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Monday, September 12, 2022 I Vol. 119 Iss. 5 INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER • SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904
Culture
Opinions
The editorial board argues Student Association senators must be held accountable for their financial frivolity. Page 6
Tracking COVID-19
September 1 - September 7
Get a rundown of Tigeralla, Western Market’s newest enticing option. Page 7
Sports
What’s inside
Take a look at how women’s volleyball’s season is going and what to expect for the rest of the fall slate. Page 8
Weekly COVID-19 cases: 206 Weekly positivity rate: 16.12% Change in cases since previous week: +167
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
Judge dismisses GW lawsuit over pandemic losses
NIKKI GHAEMI
GRACE CHINOWSKY
When sophomore Rachel Zhao’s roommate tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this month, she threw a few days’ worth of clothes and belongings into a bag and left her two-person District House room, unsure of where she would go next. For the next five days, she slept on spare mattresses in the rooms of friends until GW cleared her roommate from isolation. “I just threw everything in a bag,” Zhao said. Zhao’s week of crashing in rooms around campus comes as a byproduct of the University’s isolation protocol updated in August, which no longer relocates residential students who test positive to separate isolation housing. Five students said they have paid for hotels to isolate themselves, slept on friends’ couches and spare mattresses to avoid additional exposure or slept just feet away from a sick roommate as a result of the new protocol. The new University guidelines recommend students stay with family or friends, book a hotel room or remain in their room while keeping a distance from their infected roommate. Officials said Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance no lon-
A District Court judge last Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit that GW filed last year against an insurance company to seek compensation for building damages allegedly caused by coronavirus particles that infected residents spread through the air. In the lawsuit filed last October, officials said Factory Mutual Insurance Company owed the University millions of dollars that the company refused to concede for the alleged damage despite an “all-risks” insurance policy that GW purchased from the firm in 2019. In the 12-page filing, District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich said the damages were not substantial enough to enact the insurance policy because coronavirus droplets can be cleaned off of surfaces and don’t present long-term structural alterations or damage to GW properties. The dismissal is a blow to GW’s efforts to recover from financial strains caused by the pandemic, which officials said in the lawsuit cost the University “hundreds of millions” of dollars and led to a $180 million budget gap during the fiscal year 2021. The University argued that the presence of COVID-positive individuals within campus buildings in 2020 spread coronavirus droplets through the air to settle on surfaces in GW facilities, leading to building closures and causing “physical loss or damages” that the firm should cover. Friedrich cited the lack of “tangible alterations” and lasting damage in the campus buildings in the dismissal. Officials argued the insurance company should reimburse the University for pandemic-related improvements to buildings, like HVAC system upgrades and installations of Plexiglas barriers and hand sanitizing stations. Friedrich said while D.C. courts have not considered whether COVID-19 can cause physical loss and damages to property, the “overwhelming majority” of other courts that have examined the question have ruled that the virus does not meet the definition.
Updated COVID isolation protocol spurs couch surfing, hotel stays for exposed students FAITH WARDWELL
CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR
CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY AUDEN YURMAN | SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR The University’s newly updated isolation protocol, released in early August, no longer relocates residential students who test positive to separate isolation housing.
ger considers college residence halls as “high-risk areas” because the usual age group of undergraduate students is
trict House while she waited for her roommate to complete her isolation period. She said she was forced to improvise
“I just threw everything in a bag” RACHEL ZHAO unlikely to experience severe cases of COVID if they’re vaccinated. Zhao said she stayed with two different friends in Dis-
her living situation after the positive test because she and her roommate had not made a plan for what to do if one of them got COVID.
