Monday, April 24, 2023 I Vol. 119 Iss. 27
WWW.GWHATCHET.COM
INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER • SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904
What’s inside Opinions
The editorial board condemns the University’s decision to arm GWPD. Page 6
Limited ingredient labeling in dining halls poses risk to students with dietary restrictions PRAVINA KHADKA REPORTER
An inside look at D.C.’s storied underground rock venues. Page 7
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
STAFF WRITER
FIONA BORK STAFF WRITER
FILE PHOTO BY CHUCKIE COPELAND | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER More than 20 students said it is hard to tell which foods contain ingredients like shellfish, gluten, nuts and meat because officials do not display a detailed ingredient list for each menu item.
to spend dining funds at District House, Shenkman and Thurston dining halls or The Eatery at Pelham Commons on the Mount Vernon Campus starting in the fall under any one of a series of unlimited or block meal swipe plans – which respectively offer students infinite balances of meal swipes and balances split between swipes and dining dollars. The University will discontinue the legacy plan for upperclassmen, which allowed them to spend dining dollars at partnered vendors. A disclaimer on the GW Dining website states dining hall staff attempt to provide complete nutrition and ingredient information but recommends guests with food allergies or other dietary concerns speak with a manager for “individualized” assistance. “Products may change without our knowledge, and menu items are prepared in close proximity to other ingredients that may result in cross-contact with ingredients not listed, including allergens,” the website states. University spokesperson Julia Metjian said the Pure Eats section of the dining halls in Thurston and Shenkman are “food-inclusive” areas that operate separately from the rest of the food facility. She said workers serving food at the Pure Eats stations do not work in other parts of the dining hall kitchen to avoid cross-contamination and receive training on food allergies and “safety.” Metjian said officials will convert the Teaching Kitchen – where students learn cooking skills from dining pro-
fessionals – in Shenkman Hall to a glutenfree station in response to student feedback. She declined to say whether officials have received complaints over unclear labeling of menu items or whether students with dietary restrictions would be able to secure exemptions to mealswipe plans next fall. “We seek feedback from our students so that our dining program continues to meet the needs of all students,” Metjian said in an email. “We have started a student advisory group and will continue to assess the dining program on a regular basis.” Freshman Sai Charan Chodavarapu, who is allergic to eggs, tree nuts, avocados and peaches, said he visited GW Hospital twice after two separate allergic reactions to onion rings and a grilled cheese sandwich served in the Thurston dining hall in February. Chodavarapu said he administered his EpiPen both times before checking himself into the hospital, where staff treated him for an anaphylactic reaction. He said the University failed to indicate if the onion rings and grilled cheese were exposed to eggs in the ingredient list posted by the Thurston Hall meal station, sparking the reaction. “I’m scared to eat here every once in a while now just because it’s gotten really bad,” Chodavarapu said. The listed menu item for onion rings on the GW Dining website describes the dish’s ingredients as “battered onion rings,” stating they are vegetarian and “may contain” eggs or dairy. The dining facility in Thurston Hall opened
last October, and the cafeteria in Shenkman Hall opened at the beginning of this spring semester. Chodavarapu, a Hindu vegetarian, said earlier this semester, he accidentally ate macaroni and cheese with bits of pork mixed in because the label on the designated screen above the station did not specify the meal contained pork. “You don’t really know what you’re eating until you bite into it,” Chodavarapu said. Kyle Reinheimer, a freshman studying international affairs with tree nut and shellfish allergies, said trying to determine which meals are safe to consume at dining halls feels like a “shot in the dark” because ingredient lists posted on screens above menu items and online are not “comprehensive” and include only one or two main ingredients in dishes instead of all of them. “I grabbed one of those desserts up there, and I was like, ‘Fingers crossed it didn’t have nuts in it,’” Reinheimer said. One student recovering from an eating disorder, who asked to remain anonymous, said the prominent calorie labeling in food items on the screens at dining halls and online can trigger students trying to overcome a fixation on how many calories they consume. “If you go on the website right now, calorie count there is also displayed very prominently and in the actual halls,” the student said. “And so for students who might be experiencing an eating disorder as I am, it’s difficult because that’s a triggering thing.”
