Monday, February 27, 2023 I Vol. 119 Iss. 21
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INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER • SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904
What’s inside Opinions
The editorial board examines what GW students can do in the fight for D.C.’s right to self-governance. Page 6
Culture
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Sports
Check out the swimming and diving programs as they continue their regional dynasty. Page 8
Men’s basketball extends win streak, entering final stretch
Classroom mask mandate expires, drawing ‘expected’ close to policy
LUKE WIENECKE
BARRY YAO
CONTRIBUTING SPORTS EDITOR
Men’s basketball picked up their third straight win Saturday night with a 92-85 victory over La Salle that featured a careerhigh scoring performance from senior forward Hunter Dean. The Colonials (15-14, 9-7 A-10) capitalized on consistent finishing at the rim and a steady offensive attack while holding the Explorers (13-16, 7-9 A-10) to 40 percent shooting from the field. With just two games remaining on the schedule, GW took another step toward solidifying a top-five Atlantic 10 finish and a first-round bye in the conference championship. In a night where rebounding proved key to victory, Dean’s eight boards helped turn the battle for the glass in the Colonials’ favor in the second half. Registering 36 minutes, Dean only logged less time than senior guard and leading scorer James Bishop. Dean got the scoring started with a powerful dunk off the assist from Bishop, the first two of his career-high 21 points of the night. GW jumped to an 8-0 lead within just three minutes, with five of those coming from Dean. The Colonials controlled much of the game through their sheer scoring output, firing nearly 60 percent from the field and scoring 50 of their points in the painted area. The Explorers pushed back on the early GW run with two straight wing threes, with 15:27 to play. Both squads continued to trade baskets before senior guard James Bishop nailed a top-of-t he-key, pull-up three to push the Colonials’ lead back up to 5 midway through the first half. La Salle grabbed their first lead of the ball game off a s econd- c ha nce three from redshirt freshman guard Andres Marrero, putting the Explorers up 32-30 with 6:40 to
go in the first half. Bishop responded with a layup on the other end, giving him 16 points through just 15 minutes of play. With three minutes to go in the first half, La Salle sophomore guard Daeshon Shepherd finished a contested layup at the basket to put the Explorers up two. The rest of the half was nearly scoreless, with a layup from graduate student guard Brendan Adams and a pair of La Salle free throws solidifying the halftime score at a 42-40 La Salle advantage. The score stayed tight throughout the first stages of the second half, with both sides swapping layups and free throws. With 14:36 to play, Adams sliced inside and finished at the rim to give GW a seven point advantage at 5851. From there, the Colonials managed to keep La Salle at an arm’s length, slowly building their lead to double digits while pounding it inside. With nine minutes to play, Adams knocked down GW’s lone second half 3-pointer off the assist from Bishop, pushing the lead to 17 points. With just six minutes to go, Lindo Jr. knocked down a midrange jumper that put the GW lead at 20 points, the largest of the night. But the Explorers were not finished, going on a 20-9 run in the final three minutes that forced Caputo to put his starters back in, subbing them back in. But the barrage of threes from La Salle did not come in time, and the Colonials captured the victory, 92–85. With the win, the Colonials now sit at sixth in the crowded A-10 standings, just a half-game back from fifth-place Duquesne. Two games remain on the schedule before the team packs its bags and heads to Brooklyn for the conference championship. GW will head to North Carolina to play Davidson in their final road game of the year at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
MAYA NAIR | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER With the win, the Colonials now sit in sixth place in the crowded A-10 standings, just a half-game back from fifth-place Duquesne.
REPORTER
JENNIFER IGBONOBA REPORTER
RACHEL SCHWARTZ | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR GW students who survived the Parkland shooting said they’re looking to honor the victims by continuing to tell their stories and reflect on the grim impacts of gun violence as similar mass shootings occur at schools nationwide.
Students who survived Parkland grieve as mass shootings across US continue FAITH WARDWELL
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
Sophomore Eden Samara was reuniting over dinner with friends from her alma mater Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last Monday when news broke of a deadly shooting at Michigan State University. Despair and dread set into the group from Parkland, Florida, who know tragedy all too well – they were meeting the day before the fifth anniversary of the shooting that killed 17 classmates, teachers and coaches. One of them was Samara’s childhood friend Alyssa Alhadeff, the studious and soccer-loving 14-year-old girl who lost her life in the shooting. “Every time I hear about a shooting at a school, my stomach drops because I know the feeling, and I know that it’s the worst thing,” Samara said. “I know that it’ll be with these people forever because it’ll be with me forever.” Samara is one of several Parkland school shooting survivors at GW who have been transported back to the 2018 tragedy after viewing retraumatizing headlines of recent school shootings, like the recent one at Michigan State that killed three students and the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas where 21
