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Georgetown University • Washington, D.C. Vol. 107, No. 9, © 2025
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2025
Ewing Paid $12.5 Million After Being Fired as GU Men’s Basketball Coach Ajani Stella
Senior News Editor
Patrick Ewing (CAS ’85), the former Georgetown University men’s basketball coach, received at least $12.5 million from the university the year after he was fired in March 2023. The buyout, revealed in newly released financial disclosures, liquidated the remainder of his contract as part of his termination from coaching. The compensation included an $881,000 base salary, a $300,000 bonus and a nearly $11.4 million payout — totaling $12.57 million — from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, the university’s 2024 fiscal year. Ewing, who led Georgetown to its only NCAA championship in 1984 and later played for the New York Knicks, coached Georgetown’s basketball team through six lackluster seasons before the university dismissed him. Throughout his tenure at Georgetown, Ewing was consistently the highest-paid
current employee, with his annual salary growing from $2.3 million in Fiscal Year 2018 to just over $4 million in Fiscal Year 2023, according to publicly available tax filings. Last year’s payout was equivalent to around 60% of all of Ewing’s prior compensation from Georgetown. Ewing did not respond to multiple requests for comment. A university spokesperson declined to answer questions about Ewing’s compensation, saying the university cannot comment on contracts beyond nonprofit tax disclosures, known as 990 forms. “Employment contracts are confidential and we are not able to comment beyond what is required to be reported by federal law in the 990 form,” the spokesperson wrote to The Hoya. “Patrick Ewing has dedicated his life to Georgetown basketball and his impact on the entire Georgetown community is immeasurable.” See EWING, A7
MAREN FAGAN/THE HOYA
Georgetown University community members are fundraising to support formerly detained Georgetown postdoctoral researcher Badar Khan Suri following an immigration court ruling that he is deportable and months of protests in his support.
GU Community Funds Khan Suri’s Defense Nora Toscano and Ruth Abramovitz Executive Editors
GU HOYAS
Georgetown University paid former men’s basketball coach Patrick Ewing at least $12.5 million after his termination.
Georgetown University community members are uniting behind and fundraising for formerly detained Georgetown postdoctoral researcher Badar Khan Suri after an immigration court ruled him deportable. Khan Suri’s wife, Mapheze Saleh (GRD ’26), launched a fundraising campaign Nov. 29 for his legal representation, who will appeal the deportation ruling to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA), a federal administrative
body overseeing immigration court appeals, according to sources familiar with the case. As of Dec. 4, the fundraising campaign has attracted over 300 supporters, raising $25,873 of its $70,000 goal. Khan Suri is currently a party in two separate cases. Parallel to his immigration case, his legal team is also challenging his original arrest and detention in the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Virginia, in Suri v. Trump. Sidra Mahfooz, a staff attorney with the legal nonprofit American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)’s Immigrants’ Rights
Project and one of Khan Suri’s attorneys, said the immigration court’s decision represented the suppression of free speech. “This is just the next step in the government’s effort to retaliate against Dr. Suri in violation of the First Amendment,” Mahfooz wrote to The Hoya. “It is far from the last word, and we will continue to fight for his rights in every available venue. Dr. Suri should be able to focus on teaching and spending time with his family instead of fighting the government’s attempts to detain and deport him in retaliation for his speech about Palestine.”
