Monday, May 1, 2023 I Vol. 119 Iss. 28
WWW.GWHATCHET.COM
INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER • SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904
What’s inside Opinions
A columnist discusses Student Association election voter turnout. Page 6
Culture
Sports
Professors share how they incorporate music into their classes. Page 7
Future of geology program uncertain after officials deny request to hire new tenure-track professor CAITLIN KITSON
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
Preview the men’s and women’s track and field trip to the A-10 Championship. Page 8
Men’s basketball scores transfer forward LUKE WIENECKE
CONTRIBUTING SPORTS EDITOR
EÓIGHAN NOONAN
CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR
The outgoing director of GW’s geology program requested one year ago that the University hire a tenure-track professor in an effort to keep the program afloat. Columbian College of Arts & Sciences officials denied the request, and the leader of the program says the program is now at risk of vanishing. Catherine Forster, the director of the Geological Sciences Program and the only tenured geology professor, said her retirement this August will leave the program with no leadership if CCAS officials do not hire new tenure-track professors, potentially ending the major and minor programs at GW. She said officials denied her request last spring to hire a new tenure-track professor that would replace Richard Tollo, a nowretired professor of geosciences. Forster said the program is searching for a new “special service faculty” member, who would teach a “heavy” course load of three classes per semester after CCAS officials approved her hiring request for a full-time faculty member last spring. She said officials did not provide an explanation as to why they denied her request for a new tenure-track professor who would replace Tollo beyond saying they have to “figure out” the future of the program. “I fear that this is a financial decision, rather than an academic one,” Forster said. “That’s my fear. It’s just cheaper to let the program go and not hire anybody, and eliminate, essentially, everything but introductory geology courses at GW.” Kim Gross, the CCAS vice dean for programs and operations, said CCAS officials formed a faculty task force this
SAGE RUSSELL | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Students in the geology program said they are creating a “plan of action” urging CCAS officials to hire more tenured professors, create new geology-related minors and introduce more fieldwork and networking opportunities.
semester to find “the best path forward” for the geology program. She said CCAS is currently looking for a professor to fill the special service faculty position, “just not a tenured line.” Gross declined to say why CCAS officials denied Forster’s request to hire a tenure-track professor last spring, if CCAS officials plan to end the geology program or incorporate it into a separate program, what instructions CCAS officials gave the task force members or when the faculty task force will complete its work. She also declined to say if officials will hire any new tenure-track geology professors or admit any students with a geology major in the future. Gross said while the geology program has “very few majors,” the program offers “robust” course offerings that fulfill General Education Curriculum, or GPAC, requirements. She said
the number of students majoring in environmental and sustainability sciences has “increased,” and the degree could have “natural ties” to geology. “CCAS considers geology an important component of a liberal arts education,” Gross said in an email. “The retirement of two tenured faculty members means this is an opportune time for us to examine the program to decide the best way to serve our students moving forward.” Forster said officials formed the task force of CCAS faculty this semester to draft a report on the structure of the geology program going forward, which included Forster. “If there’s no permanent faculty here, that is permanent faculty to run the program, to mentor students, to do projects with students, to teach upperlevel courses, there will be no upper-level courses, there will
be no major, there’ll be no minor,” Forster said. “And this is the worst-case scenario.” Forster said there are 10 students majoring in geology and 12 students minoring, but that this number does not reflect the number of students who have declared a major or minor in geology over the past “two weeks.” CCAS students must declare their major before they register for their fifth full-time semester, or the end of their sophomore year, according to the undergraduate academic advising website. Forster said valuable equipment used for upper-level geology courses like rock saws and petrographic microscopes will not serve a purpose if CCAS officials end or downsize the program. See STUDENTS Page 3
Men’s basketball will welcome home D.C. native and redshirt freshman forward Darren Buchanan Jr., a major addition to the Colonial frontcourt. Buchanan announced his decision to transfer from Virginia Tech in a video released on his Twitter Friday afternoon, featuring shots of him walking around campus and posing in the Buff and Blue uniform at the Smith Center. A graduate of Woodrow Wilson High School, now called Jackson Reed High School, Buchanan will provide muchneeded size as a forward with his 6’7” frame and will likely see the court early and often. In his senior year at Woodrow Wilson, Gatorade named Buchanan the 2022 D.C. Player of the Year after averaging 17.5 points and 10.6 rebounds per game and leading his squad to the DCSAA Class AA tournament championship game, where they lost on a last-second put-back to Sidwell Friends School. The two-time DCIAA Player of the Year had previously considered GW out of high school, ranking them in his top five along with Virginia Tech, Georgetown, Rutgers and George Mason, but ultimately passed up Foggy Bottom for Blacksburg, Virginia. Buchanan redshirted in his lone year at Virginia Tech, leaving him a full four years of eligibility under NCAA rules. Buchanan will join fellow transfers freshman Benny Schröder from the University of Oklahoma, former Princeton forward Garrett Johnson as well as returning star senior guard James Bishop on the Colonials squad. Four Colonials players entered the transfer portal this offseason, including junior center Noel Brown and senior forward Hunter Dean. With key starters like graduate student guard Brendan Adams and senior forward Ricky Lindo Jr. set to graduate, GW will rely on mostly fresh faces in their fight to build on their best regular season finish since 2017. With Brown and Lindo Jr. gone, the Colonials still lack a proven big man, but Buchanan, listed at 235 pounds, will help fill in the paint.
