Monday, October 3, 2022 I Vol. 119 Iss. 8
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INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER • SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904
Opinions
The editorial board argues GW’s COVID protocol is ill-informed and leaves students to navigate the pandemic on their own. Page 6
What’s inside
Culture
Sports
Read up on last Sunday’s International Couture Show, which closed out DC Fashion Week. Page 7
Meet senior rower Elizabeth Rowland, who looks to act as a role model for Hispanic athletes. Page 8
Hundreds of students could face surprise costs after publisher blocks textbooks IANNE SALVOSA
CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR
LIV SMITH REPORTER
Moments before her students arrived at her new biology course, adjunct professor Rachel Canalichio raced to call Gelman Library staff because her class textbook had disappeared from the library’s free academic resources webpage. Canalichio’s Biology of Horticulture course centers around “Science and the Garden: The Scientific Basis of Horticultural Practice,” a free e-book that used to be available to more than a dozen students in the class through Gelman Library Services. But after Wiley, the book’s publishing company, revoked Gelman’s access to the textbook in August, Canalichio said she had to reorganize her entire syllabus to prevent her students from having to pay out of pocket for their required class textbook. “I developed this whole class kind of based on this textbook because I really wanted to be able to provide a free e-book for the students,” Canalichio said. “They already paid so much.” At least 300 students will lose access to their free class e-books after Wiley removed 1,380 titles from Gelman Libraries’ free resources in August, possibly forcing students to pay hundreds of additional dollars for their required class materials, according to The Hatchet’s analysis of the course catalog and syllabi. Officials said at least five courses used a textbook that Wiley pulled at the end of August. Faculty who teach with the textbooks that Wiley removed said they want to provide their students with free or affordable textbook options, but issues like copyright and Wiley’s textbook removal create more barriers to material affordability. Canalichio said when she
found out Wiley removed the book and called the publishing company to figure out how to access the e-book, the publishing company did not provide any solutions. “It was pretty clear that they just couldn’t have cared less,” Canalichio said. She said she wanted to offer her students free textbooks through Gelman Library, but with the class’ textbook now behind a Wiley paywall, Canalichio – a manager at the biology department’s greenhouse – said she scrambled to use the greenhouse sales revenue to pay for used copies of an older edition of the textbook. Canalichio said the textbooks she ordered to replace the e-book didn’t arrive until three weeks after the e-books removal, leaving her 15 students unable to read course materials during that period. She said physical copies of the free e-book she used cost about $90 and were only printing ondemand, which set back their ultimate arrival. “The material in the second edition is a little bit outdated, but not too bad,” she said. “But it is totally unorganized from what I base my syllabus around.” Geneva Henry, the dean of libraries and academic innovation, said publishing companies normally offer universities alternative options to purchase the removed books, but Wiley’s “predatory” behavior will force more students to individually buy textbooks, increasing the company’s profits. “As students, you’re sort of a captive audience,” Henry said. “If the instructor says this is the textbook, you have to either buy it or do something else to try to get a hold of that material.” Henry said students have access to thousands of titles from ProQuest’s Academic Complete e-book collection through the University’s subscription with
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY AUDEN YURMAN | SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR Geneva Henry, the dean of libraries and academic innovation, said publishing companies normally offer universities alternative options to purchase the removed books, but Wiley’s “predatory” behavior will force more students to individually buy them.
the Washington Research Libraries Consortium, a nonprofit organization that provides academic materials to local universities. She said ProQuest negotiated a deal with Wiley to retain access to the Wiley e-books through August, but neither company notified her of the date of the final removal, leaving her unable to notify faculty that their students would not have free access to some of their course materials. Henry said at least five courses and at least 300 students used the removed e-books, and the library staff “scrambled” to reserve print versions of the removed e-books already in GW’s supply for students in the five affected courses. She said the Society and the
Environment course – which has 269 students – that used the Wiley removed e-book “An Introduction to HumanEnvironment Geography: Local Dynamics and Global Processes,” will struggle to share a single physical, free copy of the book in GW’s library system. A digital version of the book is available for purchase through the GW Campus Stores for $31 through Wiley. “Courses are underway, and you’re asking a faculty member to basically sort of rethink how they’re going to do their course,” Henry said. “And that’s hard to do.” Henry said to make academic materials more accessible, students should encourage their professors to adopt open-
ANNIE O’BRIEN STAFF WRITER
GRACE CHINOWSKY
SANDRA KORETZ
CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR
REPORTER
FILE PHOTO BY KRISHNA RAJPARA | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR Officials scaled back GW’s mask policy last month to only require masking in indoor instructional settings, GW-operated transportation and University health care facilities.
