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Monday, September 26, 2022 I Vol. 119 Iss. 7 INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER • SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904
Opinions
The editorial board argues that GW should prioritize students’ basic academic needs before focusing on its long-term vision. Page 6
Tracking COVID-19 September 15 - September 21
Weekly COVID-19 cases: 79 Weekly positivity rate: 8.12%
Culture
Read our review of the highly anticipated Olivia Wilde film “Don’t Worry Darling.” Page 7
What’s inside
Sports
Check out men’s golf’s recent string of successes on the course, including a team record at its latest tournament. Page 8
Change in cases since previous week: -24
GW replaces professor who defended racial slur, as racism on campus persists THE BLACK ACE MAGAZINE STAFF THE GW HATCHET STAFF Content warning: This post discusses the use of racial slurs and acts of racism on campus. Students can learn more about how to report an incident of hate or bias on the Office of Diversity, Equity and Community Engagement’s website. A professor is no longer teaching a human rights course after he defended racist comments that he told his students he made to a provost during a phone call. Students in the human rights course said they feel “frustrated” and “uncomfortable” after Professor Michael Stoil told the class earlier this month that he used the N-word while discussing “differential aspects of prejudice” with the official on the phone. After students said they filed at least three bias reports about his remarks, political science department chair Eric Lawrence notified students via email Wednesday that a new instructor would start teaching the course. Stoil remains an adjunct professor of political science and is listed as an instructor for introduction to international politics, according to GWeb. The website states Stoil is set to teach the human rights course again next semester in addition to the international politics class. Stoil referred to an “ongoing battle” with the provost when he mentioned the call and questioned why using the racial slur would be considered wrong during the class, which was captured on a Blackboard recording and obtained by The Black Ace Magazine and The Hatchet. Stoil was lecturing about human rights theory during the class, which holds seats for 39 students, according to GWeb. “I used the N-word, and she was horrified,” Stoil said during
HATCHET FILE PHOTO Students in the Human Rights class, which holds 39 seats, said they feel “shocked” after Professor Michael Stoil told them he used a racial slur during a phone call with a provost. The lecture in Monroe Hall was captured on a Blackboard recording and obtained by The Black Ace Magazine and The Hatchet.
the class. “She says ‘Oh my God, I felt that viscerally. It ran right through me, you used the Nword.’ I said ‘You don’t listen to hip hop? You don’t listen to some of the street music? They use it all the time.’” A student in the class responded, “Yeah, but they’re Black peo-
ple.” Another student seconded their reply while other students nervously laughed around the classroom, the recording shows. “Ok, I’m Eurasian,” Stoil said in the recording. “Where do I fit in? Can we use it too?” “No,” students in the class replied.
“You’re right, but the point is I didn’t imagine that she would feel pain from the use of the Nword simply because, by the way, she didn’t know what color I was,” Stoil said during the lecture. “This was on the telephone. I guess I don’t sound Black. Does Barack Obama sound Black?”
‘Work from the shadows’: How Trump’s COVID response ties to a former professor’s GW email SOPHIA GOEDERT
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
A former professor is at the center of a federal investigation into the use of a controversial drug during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, a probe that has revealed White House communications linked to his GW email. Documents in a U.S. House of Representatives select subcommittee report released late last month show that Steven Hatfill, a former adjunct professor of emergency medicine, used his GW email to conduct business regarding controversial COVID treatments while helping the administration of former President Donald Trump respond to the COVID outbreak. A subpoena issued to Hatfill from the same Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis in September 2021 also cited his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, according to the subcommittee. Hatfill worked at GW as a professor in 2020 while working as a full-time coronavirus response volunteer within the White House. University spokesperson Tim Pierce said Hatfill has since resigned from GW after joining the University as an adjunct professor of emergency medicine in 2007. Hatfill began working with the White House in 2020 when Peter Navarro, the director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, hired him during the outbreak as his senior medical adviser and a fulltime volunteer to assist with the federal COVID response, according to the Select Subcommittee report. The report revealed Hatfill sent emails related to his work for the White House from his GW account and pushed for a targeted investigation of fed-
Stoil has taught as a part-time professor at GW for five years. Reviews posted to ratemyprofessor.com include criticism from students about Stoil’s disapproval of the Black Lives Matter movement and “rude and insulting” comments on projects and papers. GWeb states professor Liza Williams is currently assigned to the course, which Lawrence said would receive a new instructor starting Tuesday. Williams did not return a request for comment. Students said they felt “shocked” that a lecture on human rights had turned into a justification session for using a racial slur that, by the 1800s, had been established as a derogatory term. “My hands were just shaking, like I just really didn’t know how to react, what to say, what to do and I just felt alone,” Keheirra Wedderburn, a junior in the class, said in an interview. “I shouldn’t have to tell you about racism because I go through it.” Wedderburn, who is studying political science and criminal justice, did not attend the next class because she did not feel comfortable. She said the incident marked the second time his comments in the class made her feel uncomfortable. Wedderburn, who has box braids, said Stoil asked in the class of nearly 40 people how long it took to get her hair the way it was during the first lecture. She said she was unsure how to respond but made a joke to revert the attention away from her. Katie Miller, a senior in the class studying political science and economics, said she was “disgusted” by Stoil’s belief that his actions were excusable, and faculty who are prejudiced should not teach at GW.