Faculty report receiving minimal emergency preparedness training RACHEL MOON STAFF WRITER
ROXIE PARKER REPORTER
Faculty members say officials have provided little to no emergency preparedness training to professors which they say leaves them unprepared to handle emergency situations. Ten professors reported receiving varying levels of emergency preparedness training while teaching at GW, ranging from no training to mandatory videos and virtual modules during faculty orientation upon joining the University, leaving some professors feeling uneducated about what they should do in the event of an armed intruder. Although some faculty said they would be willing to receive more emergency
preparedness training from officials, they reported feeling uncertainty about how additional training or University decisions like arming some GW Police Department officers next fall could reduce the risk of an active shooter situation on campus. Heather Hoffman, a professor of biostatistics and bioinformatics, said University officials have never provided her with emergency preparedness training despite teaching at GW for more than a decade. She said she believes she could use emergency training to protect herself and her students in the event of an active shooter. “I’ve been at GW for 17 years, since 2006, and I’ve never actually been through any type of official training,” Hoffman said. The University does
not require faculty to undergo any routine annual emergency preparedness training, but four professors reported viewing an emergency preparedness presentation during new faculty orientation in the fall, between 2017 and 2022. GW community members can request an hourlong active shooter training session from the Division of Safety and Facilities, according to the division’s website, the website’s request form is not currently accepting submissions. University spokesperson Julia Metjian said officials are gathering input from the GW community through “reviews and discussions” about current emergency training and protocols for “enhancements” to a “holistic” public safety plan. See FACULTY Page 5
CHUCKIE COPELAND | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Professors raised concerns in a Faculty Senate meeting last month about the lack of active shooter preparedness training and resources provided to GW faculty.
SMHS residents and fellows vote to unionize at GW Hospital
HATCHET FILE PHOTO Union leaders first submitted paperwork to the NLRB March 3 to request mail-in ballots for a union election.
Medical residents and fellows at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences voted overwhelmingly to unionize Thursday. SMHS residents and fellows vot-
ed 253-16 Wednesday and Thursday to join the Committee of Interns and Residents—a subsidiary union of the Service Employees International Union. Maryssa Miller, a physician
who helped organize the unionization effort, said the union will form a bargaining committee in the coming weeks representing residents’ departments like internal medicine, emergency medicine and obstetrics and gynecology. Miller, a first-year internal medicine resident physician, said the union will represent 455 residents and fellows employed by SMHS who work at GW Hospital. “First and foremost, forming a union gives us a voice at the table,” Miller said. “That is something that is incredibly important to all of us because we are the physicians that are at the frontlines taking care of patients, so we have this unique window into knowing what is needed for patients and how to improve our medical training.” She said GW residents and fellows have discussed unionizing since at least 2018, but the pandemic accelerated the efforts. “The COVID pandemic really brought to light a lot of the exploitation in the medical field and a lot of its injustices and simply burnout,”
Miller said. “So with that, over the past several years, residents have been talking about it.” University spokesperson Julia Metjian said the University “remains committed to supporting and training” residents and fellows regardless of the election outcome. “The university values their daily contributions to our academic medical enterprise,” she said. Miller said GW resident and fellow physicians first met with CIR in November 2022 to begin planning unionization. She said although individual physicians and departments have “unique needs,” many union members hope to improve resident salaries, health care benefits, medical leave and parental leave. She said she regularly has to address administrative, “essentially nonphysician tasks,” taking time away from updating patients and the families at their bedside. “I’m a firm believer that in order to better take care of patients, we have to be able to take care of ourselves,” Miller said. “Oftentimes, I personally find myself having to
choose between going the extra mile and providing my patients with the exceptional care I know they deserve and my own personal health and wellness.” She said officials sent out union authorization cards in March, which a supermajority of SMHS fellows and residents signed. She said officials approached the University with the cards asking them to voluntarily recognize the union, but the University declined, forcing prospective union leaders to approach the National Labor Relations Board two days later for the official union vote. Union leaders first submitted paperwork to NLRB March 3 to mail in ballots for a union election, but they resubmitted the paperwork March 22 to switch to in-person voting. The salary for first-year residents at SMHS was about $64,038, according to the SMHS website. Medical students across American medical schools accrue roughly $200,000 of medical debt after graduating on average, according to the American Medical Association.