ide vehicles. “The University will continue to monitor rates of COVID-19 on its campuses and in the region and will revisit the masking instructions as appropriate,” Pierce said in an email. Esabella Vasquez, a freshman studying international affairs, said she has noticed a “majority” of students ride the Vex unmasked, but she continues to wear a mask while commuting for her own comfort and to comply with University policy. She said she feels uneasy sitting near students commuting without masks in an enclosed space, especially if they are showing signs of sickness. “If someone’s coughing and you’re behind me or you’re next to me, I’m going to get uncomfortable, especially if you’re not wearing a mask,” Vasquez said. Vasquez said she
hasn’t seen Vex drivers enforcing the policy during rides, but hopes University staff enforce the mask mandate in all required settings including GW-operated transportation, where students are not socially distanced and gather in an enclosed space. Vex drivers are not employed by the University as contracted workers through RMA Worldwide Chauffeured Transportation. The University’s campus health guidelines state students, faculty and staff are expected to “commit and adhere to required health and safety guidelines” established by GW policy and D.C. law but do not list any penalties for failing to wear a mask in required areas. Vasquez said she’s comfortable remaining unmasked in open areas like the University Student Center, where masking is not required,
See FACULTY Page 5
GW Law professor Mary Cheh bids farewell to D.C. Council seat after 16 years
As ‘mask fatigue’ sets in, mask mandate enforcement wanes across campus Students are retiring their masks in classrooms and on the Mount Vernon Express without reprimand from faculty or staff while GW’s mask mandate in instructional and transportation settings remains in place. Students said they’ve been experiencing “mask fatigue” on campus in light of recent relaxations to mask and testing policies this semester, pulling back from the added “hassle” of masking in required on-campus areas. More than 40 students said they’ve noticed their peers attending classes and boarding the Vex unmasked while faculty and staff fail to enforce GW’s mandate. Officials updated GW’s mask policy earlier this month to only require masking in indoor instructional settings, GW-operated transportation and University health care facilities after requiring masks in all indoor spaces through the majority of the pandemic. During the summer, the University transitioned to an isolation-in-place policy for students who test positive for COVID and dropped its asymptomatic testing requirement, leaving high-risk students concerned about asymptomatic cases going unnoticed. University spokesperson Tim Pierce said masks continue to be mandatory in classrooms and lecture halls as well as on the Vex, the Virginia Science and Technology Campus Express and inside SafeR-
access materials and free academic resources like textbooks that faculty members author and own the copyright license to. Officials awarded grants to eight professors in April who will adopt free, open-source materials for classes taught between fall 2022 and fall 2023 in the Adapting Course Materials for Equity Faculty Grant. “Please talk with your librarians,” Henry said. “They’ll work with you on this, but the more vocal the students are in letting the faculty know that ‘We know there are alternatives out there,’ please do that because you’re hurting us. I mean, we can’t afford this.”
because the open spaces are typically less crowded. “In certain spaces it should be required, like the Vex, because it’s so many people so close together, but in open spaces, if you’re close to someone it’s typically because you’re friends with them,” she said of going unmasked. Alexandra Kicior, a junior studying international affairs and a former Hatchet reporter, said she doesn’t consistently wear her mask on the Vex and makes her decision to wear one depending on how many people are seated near her and whether they are masked. “Sometimes I’ll just go on and be like ‘Oh, there’s no one sitting around me. I don’t have to put it on’ or I don’t feel like I should,” Kicior said. See MASK Page 5
After representing Ward 3 on the D.C. Council for 16 years with a proven record pushing for policy on the environment, nutrition and transportation while teaching at GW Law, Council member Mary Cheh’s lawmaking career is coming to an end. Cheh will end her tenure representing Ward 3 – the upper northwest quadrant of the city that encompasses some of the District’s wealthiest neighborhoods – in January after she withdrew from the upcoming ballot in February to spend more time with family. She has taught constitutional law and criminal procedure at GW for more than 40 years and is one of the only current Council members to have held an outside job while serving on the Council. “Once I got there, and I realized the potential for making things better in various spheres, whether it be health or consumer protection or what have you, I said, ‘Wow, I can really accomplish things here and make things better,’” Cheh said. Here’s a look back at her Council career:
New to local government, Cheh secured Ward 3 seat in 2006
Cheh said she decided to run for the Ward 3 seat in the 2006 election when former Council member Kathy Patterson – whose daughter was on the youth soccer team Cheh coached – ran for chair of the D.C. Council, leaving the Ward 3 spot open for a fresh face. Despite calling herself “completely ignorant” to the power of local politics prior to the election, Cheh said her legal conversations with Patterson made
her realize she could accomplish her legal and environmental goals on the Council. “It planted a seed in my mind, and I started to say, ‘Well, maybe that could be exciting or good,’” Cheh said. Cheh won the 2006 Democratic nomination with a little less than half of the vote against eight opponents. She said she had no campaign organization or experience going into the general election, where she beat Republican candidate Theresa Conroy for the seat with more than 70 percent of the vote and promised to continue teaching at GW despite her new career. Cheh said because candidates for the Council aren’t advertised on TV and radio, she could prioritize her campaign spending on retail, like flyers and yard signs. She said she also threw house parties where she networked with city officials throughout the campaign. “To this day, I can think of little aspects of it that may have contributed to it, but in terms of an actual strategy, I would hardly call what I did strategic or well planned or anything like that,” Cheh said. “But in any case, I won.” Cheh said while Congress interfered with Council legislation regarding hot-button issues like marijuana legalization or taxpayer-funded needle exchange programs in the past, she was impressed by the Council’s speed passing bills and budgets during her tenure. She said the city government has home rule – a dependent government’s right to rule itself – and Congress doesn’t usually interfere with legislation, despite acting as D.C.’s legislature under Article One of the U.S. Constitution. See CHEH Page 3