Monday, October 31, 2022 I Vol. 119 Iss. 11
WWW.GWHATCHET.COM
INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER • SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904
Opinions
The editorial board urges GW to invest in expanding health care access across D.C. as an example of how the University can serve others. Page 4
What’s inside
Culture
Sports
Read our picks for autumnal albums to pair with seasonal drinks. Page 5
Catch up on cross country’s performance at the A-10 Championship in Virginia Saturday. Page 6
REPORTER
MFA malpractice compensation surges as insurance rates rise
CADE MCALLISTER
GRACE CHINOWSKY
Students praise food variety, criticize wait times at Foggy Bottom’s first dining hall in seven years AMELIA ANSELL
CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR
REPORTER
After GW opened a dining hall in Foggy Bottom for the first time in seven years earlier this month, students said the venue is a convenient spot for quality food, but low capacity and unclear nutrition labels keep it from maximizing its potential. Located in the basement area of the newly renovated Thurston Hall, the dining area features an assortment of options ranging from smaller snacks to larger meals during three dining periods each weekday and brunches and dinners on weekends. Twenty-five students said the hall offers a wide array of affordable meal options in a comfortable community space, but some criticized the high wait times that low capacity can cause and a lack of thorough signage for allergenfree food. Vice President of Business Services Seth Weinshel said in an interview the dining hall can serve 750 to 800 students during four-anda-half hour dinner periods, which bring in more diners than the hall’s breakfast and lunch periods. He said the communal space has brought GW community members together to share affordable meals in a dining hall for the first time since officials closed GW’s previous dining hall, J Street, in 2016. The hall offers staples like pizza and pasta daily, but Thurston’s nine dining stations switch up most of its options each day, with chefs building menus that include deli-style sandwiches, international cuisines and more. Students pay a set fee upon entering the dining hall, which charges $8 during breakfast, $10 during lunch and $12 during dinner
SOPHIA GOEDERT
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
CHUCKIE COPELAND | PHOTOGRAPHER The dining hall offers staples like pizza and pasta daily, but its nine dining stations switch most of its options each day, with chefs building menus that include deli-style sandwiches, international cuisines and more.
before tax, and they can take as much food as they want while inside. Most students said Thurston’s dining hall has high-quality food and is relatively affordable, but some criticized operational elements of the area, with a handful of diners citing long wait times and unclear food labels. Thurston’s dining hall has an official seating capacity of 225, which lags behind dining halls on Georgetown, American and Howard universities campuses, despite the student populations of those colleges being less than GW’s. Freshman Kate Amistoso, a Thurston resident who usually goes to the dining hall twice a day, said the relatively low capacity was “frustrating” when she’s on a busy schedule. She said she’s excited to be able to get quicker and smaller items like fruit on the pre-paid, unlimited swipe plan next semester without having to pay an $8 entry fee. Beginning next semes-
ter, the University will fully transition to its new dining plan, which will give unlimited dining swipes and a GWorld dining dollar stipend for freshmen for a total cost of at least $2,700. Upperclassmen will be able to choose from eight plans, which range from the unlimited dining swipes plan to the $1,670 “legacy” plan that mirrors the pre-existing dining dollar plan. Students shared mixed feelings on the transition – some prefer the flexibility of dining dollars so they’re not overly reliant on Thurston for meals, and others enjoy the convenience of more swipes and quick access to smaller snacks and meals. Emma Curry, a freshman majoring in journalism and mass communication, said dining hall staff helped her find a meal that fit her gluten-free diet, part of what has made for a positive dining experience overall. “They were very accommodating,” Curry said. “When I asked, they were
like, ‘Do you want a chef to walk you around and help you out?’” The dining hall features an allergen-free station called Pure Eats, which offers products free of gluten, milk, peanuts, tree nuts, egg, shellfish, fish and soy, according to GW’s website. Kayla Greenfeld, a freshman majoring in international affairs, said she prefers Thurston’s dinner offerings over lunch and breakfast because a wider variety of foods are available in the evening. Officials plan to open a second all-you-can-eat dining hall in Shenkman Hall for the spring semester after months of delays due to supply chain issues. Officials planned to convert the basement of District House into one of three all-you-can-eat dining halls in Foggy Bottom, but they deviated from those plans over the summer in favor of a traditional vendor set up, citing supply chain issues as among the reasons for the delays.
