Monday, April 15, 2024 I Vol. 120 Iss. 24
WWW.GWHATCHET.COM
INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER • SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904
What’s inside Opinions
The editorial board argues GW’s community deserves to know if their voices are heard. Page 6
Culture
Celebrate Record Store Day at a variety of vinyl shops in the District. Page 7
Fitzgerald squeezes by Harris to clinch SGA presidency HANNAH MARR
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
MOLLY ST. CLAIR STAFF WRITER
Students elected sophomore Ethan Fitzgerald president of the Student Government Association on Saturday, narrowly beating presidential contender junior Lauren K. Harris by 16 votes in the final round of ranked-choice voting. Fitzgerald, an undergraduate senator for the Columbian College of Arts & Sciences, captured 37 percent of the vote in the first round of rankedchoice ballots before narrowly defeating Harris in the fourth round, according to the Joint Election Commission’s unverified election results. Voter turnout jumped to 12 percent this year after just 8 percent of eligible students voted in last year’s election. Fitzgerald pledged to advocate for students’ physical, mental and reproductive health as president and said he will work to expand dining options and hours as well as work with the Board of Trustees to add the SGA president and vice president as voting student trustees. “I will not let you down, I can’t wait to get to work and I have an amazing partner in Ethan Lynne that I can’t wait to work with,” Fitzgerald said. SGA Sen. Ethan Lynne (CCAS-U) defeated Aly McCormick in the vice presidential race, securing 54 percent of votes in the first and only round of voting, per the unverified election results. Lynne said he will advocate to extend GW Dining’s hours of operation past 9 p.m. and conduct an audit of all campus spaces to expand available meeting ven-
Sports
Softball fell to Saint Joseph’s in a weekend series against the Hawks. Page 8
Students report getting stuck in broken elevators SACHINI ADIKARI STAFF WRITER
RAPHAEL KELLNER | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Student Government Association Sen. Ethan Fitzgerald (CCAS-U) reacts to his presidential win.
ues for student organizations. “This is amazing,” Lynne said. “I am so thankful to everyone on my team. It has been the most long but incredible few weeks of my life, and I’m super excited to start doing some real stuff in the senate and start doing some real changes.” Student voter turnout increased for the first time since 2019 with 3,150 students casting votes compared to 2,190 voters in last year’s election, according to the unverified election results. Roughly 12.3 percent of eligible students voted in this year’s election, compared to last years 8.5 percent voter turnout. Almost 85 percent of students voted “yes” on a referendum that gauges student opinions on adding the presi-
dent and vice president as voting members on the Board of Trustees. The Board originally rejected the referendum in November after the SGA brought the resolution to voting members. The approval of the referendum will now act as data for SGA members to bring to the board to show student support for the addition of voting student members. Harris said she felt “deeply saddened” by the election results and saw her loss as a reflection of the “racism and sexism” she has faced as a Black woman running for a position of power. She said she will continue to advocate for change in the D.C. area by potentially working in the mayor’s office next year and working with local entrepreneurs to organize
for social justice. “I appreciate every vote for me, and I think that that showed that there was a desire for change, by coming in second shows there was a desire and a push for change happening,” Harris said. McCormick said she hopes Lynne implements a survivors’ bill of rights, one of her campaign initiatives, and opens the Financial Services & Allocations Committee meetings to all students. She said she and Lynne had “very similar” initiatives on their platforms and that she believes Lynne will be “fantastic” as vice president. “Thank you, for all my people who voted for me and believed in me,” McCormick said. “I’m just a kid from a different school who tried her best, and I’m just happy I had fun.”