students and teachers died. a picture would flash on the GW students who survived TV, and you would just cross the 2018 shooting said they’re your fingers that you didn’t looking to honor the victims know who they were,” Saby continuing to tell their sto- mara said. ries and reflect on the grim Sophomore Christine impacts of gun violence as Yared, a freshman at Marsimilar mass shootings occur jory Stoneman Douglas at at schools nationwide. the time of the shooting, said Samara said she remem- it’s challenging to continue bers sitting in her art class on to see recent acts of gun viothe day of the shooting when lence spread to schools across the high school’s fire alarm the country, especially after began to ring. Upon leaving seeing news of the Michigan the building, she realized State shooting on the day bethat the alarm wasn’t a fire fore the anniversary of the drill, seeing students run- Parkland tragedy, which is ning across the campus and a day Yared usually takes to hearing gunshots from the reflect on the lives lost at her building as she traveled far- high school. ther into the parking lot. “They’re going through Samara said she ran what I went through exactly from the high five years ago,” school’s camYared said. “It’ll be with me pus with “It’s difficult to forever.” friends, where watch back.” her dad safely On the day EDEN SAMARA picked her up of the shootSOPHOMORE at a Walmart ing in Parka few blocks land, she said away. students in her She said during the fol- finance class, located in a falowing hours, her family cility directly across from the sat around the TV at home, building where the shooting watching the news muted to took place, hid in a closet omit the graphic details of the inside of the classroom for shooting. She said they wait- two hours before authorities ed for updates on the climb- cleared them from lockdown. ing death toll as pictures of As deaths were confirmed in victims flashed on the screen the following hours, Yared and authorities confirmed learned that one of her the deaths of classmates, friends, Gina Montalto, died teachers and coaches. in the shooting. “We’d be staring at the See SURVIVORS Page 5 TV all day, and then a face or
Monday marks the end of GW’s classroom mask mandate and a shift away from a policy that has spanned the duration of COVID-19, but faculty and students said the requirement largely went unenforced months before its removal. More than 20 faculty members and students said officials’ decision to end the mask mandate was “expected” in classrooms where students gradually drifted away from daily masking routines and professors softened their enforcement of the policy. Leading up to the start of February, GW was the only “large,” “urban” university to still require students to wear masks within instructional settings, according to a Hatchet analysis of policies at nearly 230 higher education institutions. The mask mandate now only applies to University-operated health care facilities and requires people to wear a mask for 10 days following a positive COVID test. Classrooms, health care facilities and GW-operated transportation were the exceptions to GW’s decision to end its mask mandate that applied to all indoor spaces in September. The University lifted the indoor mask mandate for about a week last April before reinstating it after an uptick in the University’s positivity rate. Students were required to wear masks on campus as of fall 2020 when the fi rst 500 residents could move back into University residence halls. University spokesperson Julia Metjian said the Medical Advisory Group, which advises officials on the University’s COVID policies, recommended dropping the mask mandate to the administration. She said officials decided to drop the classroom mask mandate because of the GW community’s high vaccination rate and the low rate of COVID-related illness or hospitalizations in D.C. and on campus. “Individuals may choose whether to wear a mask based on a variety of reasons,” she said in an email. “We ask that you respect the personal decisions of others.” She said using masks on campus is now optional but “strongly encouraged.” See FACULTY Page 5
GW lags behind D.C. law mandating period products in bathrooms ahead of campus rollout GRACE CHINOWSKY ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
Officials are installing free period product dispensers in campus bathrooms to ensure their compliance with a nearly year-old D.C. law mandating schools offer free pads and tampons. Congress codified the Expanding Student Access to Period Products Emergency Act into law last March, ordering universities and private, public and charter schools in the District to provide menstrual product dispensers in all female and gender-neutral bathrooms. But many of GW’s buildings are currently in violation of the law – just nine of 29 buildings with academic and dining space that The Hatchet inspected on the Foggy Bottom and Mount Vernon campuses carried the free dispensers as of Thursday and Friday. The Hatchet found free period product dispensers in seven of 25 buildings on Foggy Bottom – Gelman Library, 1957 E St., the Milken School of Public Health, the Graduate School of Education and Human Development, District House and Duques and Shenkman halls. Two of the four academic build-
ings on the Vern had dispensers in bathrooms. There were at least three empty dispensers across both campuses Thursday and Friday, including one nonfunctional dispenser in 1957 E St. In at least five campus bathrooms, officials hadn’t installed a dis-
men’s and gender-neutral bathrooms, but only in about one or two bathrooms of every building, leaving most bathrooms across campus without dispensers. The Hatchet was unable to access Ross Hall and the Jacob Burns Law and Himmelfarb Health
pensers that they will install in campus bathrooms after they arrive in the next “few weeks.” Metjian declined to comment on how officials decided on the number of dispensers to order and which bathrooms would receive them. “Officials will install
RACHEL SCHWARTZ | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR Tampons or pads sat on paper towel machines or bathroom counters in at least five bathrooms Thursday and Friday where officials have yet to install dispensers, in violation of D.C. law.
penser, but tampons or pads sat on paper towel machines or counters. Based on The Hatchet’s review of more than 150 bathrooms, period product dispensers were installed in women’s,
Sciences Library because tap access is restricted to graduate students in those buildings. University spokesperson Julia Metjian said earlier this month that officials ordered 400 dis-
a dispenser providing products in every public all-gender and women’s restroom on campus in compliance with D.C. law,” Metjian said in an email. She said Gelman and
Eckles libraries, District House, 1957 E St., The Milken Institute School of Public Health, Duques, Ames, Innovation, and the Science and Engineering halls currently have dispensers. Based on The Hatchet’s review of campus bathrooms, SEH has no dispensers in any of its 20 bathrooms. Metjian said officials will post signage by the dispensers with information about the safe use and disposal of the products – as required by the law – when the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, D.C.’s education agency, provides the materials. At a Student Bar Association Senate meeting, Leila Diallo, the chair of the senate’s student life committee, said she conferred with officials about the GW’s lack of compliance with the legislation at the end of the last calendar year after discovering the law. She started a period product dispenser pilot program in the law school earlier this year, providing and stocking baskets of products in the school’s bathrooms which she said were depleted within just 24 hours of filling them. See PRODUCTS Page 5