She said she tried to minimize any trips made back to her room to grab items to avoid catching the virus in the small studio space. She said she forgot shampoo and other essential toiletries in her rush to leave, so she borrowed them from friends instead of returning to her room. “I feel like you don’t want to really go back into a room that’s being lived in by someSee STUDENTS Page 5
Equity, sustainability among academic priorities presented to Faculty Senate IANNE SALVOSA
CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR
In the absence of a broader strategic plan for the University, officials developed a set of academic priorities including academic medicine, equity and social justice, data science and sustainability and climate change. Provost Chris Bracey announced at a Faculty Senate meeting Friday that deans and the Board of Trustees selected these priorities to build a basis for “comprehensive” planning moving forward. As the University undergoes a series of leadership transitions, it remains without a longterm strategic plan while officials wait for a permanent president to develop one with substantial fac-
ulty input. The University will stand out from its peer schools and attract “world-class” faculty with its new academic priorities, like data science. Bracey said officials are considering more online instructional offerings as part of GW’s long-term academic vision. A task force investigating new teaching innovations from the pandemic encouraged an emphasis on remote work and teaching last October. He said GW’s commitment to anticipating the role of online courses in the future will establish the University as an internationally renowned institution. “With regard to all of these academic priorities, the goals are to enhance GW’s global reputation,
leverage the University’s strength and competitive advantages and position the University for leadership and impact in key areas of global importance,” Bracey said at the meeting. Some faculty are concerned that other higher education institutions like American and Georgetown universities share the same priorities like inclusivity and social justice, and the University’s new academic priorities will not necessarily distinguish GW from other schools. Katrin Schultheiss, an associate professor of history and a faculty senator, said these academic priorities are in line with broader trends across higher education and are not unique to GW. “I was disappointed, and I was
hoping to hear something a little more original than that,” Schultheiss said. Interim University President Mark Wrighton said the University will allocate more than $50 million from GW’s $54 million sale of its 20 percent stake in the GW Hospital toward 14 endowed professorships to further prioritize academic medicine during the meeting. Jenna Chaojareon, a member of the senate’s operations team, introduced a new voting system for the Faculty Senate through Microsoft Forms since the former voting system through WebEx had been “confusing” for some senators. Under the new voting system, only senate staff members would be able to see how each senator
voted, unlike the previous virtual and in-person voting systems when voting records were visible to the public. Bracey said University leaders introduced the five officials who were appointed to new positions in the Office of the Provost in June. Geneva Henry – who became dean of libraries and academic innovation and vice provost for libraries and information technology – said among her top priorities, she wants to provide more computers to the GW community, after supply chain issues have decreased access to the technology. “If our faculty and our students can’t succeed, why are we here?” Henry said in the meeting. See OFFICIALS Page 5
Stakeholders ask for more collaboration, representation in presidential search DANIEL PATRICK GALGANO
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
Students, faculty, staff and alumni called for an increased commitment to diversity and sustainability and wider community involvement in major decisions from GW’s next president at a series of community forums that the Presidential Search Committee hosted last week. Officials held seven forums last week – two each for faculty, staff and students and one for alumni – where attendees outlined their University culture and presidential concerns about a lack of resources for research, an inadequate role in the University’s shared governance policy and frustration with GW’s dependence on money from companies that focus on fossil fuel extraction. Officials said they will consider the feedback from the forums to create criteria and questions when interviewing and recruiting University presidential candidates over the coming months. Faculty and staff attendees largely noted a lack of representation and resources within University shared governance and policy, while students said they wanted a president who would commit to sustainability and academic diversity and have a noticeable presence in
campus programming like interim University President Mark Wrighton, who regularly attends GW athletic and community events. Trustee Roslyn Brock and Faculty Senate Executive Committee Chair Jim Tielsch, the chair and vice chair of the search committee, presided over the forums. Ilene Nagel, John Simon and Charlie Kaler, consultants from Education Executives – the outside search firm that GW selected in June to help guide the search process – also helped moderate the forums. “We are interested in those issues that you think are important for the search committee to consider and to include in the individuals who we will speak with who have interest in leading this University into its third century,” Brock said during the virtual staff community forum Friday.
Student forums: Sustainability and community engagement
Of the more than 50 students who attended the forums, a majority raised concerns about GW’s environmental impact and financial relationship with the energy industry. Officials said in July 2020 that GW would divest its endowment from companies that focus on fossil fuel extraction by
2025. Bella Kumar, a sophomore studying political communications and American studies, said the next president should reform or sever ties to the Regulatory Studies Center, a research institute operated by GW that has received criticism for having a conservative and anti-regulatory political bias. “Our futures are not promised,” she said. “We are facing an urgent and existential crisis, and this University and its presidents have consistently pushed our concerns aside in an effort to maintain the school’s bottom line.” Alex Stangl, a senior studying political science and psychology, said in addition to limiting the amounts of money GW has invested in the fossil fuel industry, officials should allocate more funding for students’ direct use, like expanding budgets for student organizations. Officials announced the University would give the Student Association the responsibility of funding student organizations, instead of jointly funding organizations last year. “It feels like, at least to me, and I’m sure you can ask other students, that its finances first and how can we benefit the pockets of people that have the most money already, it doesn’t feel like it’s being stuck with students,”
RACHEL SCHWARTZ | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR Faculty and staff attendees noted a lack of representation within shared governance at GW, while many students said they wanted a president who would commit to sustainability.
he said.
Faculty forums: Resources for research and advancement
More than 70 faculty members participated in this week’s forums, most of whom said GW doesn’t give enough resources toward faculty research or clearly communicate policies around research and profes-
sional development to professors. Faculty senators expressed concerns last April that the fiscal year 2022 budget should allocate more funds for research as GW emerges from the pandemic instead of keeping extra budget funds as a surplus. Ralph Steinhart, a professor of international law who also sits on the Presidential Search Committee, said faculty have voiced
similar concerns about a lack of research funding at nearly every one of GW’s presidential searches since the presidency of Lloyd Elliott, GW’s 14th permanent president from 1965 to 1988. “We are not simply trying to send an ‘F.U.’ message to our prior presidents,” he said. “We are trying to find somebody who rises above.” See STAFF Page 5