Monday, April 1, 2024 I Vol. 120 Iss. 23
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INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER • SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904
What’s inside Opinions
The editorial board argues that the SGA needs to assert itself as more than a club and resume fodder. Page 6
Culture
Students share their Easter traditions and memories. Page 7
Sports
Next year’s women’s basketball team is taking shape. Page 8
GW, extremism program director sued for alleged smear campaign FIONA RILEY
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
RACHEL MOON
CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR
NICHOLAS ANASTÁCIO | STAFF DESIGNER
International graduate student enrollment jumps after pandemic drop AARON ASHER REPORTER
SARAH GROSS REPORTER
International graduate student enrollment reached a post-pandemic high in 2023, signaling a recovery from the 2020 drop in enrollment. International graduate student enrollment rose from 875 students in fall 2022 to 1,138 students in fall 2023, a 30.1 percent jump that surpasses pre-pandemic enrollment of 1,029 students in fall 2019. The uptick follows a trend that started in fall 2021 when the international graduate student population increased from 508 to 765, a 50.6 percent increase, which follows a sharp decline in graduate student enrollment in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Provost Chris Bracey said in a March Faculty Senate meeting that the rise in international students can be attributed to officials diversifying the University’s marketing to students outside the United States. The reduction in Chinese
students studying at GW has been “significant,” Bracey said. China has been the top country of origin for international students in the U.S. for more than a decade. Bracey said the increase at the graduate level is largely due to international enrollment in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, which increased from 586 enrolled international graduate students in 2022 to 726 in 2023. “It’s important to appreciate that we’ve recovered to near pre-pandemic levels for graduate students, mostly attributable to SEAS, and much of this progress has occurred through diversifying our international student markets and attracting new students from throughout the world,” Bracey said at the meeting. Bracey added that international enrollment from India, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan and Nigeria has been increasing. In 2021, officials announced they would develop outreach and recruitment strategies for international students, including the creation of “microtrend committees”
to monitor short-term changes in the potential student market to account for an enrollment drop in international students. Committee members attended virtual college fairs and online forums to better connect with students from across the globe following the pandemic enrollment decline. Mary Churchill, the director of the higher education program at Boston University, said COVID-19, Brexit and U.S. diplomatic relations are possible reasons for the growth in international graduate student enrollment. Churchill said China’s zero-COVID policy, which aims to limit the spread of the virus as much as possible and closed China’s borders for three years, which was in place for longer than most other countries, reduced residents’ travel to and from other countries. As a result, international student enrollment from China dropped significantly nationwide and is only recently increasing due to a gradual relaxation of COVID-19 policies within the country. See EXPERTS Page 5
A target of an alleged smear campaign is suing the University and the director of GW’s Program on Extremism for falsely identifying him as an Islamic extremist in exchange for undisclosed compensation from the United Arab Emirates, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday. In the 67-page lawsuit filed in D.C. District Court, Farid Hafez — an Austrian political scientist and visiting professor of international studies at Williams College — alleged that Lorenzo Vidino, the program’s director, fed false statements to the press that accused him of having ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, which the UAE considers a terrorist organization. The lawsuit accused GW of complicity in an alleged UAEled smear campaign overseen by Swiss private intelligence firm Alp Services, letting Vidino use the program as a “platform” for his unlawful work, and accepting undisclosed funding from the UAE. “On information and belief, the defendants took advantage of plaintiff, Dr. Farid Hafez, by hiding behind the edifice of academic freedom and integrity when in fact
they were engaged in skullduggery for a foreign power,” the lawsuit states. Hafez is suing Vidino, GW, the program and Alp’s owners and senior employees for at least $10 million in outof-pocket and punitive damages, lost business opportunities and relocation costs. He requested a jury trial for all allegations against Vidino, GW and the program. Vidino and a University spokesperson did not return a request for comment. Hafez’s defense attorney, David Schwartz, said Vidino, GW and Alp Services conspired to “destroy adversaries” of the UAE, including Hafez, by damaging their reputations. The lawsuit alleges that Hafez was arrested, detained and had his house raided by German, French and Austrian authorities. Schwartz said it was the result of fictional materials like reports, press releases and presentations supplied by Vidino that claimed Hafez was involved in the Brotherhood. “That’s just plain wrong,” Schwartz said. “It’s actionable, I think we have a very viable case and my client is going to be seeking justice in this case against people that conspired against him, his good reputation, basically placing him as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.”
