the team to set a standard for the rest of the season.

“I love the challenge,” Topolewski said. “It’s nice to have some really fast people to race against and get us to go very fast. We also race them every season at the beginning, so it’s a good benchmark, and we’re used to it.”

Head Coach Chico Rego, who is entering his second season as head coach, said playing against a tough opponent like Virginia Tech was good for the team, allowing them to test themselves against a top opponent to ensure their readiness for conference competition.

While Rego said he was “expecting a little bit more” from the team’s veterans after their subpar performances, he praised the freshmen class, many of whom were competing at new distances. The Revs’ team is internationally diverse, with more than 10 different nationalities represented on the roster, many of whom are more used to metric distances.

“I’m very happy with how the freshmen performed,” Rego said. Freshman Alessandro

Borsato had one of the stronger performances for a freshman, with the Italian placing second in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 56.06, while freshman Andres Brooks barely missed first in the 200-yard fly, finishing only 0.2 seconds behind first place.

Junior Daniel Choi won the 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 9:19.03. The Revs notched three diving wins, with senior Olivia Paquette winning the women’s threemeter dive with a combined score of 307.65. On the men’s side, junior Holden Wheeler won both the men’s onemeter and three-meter dives.

Looking to their next meet in Atlanta, Georgia, on Oct. 17, the Revs will compete in an entirely new event format and elimination brackets that will include shorter meets and new events GW doesn’t usually compete in. The Revs will compete against seven other programs in Atlanta, including strong power conference programs, like North Carolina State University, Auburn University and the University of Minnesota.

“So the thing will be how we can be creative, in terms of use of lineup and the people that we have, to be able to fill the roster for each match that we would have, and it should be competitive,” Rego said.

in the second period, with another freshman goal from forward Robert Rich — the first in his collegiate career goal with 8:40 left to spare to bring the score to 2-0.

The second period concluded with a final goal from senior forward Asher Fabes, who found the net with 7:12 remaining. It was a physical and chippy half, marked by heavy penalties on both sides. The Revs struggled to generate offense, managing just three shots on the Hoyas’ goal.

Senior Sawyer von Jess said the team was able to win the smaller battles against Georgetown by dominating the Hoyas in the corner and bringing the puck out “super well.”

“We didn’t really let them set up their fore check or get those shots in, which is something we’ve

struggled with in the past, and it was really impressive tonight,” von Jess said.

Some Revs said after the game that the opportunity to play on the ice at an NHL stadium adds to the experience and the thrill of the game.

“I think it makes it so much more exciting,” junior and team president Kieran Laffey said. “You go out there, you want to play well, because there are 500 people watching it, so you’re playing for expectations, and it makes it a hell of a lot better experience.”

The Revs will face off next against St. Joseph’s University at The St. James on Saturday, Oct. 18 at 7:30 p.m. Their next matchup against the Hoyas is scheduled for Oct. 24 at 9 p.m., also at the St. James.

Men’s soccer suffers third conference loss in a row to George Mason

MATTHEW CINQUE REPORTER

Men’s soccer (2-7-2, 0-3-0 Atlantic 10) fell 1-0 to rivals George Mason (5-3-1, 2-0-1 A-10) on the Mount Vernon Campus on Saturday afternoon as their search for their first A-10 conference win continues.

The Revolutionaries managed to keep George Mason quiet during the first half with their defensive posture, only to concede the game winning goal in the 59th minute with George Mason graduate forward Jacobo Sanfeliu acquiring his fifth goal of the season. The loss extends the Revs’ winless streak to six, which includes their three conference defeats.

Jones said it was marginal mistakes, like a lack of sound decision making, in the defensive third that separated the two sides. Both teams had a similar number of shots, with the Patriots shooting 14 times and hitting five on target, while the Revs shot 11 total and landed four on goal.

“Tactically, I thought everything was fine to be honest,” Head Coach Craig Jones said after the match. “We thought we created stuff, we competed. But that’s the fine margins.”

Offensive struggles continue to define the Revs’ season, as their top scorer, sophomore forward Louis Crofts, holds three goals to his name while no other players have more than one. Crofts led the team in scoring last season with five goals. While the Revs have proven an ability to break into the final third, they have often failed to finish their attacking chances while there.

“You can’t win games if you are that bad in the final third,” Jones said.

The Revs initially aimed to slow the game by staying compact defensively but dropped deeper when George Mason had possession to invite pressure.

“I think when we’ve pressed real high up field, the field has become too big for us to cover the

ground,” Jones said. “So we didn’t want to give in the space behind us.” By defending less aggressively, the Revs ensured they had the numbers at the back line supported by freshman midfielder Omar Alsabagh and senior forward Alex Nicholson who aided the back line in fending off George Mason’s attacks. They were able to keep the Patriots to five shots in the first half.

While the Revs remained defensively organized, they struggled to produce meaningful chances, often lacking power and precision in their final touches. They’ve scored just four goals in their last nine games — never more than one per match — a shortfall Jones linked to missed opportunities in crucial areas.

“But that’s been our season a little bit, creating half chances,” Jones said.

The Revs began the second half forcing a slower pace of play and continued to defend as a unit, until the 59th minute when junior midfielder Nico Medina committed a foul just inside of 40 yards from the GW goal. Five seconds later, Patriot graduate midfielder Sergio Gonzalez Fernandez took the free kick quickly to play Sanfeliu in between the Revs’ centerbacks, delivering the ball into the bottom left corner, catching the backline off guard and scoring the only goal of the contest.

The Revs were quick to respond — in the 68th minute, Medina played a through ball on the right side to junior forward

sent a low

into junior forward

But Patriot graduate goalkeeper Jaume Salvado made a diving save to his right, denying the Revs their best chance of a goal. The Revs’ next best opportunities to score came in the 76th minute as Salvado saved a pair of shots from junior forward Louis Saville and freshman forward Joel Russ.

Junior goalkeeper Tom Macauley, who is also one of the team’s captains, contributed his part in keeping the Revs afloat, only giving up the one goal and saving four shots. He made a big save when he was one-on-one with George Mason junior forward Kelly Janssen in the 88th minute, which prevented the Revs from falling even further behind.

Still, the Revs in the end were unable to find the goal needed for the draw, with their attack falling short as the final whistle blew, marking their third loss in the conference in a season where they’ve won just two games overall. A-10 coaches voted the Revs to finish last in the conference in the preseason poll, a sign that the expectations for the Revs were in line with their current performance.

“We haven’t won in conference yet,” Macauley said. “So it hurts. It really hurts.”

Next up, the Revs will play Saint Louis (5-2-4) Wednesday on the Vern. The Rams sit atop the conference standings and are unbeaten in their first three conference games.

Jaden Dubon, who

cross

Pat Altamirano.

ARWEN CLEMANS | SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR

Forward Nevan McNamara eyes the puck during the game against Georgetown on Saturday.

LEXI CRITCHETT | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR

Members of the swimming and diving team cheer in a huddle before dive matches Friday.

ARWEN CLEMANS | SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR

GW men’s ice hockey competes against Georgetown University in Saturday’s game at Capital One Arena.

ABBY BROWN | PHOTOGRAPHER

Sophomore forward Louis Crofts slides to kick the ball during Saturday’s game against George Mason.