About a third of students received federal loans, well below national trends IANNE SALVOSA
CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY AUDEN YURMAN | SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR Hatfill admitted to putting COVID-related work in the “back seat” to instead focus on proving voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
eral officials who wouldn’t authorize the emergency use of hydroxychloroquine – a drug that decreases immune responses in the body and is typically used to treat malaria – against COVID-19. Pierce declined to share when and why Hatfill resigned from his position. Pierce also declined to say whether officials were aware that Hatfill used his GW email to conduct White House business or if GW provided the subcommittee with Hatfill’s emails. Hatfill did not return a request for comment. The Office of Donald J. Trump also did not return a request for comment. Here’s a chronological breakdown of Hatfill’s tenure with the White House:
Advocacy for hydroxychloroquine
Navarro and Hatfill worked with officials from Henry Ford Health System
– a nonprofit healthcare organization based out in Detroit, Michigan – in June 2020 to reauthorize the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID after the Food and Drug Administration revoked Emergency Use Authorization June 15, according to the report. The FDA first authorized a EUA for hydroxychloroquine for use in COVID treatment March 28 but revoked it less than three months later in a statement that said the drug was “unlikely” to be effective in treating COVID and the potential risks of using the drug outweighed the benefits. The FDA released a safety warning for the drug in April of 2020 after reports of abnormal heart rhythms were linked to the drug. The agency’s decision to authorize an EUA for hydroxychloroquine against COVID, a treatment widely touted by Trump, was met with backlash from critics
and former FDA officials who said the agency conformed to the politics of the White House, and evidence for the drug’s effectiveness was “scant,” according to a Washington Post report. The report states Hatfill drafted a new EUA request for hydroxychloroquine in late June 2020 and asked the Henry Ford Health System to submit the request so someone affiliated with the White House would not be listed on it. Henry Ford Health System submitted the request to the FDA July 6, which the agency denied the request a month later. While concealing his affiliation with the White House, Hatfill used his GW email account, his personal email account and third party intermediaries to gain support for hydroxychloroquine and to conduct business, which he called “work from the shadows,” the report states. See HATFILL Page 5
See STUDENTS Page 2
Officials said about a third of all undergraduate students received federal loans last year, about 30 percent below national trends. Officials said 3,171 – or 29 percent – of GW’s undergraduate students received federal loans in the 2020-21 academic year, inconsistent with the national rate of about 60 percent of undergraduates who borrow federal loans at private nonprofit institutions. The slim percentage suggests the White House’s plan to forgive tens of thousands of dollars of student debt will reach a minority of students, who said they wished federal officials forgave a larger share of their student loan debt than a fraction of their financial burden. Jay Goff, vice provost of enrollment and student success, said about 37 percent of undergraduate students receive federal student loans during any given year at GW. “We plan to continue those efforts this year and will promote the loan forgiveness application process after it is launched later this year,” Goff said in an email. The federal government will cancel $10,000 in student loan debt for borrowers who earn less than $125,000 or – if married – earn less than $250,000. Pell Grant recipients will receive $20,000 in federal student loan forgiveness through the plan. After federal officials release the loan forgiveness application, students eligible for debt cancellation must apply by Dec. 31, the final day of the debt moratorium, on the Department of Education Federal Student Aid website. Alumnus Domonique Clemons – who graduated with a masters degree in po-
litical management in 2019 – said even after the $10,000 is canceled, he will continue to make similar monthly payments for the remainder of his 10-year public service loan repayment program through his work for a business membership organization, which some borrowers may not qualify for. “For some folks, it’s going to be the difference of them being able to pay off their loans when they’re 60 instead of 61 or 62,” Clemons said. Leor Clark, a graduate student studying public health, said GW’s high cost of attendance stands in the way of any difference that the debt cancellation program could make in students’ financial situations. Clark said that the process of taking out student loans was “overwhelming” because she was only 18 when she took out loans for college. “It’s hard to conceptualize how much money you’re taking out at 18,” Clark said. Emily LaBrasciano, a sophomore in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, said debt cancellation and debt moratoriums have eased the burden on student loan borrowers, but many students will still need more aid to afford higher education enrollment. “I don’t think any student should ever go into debt for wanting to pursue education,” LaBrasciano said. She said taking out loans was difficult as a firstgeneration student because her parents did not have the same experience and couldn’t guide her through the loan process. “Taking out loans is so scary, and you just don’t know if you’re making the right choice,” LaBrasciano said. “You don’t know how you’re going to pay it back in the future.”