Sports
Look back on tennis’ regular season as they prepare for the A-10 Championships. Page 8
Student opposition mounts against Board’s decision to arm GWPD officers ERIKA FILTER
SHEA CARLBERG Bianca Rose, a freshman and member of the rowing team with celiac disease, said dining hall food potentially crosscontaminated with gluten has made her sick to her stomach, causing her to miss practice one evening. She said she still runs the risk of ingesting gluten-contaminated food prepared in the gluten-free station at Shenkman Hall labeled with a sign that reads “avoiding gluten,” despite lacking any supervisory staff. The counter is separate from Pure Eats, a station in Thurston and Shenkman hall’s dining halls that offers options without the nine most common food allergens including milk, eggs, nuts, fish, crustaceans, shellfish, wheat, soy and sesame. She said she has seen students using waffle batter containing gluten in the waffle maker at the counter, contaminating the station and posing a “risk” to students who can’t eat gluten. “It’s just terrible,” Rose said. “It affects my academics, it affects my athletics, it affects my mood. It’s my whole day that’s kind of ruined.” Rose is one of more than 20 students with dietary restrictions, like food allergies, eating disorders and religious provisions, who said the labeling of food items in dining halls did not clearly correspond to each dish and did not disclose all its ingredients, causing students to risk ingesting food to which they are intolerant. The University completed its transition to a dining hall-centric system earlier this semester, moving away from the previous model of dining where students had to spend declining GWorld balances at partnering restaurants and grocery stores. Rose said she purchases food outside of dining halls because Pure Eats staff serve “repetitive” and “boring” options with the same chicken, beef and vegetable options each week. She said she wants to see officials add glutenfree options to the dessert section, where the dining halls currently only serve gluten-based options. Officials will require all on-campus students
Culture
Students have pushed back against the University’s plans to arm GW Police Department officers in the days following its announcement with demands for the Board of Trustees to reverse a decision they say will endanger campus and lacked sufficient community input. The announcement that GWPD will arm about 20 officers with handguns next fall has raised concerns among students that the move will increase the rate of violent encounters at the hands of GWPD officers, especially toward Black and brown students. GWPD Chief James Tate said he discussed the decision with the Student Association, the Black Student Union and Fraternity and Sorority Life leaders before the announcement, and while some students he consulted said the move can expedite the police response to shootings on campus, nearly 750 people have signed a petition as of Sunday night claiming the move will “escalate conflicts.” Last Monday, more than 150 students marched from Kogan Plaza to F Street House, interim University President Mark Wrighton’s oncampus residence, to protest the decision. In interviews, half a dozen students said arming officers will equip GWPD officers to respond to incidents involving firearms around campus and improve local security, but 30 students said the officers will pose serious risks to campus safety. BSU President Gianna Cook and Executive Vice President Drew Dodd said Tate sought their input on Black students’ potential reaction to arming GWPD officers while the Board was deliberating the decision. Cook said Black students have “mixed” views on the announcement depending on their interactions with officers on and off campus. “We basically let him know the nuance that this is not at all going to be a black-and-white situation,” she said. Cook said after she was elected to her first of two terms as BSU president in 2021, she spoke with Tate about “rumblings” of potentially arming officers in the future, and Tate sought her and Dodd’s opinion
on the matter this semester once the Board started considering the move. Cook said before Tate assumed his role as chief in early 2020, GWPD officers were “over-policing” campus and stationed in residence halls, which caused “fear” in the Black community at GW and made her hesitant about arming officers when Tate first mentioned the idea. After joining the department, Tate implemented a series of reforms centered around community relations and transparency, rolling out body-worn cameras and bias and de-escalation training in August 2020 and introducing community outreach events starting last fall, like monthly “Coffee with the Chief” meetings with students. Cook said increased criminal activity on campus and nationwide school shootings became the “key definer” behind her support for the decision to arm officers. Wrighton said the Board decided to arm GWPD officers in response to a rise in nationwide gun violence, including mass shootings on college campuses like those at the University of Virginia in November and Michigan State University in February. The shooting at UVA killed three students and injured two, and the MSU shooting killed three students and injured five. “I didn’t want it to be said that we waited until it was too late to arm our officers,” Cook said. “I didn’t want a student to be harmed or anyone on our campus to be harmed.” Cook said unarmed officers cannot respond to on-campus crimes because officers’ de-escalation tactics are “vastly limited” when individuals have firearms. She said students who are troubled with the decision are rightful to feel that way and should discuss their reactions further with GWPD. “We can wait, wait, wait all we want, but there’s always going to be some hesitancy, some uneasiness with this idea because you would never want to think you’re unsafe,” she said. She said Tate should hold a public forum with students to share more about the policy before officials implement it in the fall. “I’m hoping that there are no barriers in place when students want to have that dialogue,” she said. See TATE Page 5
LILY SPEREDELOZZI | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR Last Monday, more than 150 students marched from Kogan Plaza to F Street House, interim University President Mark Wrighton’s on-campus residence, to protest the decision to arm some GWPD officers.
Summer course tuition ranks third-most expensive among peer schools JACKSON RICKERT REPORTER
LAUREN SIMON REPORTER
GW’s undergraduate summer course tuition is the third most expensive among its 12 peer schools. Undergraduate students who enroll in online and in-person summer courses pay $2,080 per credit hour this summer – at least $400 per credit hour more than the average summer tuition at 10 of its 12 peer universities. GW’s summer tuition per credit hour this year is a slight uptick from last summer’s price of $1,995 per credit hour and comes after the University raised tuition for the upcoming academic year from $62,110 to $64,700. Boston University charges students $775 per credit hour for summer courses – the cheapest summer tuition rate out of all 12 peer schools – while Georgetown Univer-
sity trails GW with a tuition rate of $1,910 per credit hour. The two peer schools that charge more for summer courses than GW are the University of Miami, which charges $2,310 per credit hour and the University of Southern California, which charges $2,137 per credit hour. Experts in higher education finance said higher summer course tuition rates can help a university avert revenue loss caused by students opting to take summer courses instead of classes during the academic year. Richard Vedder, a distinguished professor of economics emeritus at Ohio University, said some universities like Ohio University charge the same amount for summer terms as they do for the fall and spring semesters because the quality of education remains the same. He said cutting summer tuition prices might increase summer enrollment
and deter enrollment during the academic year, a figure officials want to remain high to continue collecting steady revenue in the fall and spring. “We don’t give bargain basement rates for summer, and because if we did so, students would start taking lots of summer school courses,” Vedder said. “Some of them would try to even graduate, maybe in three years or whatnot, and it would in effect, cut out tuition that would normally be paid during the academic year.” GW’s current $62,110 tuition for the 2022-23 academic year covers 18 credit hours per semester at a rate of $1,725.28 per credit hour – $354.72 lower than the University’s summer course tuition rate. University spokesperson Julia Metjian declined to comment on which factors contribute to the summer course tuition rate and how many students
NICHOLAS ANASTACIO | GRAPHICS EDITOR
have enrolled in summer courses each year, deferring to a release about 2023-24 academic year tuition rates. Vedder said other universities decrease the cost of
tuition per credit in the summer to attract students to enroll so they can charge residents for room and board in campus buildings that would otherwise be vacant
during the summer. He said universities can make additional revenue from summer course tuition that they might not be able to make during the academic year.