The Medical Faculty Associates’ malpractice compensation costs – expenses for legal payouts and insurance premiums and reserves – have surged over the last three years despite a drop in legal claims and payouts, reflecting a national trend of rising malpractice insurance costs. The MFA – a group of physicians and faculty from the School of Medicine and Health Sciences and physicians at the GW Hospital – spent $14.6 million on malpractice compensation in 2022, a 114 percent jump over the past three years, according to data that officials presented to faculty senators earlier this month. MFA malpractice compensation increased by more than $7 million from 2019, including a $600,000 increase from last year – a trend that officials partly attribute to rising insurance costs, despite dwindling malpractice lawsuit filings against the MFA in the same period. Payouts and filed claims for malpractice lawsuits haven’t demonstrated growth similar to that of the MFA’s malpractice compensation, according to D.C. Superior Court records and data from the National Practitioner Data Bank. The number of malpractice lawsuits filed against the MFA and the amount of malpractice payment reports in medical facilities across D.C. and the country have decreased since 2019, the records and data show. One of the 12 lawsuits
filed against the MFA in 2019 and one of the 19 cases filed in 2020 reached settlements, but all closed cases filed since 2021 were dismissed, court records show. Court records do not reveal how much the settlements were worth. The MFA, a Universityoperated nonprofit, lost nearly $80 million by the end of the fiscal year in June, and the rise in malpractice compensation costs accounted for an extra $7.8 million in expenses for the nonprofit that was not a factor in 2019. University spokesperson Josh Grossman said the MFA’s malpractice expenses include several years of “historical claims,” and include insurance premiums and “reserve true ups” – money set aside by insurance companies for lawsuits not yet filed or settled – from previous years. He said overall insurance costs jumped during the pandemic, but the MFA’s premiums and reserve costs have not increased substantially over the last year – in line with the MFA’s overall malpractice compensation costs over the last year. “In general, the cost of insurance has increased over the past few years across most lines since the pandemic,” Grossman said. “MFA experienced very little increase in premiums and reserve requirements over the last year.” Grossman said the medical malpractice insurance market has “high confidence” in the MFA. He declined to specifically say why the MFA’s malpractice compensation has increased since 2019 or how it relates to the number of lawsuit payouts or claims.
Lerner reopens Monday after five months of HVAC system renovations GRACE CHINOWSKY
CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR
The Lerner Health and Wellness Center will reopen to students Monday after being closed for “extensive” heating, ventilation and cooling system renovations since May, officials announced in an email Friday. The email states that officials
updated the HVAC systems in the building’s facilities, including the gym, pool and basketball courts during the fivemonth closure. Officials said the gym will be limited to students for the time being, and that faculty and staff with paid memberships will have access to the gym “later” this academic year. Officials said they closed the
temporary workout room they installed in the University Student Center in June on Friday so officials can return the equipment to Lerner. “We look forward to welcoming you back into the Lerner building and continuing to get to know you as together we continue to focus on your physical well-being needs,” the email
states. The email states officials encourage non-student community members to take advantage of the “physical well-being opportunities” offered by GW’s Human Resource Management & Development Office while access is limited to students. During the closure, officials offered alternative exercise spaces
to students and the rest of the community in the University Student Center, District House and West Hall. “Thank you to the thousands of students who joined us for a group fitness class, worked out in one of our other on-campus gyms, and came to St. Patrick’s for free/open play in September and October,” the email states.
GW paying millions to controversial online program management company DANIEL PATRICK GALGANO
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
Officials have continued to pay millions of dollars to an outside company for online graduate course materials as the number of students enrolled in online courses at GW increases despite criticism from federal officials around the ambiguity of agreements like GW’s. Officials paid more than $18 million in the last fiscal year to 2U, Inc. – one of the largest educational online program management companies in the country – to make a series of graduate certificate programs and boot camps, according to GW’s Form 990 – an annual public disclosure filed with the Internal Revenue Service. Experts in higher education said online learning companies like 2U have come under criticism by industry and government leaders because of their long-term contracts that often lock schools into paying off much of the revenue from their virtual courses. University spokesperson Josh Grossman declined to say how long the University’s contract with 2U will last and what types of programs they
provide to graduate students. “Flexibility is also important to students who may want to benefit from a GW education from other parts of the country or world. Partnering with 2U and other online education companies enables the University to offer innovative education that meets the needs of lifelong learners in a variety of fields,” Grossman said in an email. The number of students enrolled in online courses at GW increased by about 450 students between 2018 and 2021, according to the University’s enrollment dashboard. The number of enrolled online graduate students increased by about 600 students, while the number of online nondegree students – like those enrolled in nondegree “boot camps” – increased by 26 students in the same period, according to the University’s enrollment data. The data does not show how many of these students are enrolled in courses that 2U had a role in making or what enrollment looks like in the 2022 academic year. In its quarterly report to investors in July, 2U officials said its total revenue and course enrollment dropped by about two percent year-
over-year and it laid off about 20 percent of its employees as a result. The U.S. General Accountability Office, a government auditing agency, released a report in May criticizing the higher education industry’s relationship with online program management companies like 2U, because of the vague details about profit-sharing and time frames in the contracts that higher education institutions sign with them. A report published in 2019 by The Century Foundation, a New York-based think tank, found most of 2U’s arrangements with universities revolve around tuition-sharing agreements, where the institution agrees to pay 2U 40 to 65 percent of the tuition generated from their courses for a six to 10-year period on average. The contracts are often unclear about who controls the course materials and student information, according to the report. Higher education experts said that as companies like 2U have come under scrutiny from government agencies and politicians, many colleges and universities are moving away from contracting outside firms to make their online coursework, but
MAYA NAIR | PHOTOGRAPHER Online graduate student enrollment increased by about 600 students, while the number of online, nondegree students increased by 26 in the same period, according to institutional data.
instead use their own faculty and technology teams to build online materials. Joshua Kim, the director of online programs and strategy at Dartmouth College, said competition among companies that provide online courses has increased over the past few years be-
cause of increased interest in their courses. He said this competition has led many institutions to hire their own administrators and faculty to design online courses, instead of relying on companies focused on dozens of projects in a volatile industry with fluctuating enrollment
numbers. “Experts in learning technologies are really key and critical for universities to be resilient – it’s very important that universities build that capacity,” he said. “So what I’m seeing is that universities are trying to work to bring that capability in-house.”