Sophomore Felix Aguto entered an elevator in late February with a dozen students. Having just finished his 9:35 a.m. accounting class in Duques Hall, he was ready for his next class — until the elevator fell six floors. Dropping and catching itself every few floors, the elevator finally settled halfway below the first floor, trapping everyone. It appeared there was room enough to safely climb out if they could get the doors open. Aguto and a friend tried using their hands to pry open one of the elevator doors before pressing the alarm and emergency call buttons, but maintenance workers did not arrive to help for another 45 minutes. “We could see the equipment underneath the shaft,” Aguto said. “We were at the bottom of the shaft.” Aguto said facilities workers repaired the elevator after he left, so he did not submit a complaint or FixIt ticket but continues to use the elevator. More than a dozen students said they have gotten stuck in elevators in campus buildings like the University Student Center and Duques, Munson, Mitchell and Shenkman halls within the last year for between two and 45 minutes. In the Faculty Senate Physical Facilities and Campus Safety Committee’s annual report last week, members recommended that officials address aging elevators as one of their six budget priorities. University spokesperson Julia Metjian said GW consistently ensures campus elevators are in “safe, working condition” by performing monthly preventative elevator maintenance in addition to twice-yearly inspections by the D.C. Department of Buildings. “Student safety is a top priority for the University,” Metjian said. “We consistently ensure that all of our elevators are in safe, working condition.” See ELEVATORS Page 5
Facing falling enrollment, GSPM stakeholders push to hire director FIONA RILEY
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
JENNIFER IGBONOBA
CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR
Since the director of the Graduate School of Political Management left in August 2022, faculty, students and other stakeholders have waited for officials to name a replacement. Nearly two years later, the position remains vacant, and the GSPM’s Board of Advisors — a 20-person team that pays dues to the school and advocates on its behalf — is working to increase funding, recruitment and faculty hires after the school’s enrollment fell 24 percent between 2022 and 2023, marking six-consecutive years of declining enrollment. College of Professional Studies Dean Liesl Riddle said the college, which houses GSPM, plans to hire a director through “continued strategic efforts and pending increased enrollment.” Enrollment drops in GSPM align with declining enrollment in CPS,
which enrolled 624 students in 2023 compared to 1,051 in 2013. GSPM’s enrollment dropped from 386 students in 2013 to 188 in 2023, according to the enrollment dashboard. 171 students attended GSPM programs as of this spring, according to documents obtained by The Hatchet. “CPS is the very proud home of GSPM, and our students and faculty are some of the best and brightest working in the political arena today,” Riddle said in an email. “We plan to continue to collaborate closely with alumni networks, industry partners, and faculty members to amplify the reach of recruitment efforts and enhance the overall appeal of GSPM programs.” Riddle, who was named the dean of CPS in August 2022 after the college went almost two years without a permanent leader, declined to comment on when officials intend to fill the GSPM director position and if the plans have been communicated to staff, faculty and students. A University spokes-
person said since Riddle started her tenure, she expanded curriculum offerings in programs like strategic public relations and the master’s of professional studies degree in publishing management. The spokesperson said she also implemented a series of recruitment strategies to grow enrollment in CPS and GSPM, including partnerships with organizations like the National Association of Counties and the American Association of Political Consultants, to market the college. To attract more applicants to GSPM, Riddle also launched digital advertising for all programs and created a commercial featuring the school’s Board of Advisers, the spokesperson said. But GSPM community members said without a leader, the school is struggling to grow its visibility and distinguish itself from CPS. And though stakeholders have advocated for a new director, details on the hiring plan remain unclear, they said. See OFFICIALS Page 5
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY JENNIFER IGBONOBA | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER The reception desk at the Graduate School of Political Management in the Media & Public Affairs building stands empty.
RACHEL KURDLANSKY | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Biological Sciences Department Chair Guillermo Orti presents a report at Friday’s Faculty Senate meeting.
Faculty senators discuss changes to executive committee HANNAH MARR
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
TYLER IGLESIAS REPORTER
Faculty senators debated a report that proposed an overhaul to the body’s executive committee, a response to officials’ secret briefing of committee members last year on plans to arm GW Police Department officers. The report outlined four recommendations to make the executive committee more representative of GW’s faculty breakdown — including electing a president of the Faculty Senate and altering who serves on the committee — efforts that some senators believe will improve shared governance within the senate’s highest body. But some senators pushed back against the report’s recommendations, arguing the committee’s restructuring will decrease the body’s efficiency if it is required to loop in all necessary stakeholders after every official debrief. “This incident was just an unfortunate mistake,” Guillermo Orti, who penned the report, said after the meeting. “It triggered the conversation so
to speak, and that’s important thing. When something happened, you suddenly start reflecting about why did this happen, and could we do things better.” The report said the executive committee “exceeded its authority” when the committee did not consult those best informed on the issues like members of the Physical Facilities committee when former interim University President Mark Wrighton consulted the body last February on the Board’s plans to arm GW Police Department officers before informing the senate and GW community in April. The report states Wrighton asked the executive committee to keep the contents of the Board’s arming report a secret from the senate even though the plan was not considered an emergency, and allegedly denied shared governance to the senate by not allowing faculty a chance to provide input to trustees. The executive committee has the power to act on behalf of the senate in cases of emergency, per the report. Orti, the co-chair of the Professional Ethics and Academic Freedom Committee,
said the breach of shared governance caused the committee to compile the report to share with the senate. The senate also passed a resolution in October calling on GWPD to halt the arming process until officials disclosed community feedback on the online form soliciting input on the decision, any changes to liability insurance and GWPD operational costs caused by the arming of officers. GWPD Chief James Tate said the resolution “wasn’t a factor” in pausing implementation, which officials slowed in the fall due to on-campus protests. Orti said while the senate is a “good representation” of faculty who teach undergraduates, the executive committee is primarily made up of graduate professors who are not fully informed on matters affecting undergraduates, like GW’s protest policies and the decision to arm GWPD. The report also states that Columbian College of Arts & Sciences faculty in humanities and social sciences departments are underrepresented in the executive committee. See SENATORS Page 5