Friends mourn boxer, international affairs student after his death at 20
Peers remember junior, aspiring immigration attorney who died at 20
JENNIFER IGBONOBA
FIONA BORK
Senior Charles “Charley” Poor, an international affairs student with a focus in economics, died last month after accidentally drowning while on spring break. He was 20. Poor was a member of GW Club Boxing with a talent for cooking. His peers and professors remember him as a bright student, loving friend and determined boxer who was never afraid to try new things and lit up any room he walked into. “He was his authentic self all the time,” senior Nicolas Camargo said. “He wasn’t pretending to be someone else, so to me that indicated not only was he comfortable in his own shoes, but that he felt that he could be himself here and he wasn’t afraid to show that.” Poor was born April 2, 2003, in San Diego, California, and graduated in 2021 from Moline High School, a public high school in Illinois near the state’s border with Iowa. He was on track to graduate from GW a year early. Camargo, who is also a Hatchet reporter, said he was one of Poor’s suitemates during the fall semester of his junior year before studying abroad in the spring. He said the first time he met Poor was likely during move-in, and their other interactions usually consisted of watching TV, playing video games and hanging out with any friends that Poor brought to their room. “He was a good roommate,” Camargo said. “He would always cook food for us. He’s the type of guy
Antonella Galindo Merlo, a junior majoring in international affairs and an aspiring immigration attorney, died last month in a car accident while studying abroad in Melbourne, Australia. She was 20. Galindo was a member of Sigma Kappa sorority, pre-law fraternity Phi Alpha Delta and GW FUEGO, a Latin dance team, and interned for multiple foreign affairs organizations while studying at GW. Her friends and professors remember her as a positive and caring person and a hardworking student with a bright future as an immigration attorney. “She loved music, she loved dancing and she just really loved being alive,” junior Maria Teresa Furtado said. “Everything that she did was so magical. She always looked at the positive side of things and being around her was so energizing. It was impossible to be unhappy around her.” Furtado was roommates with Galindo during her first, second and third years at GW. She said Galindo was born in the District but moved to Ecuador when she was two months old, where she lived until she was 10 and her family moved to Virginia for her father’s job. Furtado said Galindo took a gap year after high school where she spent a lot of time being alone and taking hikes with her dog, which sparked her interest in spirituality and Buddhism. It was one of the most fundamental years of her life in developing herself as a person, Furtado said. “She’s also super spiritual and just has the best
CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
COURTESY OF SERENA LUM Senior international affairs student Charley Poor.
who even after a sh*tty day, he’d always be in a good mood and he’d lift your spirits. You could have the worst day at your classes or at your internship and he’d be there.” Camargo said Poor would always make additional servings of food for guests after cooking for his girlfriend, Mikaela Jackson. He said he was surprised the first time Poor made one of his signature feasts when the pair first started living together. “I thought, ‘Wow, this is really generous,’” Camargo said. “It’s one of those small memories. It’s stuck with me.” Camargo said Poor made delicious fried chicken and cooked other items like rice, beans, desserts and other dishes “more diverse” than what he or his roommates could. “Cooking was definitely — I don’t know if you call it passion or like a hobby of his — but he had a gift for it,” Camargo said. Camargo said Poor would stay up late playing his favorite video games, “Call of Duty: Black Ops” and “Grand Theft Auto V,” along with their other
roommates last year. Camargo said a week before spring break, he played video games with Poor’s current roommates while he was gone and reminisced on the times last year when they and their other roommates would be sitting on the couch doing the same thing. “That’s what my thoughts turned to when I heard the news,” Camargo said. Camargo said Poor had a “go-getting, try it out” attitude and would always give new experiences his best shot. “There were more than a few times when I was making my bland cornflakes and whatever, and I saw that he was frying something bizarre with egg and I gave him a look,” Camargo said. “He was adventurous in that sense.” Camargo said he and Poor took U.S.-China Relations with Bob Sutter, a professor in the Elliott School of International Affairs, in fall 2022. He added that Poor was “sharp” and knew the course material well. See PROFESSORS Page 3
COURTESY OF TEJA CHRISTOPHER Antonella Galindo, sitting in her dorm room.
energy and vibes and she believed a lot in the oneness that we have with the universe and reincarnation and the cycles of life,” Furtado said. “She taught me a lot about the ego and being a good listener.” She said she and Galindo often talked about the future, like how Galindo was going to be the “cool, single, fun aunt” to Furtado’s future kids because she didn’t want to have children of her own. Furtado said Galindo made her a book of letters from people she knew, printed and cut out pictures of her family and friends and wrote Furtado a seven-page letter for her 20th birthday last semester. “In the letter, she talks about how she is so proud of me and how much she loves our friendship and how she can’t wait to keep doing life with me and, obviously, her life was cut short but being her friend was probably the best thing I have ever been and will be,” Furtado said. Senior Teja Christopher said she would regularly have movie nights with Galindo and Furtado in their room in West Hall, talking for hours about life and their future goals.
Galindo was passionate about the intersection between international law and global issues like conservation of the environment, immigration and human rights and was working toward becoming a lawyer, according to her LinkedIn. She concentrated her international affairs studies on security policy and minored in psychological and brain sciences while interning for the Embassy of Ecuador, the National Council of Resistance of Iran and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research. “She was someone who she always had the right thing to say, and it really didn’t matter the amount of time that we would go without seeing one another,” Christopher said. “I always knew that I could rely on her a lot because she was just such a positive person.” Christopher said Galindo gave her life-changing advice last June when they were sitting on the couch in Sigma Kappa’s townhouse, or the “SKouse,” after someone had made a negative comment about Christopher. See PEERS Page 3