Federal immigration officials detained Khan Suri March 17, alleging he was a threat to U.S. foreign policy. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released Khan Suri on May 14 from a detention facility in Alvarado, Texas, following a federal judge’s ruling that his detainment unconstitutionally targeted him for protected speech and familial associations, violating the First Amendment. In early July, the 4th Circuit denied the government’s motion to immediately redetain Khan See KHAN SURI, A7
GU Reverses One RA Policy GU Students Occupy Healy, Protest Change After Student Petition Proposed GUTS Subcontracting Nora Toscano and Jacqueline Gordon
Executive Editor and Academics Desk Editor
Georgetown University’s Office of Residential Living (Res Living) reversed one policy change affecting residential assistants (RAs) following a student petition alleging the changes would negatively impact RAs’ housing process and quality of life. The Office of Residential Education (Res Ed), which operates under Res Living, announced a range of policy changes at a Nov. 7 meeting, including that RAs living in suite-style housing may choose only their direct roommate and must commit to being an RA before learning their building assignments. In the Nov. 28 email announcing the reversal of one policy, Res Ed director Heidi Zeich said RAs will now be informed of their placements in February, as was done in previous years. Zeich said the policy changes are in line with the RA union Georgetown Residential Assistant Union (GRAC)’s collective bargaining agreement (CBA), a contract agreed upon between GRAC and the university following seven months of bargaining. “We have adjusted our approach on placement and will share assignments in February, which I understand is the same timeframe as last year,” Zeich wrote in the email. “We are continuing with offering RAs assigned to double bedrooms
the opportunity to select their direct roommate, as agreed upon in the CBA; additional spaces in multi-occupancy units will still be available for students (including your friends) to select during the Housing Selection Process.” Although RAs will still be unable to select their indirect suitemates, Res Ed will now inform RAs of what communities they have been placed in when they receive their employment offers in February. Anna Holk (CAS ’27), a GRAC steward and RA for Nevils Hall, said she hopes the changes will restore a sense of comfort for RAs before they enter the housing process. “RAs will hopefully be able to feel safe, more safe and comfortable in their spaces than under the system that was suggested previously,” Holk told The Hoya. “I think it will be a positive development, that people have some choice and autonomy in their housing process, especially considering the financial accessibility side of things.” After voting to unionize in April 2024 and accepting representation from OPEIU Local 153, GRAC and the university entered a sevenmonth bargaining process to create a CBA. The CBA established a stipend, an arbitration process for grievances and other policy changes for RAs. A university spokesperson previously said the university
is dedicated to working in good faith with GRAC. “The collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the university and the Georgetown Resident Assistant Coalition (GRAC) established multiple avenues for both informal and formal discussion and resolution of issues of mutual interest and concern,” the spokesperson wrote to The Hoya Nov. 20. “Out of respect for this legal agreement between the union and the university, which establishes OPEIU Local 153 as the sole and exclusive representative of GRAC members, Georgetown will continue to use these channels to discuss and resolve any concerns through good-faith engagement.” Other policy changes introduced in a Sept. 9 email to RAs include different reporting duties for holidays and bar RAs from entering romantic or sexual relationships with residents in their immediate community. Izzy Wagener (SFS ’26), GRAC’s chairperson and an RA in Darnall Hall, said GRAC is still advocating against these changes. “For some of those other changes, we’re still in talks with the university at this point, and so we’ll have to see,” Wagener told The Hoya. “I’m just hopeful that going forward, they won’t make those kinds of changes without first clarifying with the union that they aren’t unilateral or that they don’t basically violate our contract.”
Ajani Stella and Nico Abreu Senior News Editors
About 30 Georgetown University students occupied part of Healy Hall Dec. 2 to protest the university’s proposed plan to subcontract Georgetown University Transportation Shuttle (GUTS) drivers. During the approximately eight-hour sit-in from 9:15 a.m. to 5 p.m., the protesters wrote letters, delivered speeches, made posters and listened to statements from GUTS drivers. The student protesters condemned a university proposal that would shift GUTS drivers to a third-party vendor, local charter company Abe’s Transportation, which drivers have said would reduce their benefits. Fiona Naughton (SFS ’27), who participated in the sitin, said the protesters sought a formal university commitment that it would not proceed with the subcontracting plan. “Our demand today was very simple, which is just that we want a written commitment from the university that GUTS drivers will be kept as university employees,” Naughton told The Hoya. “The reason that this campaign has extended for so long is because the university has not given a clear or definitive answer to the drivers themselves about whether or not their jobs are going to exist.” At an Oct. 23 meeting, Georgetown’s Advisory
AJANI STELLA/THE HOYA
About 30 Georgetown University students staged a sit-in at Healy See GUTS, A7 Hall to protest a proposed bus driver subcontracting plan.
See RAs, A7
NEWS
OPINION
GUIDE
SPORTS
GU Students Denounce DOE Cuts
Guarantee DC Transportation
Rangila Breaks Records
Women’s Basketball v. Villanova
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Hillary Clinton Speaks at GU
Value RA Intentionality
‘Marty Supreme’ Scores
Men’s Basketball Beats UMBC
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Georgetown University students criticized recent Department of Education changes at a press conference Dec. 2.
A panel of experts advocated for international policy efforts against human trafficking at a Georgetown event featuring Hillary Clinton.
The Editorial Board calls on the university to expand its free transportation system and grant all students transportation cards.
Natasha Sung (CAS ’28) urges fellow residential assistants to recognize the meaningful impacts they can have on students.
This year’s Georgetown Rangila maintained its reputation as one of the school’s most beloved traditions, writes Tanvi Gorripati (CAS ’27).
“Marty Supreme,” a surprisingly hopeful table tennis biopic, is a wild and exhilirating ride, writes Brad Derfner (CAS ’27).
Published Fridays
The Georgetown women’s basketball team fell 76-69 to the Villanova University Wildcats, giving away an early lead.
The Georgetown men’s basketball team bounced back from consecutive Thanksgiving losses with a 90-81 win over UMBC.
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