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Monday, September 11, 2023 I Vol. 120 Iss. 4 INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER • SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904
What’s inside Opinions
The editorial board calls for monitoring of COVID amid an uptick in cases. Page 6
Culture
Confusion clouds shelter-in-place order amid manhunt FIONA RILEY
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
RACHEL MOON
CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR
Phones pinged in classrooms Wednesday afternoon with alerts of a shelter-inplace order, forcing professors to rely on instinct and each other in the face of unclear instructions from the University. Officials issued the order via GW Alert at about 4 p.m., about 15 minutes after a man charged with homicide escaped Metropolitan Police Department custody at GW Hospital; police are still seeking 30-year-old Christopher Haynes. Authorities lifted the shelter-in-place order at about 8:15 p.m., but professors said unclear policies and inconsistent enforcement made it hard to decide whether students could actually leave classes or if they should have completely sheltered in place for the entire four-hour advisory. Even after the initial alert warning of a “dangerous individual” was issued, many students failed to heed the order and left their residence halls and classrooms to walk through campus. Some faculty said confusion grew about halfway through the shelter-in-place period. Officials issued a 5:54 p.m. alert telling community members to continue to shelter in place but also asking them to exercise caution if they left their shelter. The notification confused professors and students who believed no one was supposed to be outside. While officials didn’t lift the shelter-in-place order until about 8:15 p.m., several professors said unclear instructions — which led to a lack of clear authority over whether students could stay or leave — caused them to let students leave more than two hours
NEWS EDITOR
GRACE CHINOWSKY SENIOR NEWS EDITOR
Police on Thursday are still searching for a homicide suspect who escaped custody at GW Hospital Wednesday, offering a $25,000 reward for anyone who can offer information that leads to the whereabouts of the suspect. Acting Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith said police are still looking for Christopher Haynes, the 30-year-old man
Volleyball looks to turn their season around after early-season skid. Page 8
A-10 to relocate headquarters to DC BEN SPITALNY
CONTRIBUTING SPORTS EDITOR
SANDRA KORETZ SPORTS EDITOR
COURTESY OF TAYTUM WYMER A Metropolitan Police Department officer keeps watch over a taped-off 24th Street as authorities rush to locate the escapee Wednesday.
earlier, at 6 p.m. “The text message was a little confusing,” said Hayley Cutler, an adjunct professor of dance. “I thought that telling us to ‘Shelter in place, but if you choose to leave,’ was a little hard to navigate as a teacher, feeling responsible for the future decisions of the students in that moment.” GW has emphasized its public safety reforms over the past several years, culminating in the decision to arm officers within the GW Police Department beginning this fall. But confusion stemming from Wednesday’s alerts — like whether students should have stayed put throughout the shelter-in-place order — highlight potential concerns about GW’s emergency communications system. Cutler said she took her students to the dressing area of the dance studio on G Street when she got the initial shelter-in-place alert and knew
what to do “instinctively” but wasn’t “recalling specific protocol” from the University. She said the alert asking community members to use extreme caution if they left shelter was “tricky” for faculty trying to decide whether they should ask students to stay in the room because it implied people could leave before officials issued an all-clear message. The shelter-in-place entry in GW’s Emergency Response Handbook states that community members must stay in a safe place until the all-clear but does not specify how faculty should manage students wanting to leave the classroom. The guidelines mainly provide advice for dealing with inclement weather, like recommending community members seek shelter in a “low part” of the building without windows and avoid potential falling items. Cutler said Carl Gudenius, the head of the Theater and Dance Program, contacted her
“immediately” to ensure she and her students felt safe in the studio when officials ordered the shelter in place. She said when the community received the alert about using extreme caution if they chose to leave, her class walked out of the building as a group after Gudenius joined them. “There was a lot of really positive communication from the program head that I felt really good about, so that made me feel comfortable sort of saying ‘Okay, everybody can come out and get your stuff, and then we’ll wait for Carl,’” Cutler said. University spokesperson Julia Metjian said GW’s Emergency Management team worked with the GW Police Department and MPD to issue the shelter-in-place alert and communicated with GW Hospital, “federal partners” and “other public safety organizations” to assess the situation. See STUDENTS Page 4
MPD announces $25,000 reward for information on homicide suspect who escaped GW Hospital ERIKA FILTER
Sports
Grub, advice and a ton of notifications: Inside GW’s free food chat. Page 7
who physically assaulted a police officer and escaped custody at the hospital at about 3:38 p.m. Wednesday. Smith said at a press conference in the Elliott School of International Affairs that Haynes was charged in the murder of Brent Hayward, a 33-year-old man from Gainesville, Virginia, who was shot in Northeast D.C. on Aug. 12. Smith said the Capital Area Regional Fugitive Task Force — a division of the U.S. Marshals Service — apprehended Haynes in Manassas, Virginia, Wednesday morning. MPD officers were pro-
cessing Haynes at the department’s homicide branch when he complained about a preexisting ankle injury, leading officers to transport the suspect to GW Hospital at about 3 p.m., Smith said. Smith said one officer accompanied Haynes from the homicide branch to GW Hospital, and one officer met the pair at the hospital, which aligns with MPD policy. She added that MPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau, which investigates officer misconduct within the department, is still investigating yesterday’s proceedings — including
whether Haynes was properly handcuffed — to ensure they followed MPD policy. “The suspect was not secured, from my understanding, securely,” Smith said. Smith said Haynes fled the hospital after physically assaulting an officer who was changing his handcuffs at the hospital. She said officers called for assistance after his escape, leading to a multiagency search for the suspect. She declined to provide the status of the officer who was physically assaulted, saying it was still under investigation. See POLICE Page 4
Atlantic 10 Conference officials announced plans to relocate the conference’s headquarters to Washington, D.C. in a press conference at the Elliot School of International Affairs Thursday. The A-10 aims to begin relocation in November 2023 and wrap up operations by June 2024, following the completion of the 2023-24 athletic season. After being headquartered in Newport News, Virginia since 2009, the A-10 will be the only NCAA Division I conference to call the District home. The conference will occupy an approximately 5,000-square-foot office near Dupont Circle inside the National Center for Higher Education, which houses several tenants in academia and college athletics. Officials also partnered with District officials, Events DC and the Washington DC Economic Partnership to make the move official, per a release. Following the pandemic, the D.C. government and Mayor Muriel Bowser have been using benefits to support, attract and retain businesses like the A-10. The A-10, which GW was a founding member of in 1975, comprises 15 universities and sponsors 22 sports, including 18 of GW’s athletic programs. Members of the men’s and women’s basketball teams and many of GW’s head coaches were also in attendance. When asked about the possibility of making the basketball championship a permanent fixture in D.C., Bowser seemed open to the idea. “I like it. So, we’ll talk more,” she said. The announcement also comes while the District is moving to hold onto its professional sports franchises. The group that owns the Washington Capitals and the Wizards have privately expressed interest in potentially moving the teams outside of D.C., the Washington Post reported. Bowser is also attempting to attract the recently sold Commanders back to D.C. by revamping the RFK Stadium site, which has sat abandoned for years after the team moved to Maryland in the 1990s. Bowser and A-10 Commissioner Bernadette McGlade emphasized the economic impact the A-10 and its events bring to cities. McGlade said four-day championship events have raked in up to $17 million in revenue. And while the conference, a nonprofit organization, will not contribute any tax money to D.C., Bowser said new employees, visitors and events will bring economic benefits to D.C. “One thing I’m happy about is supporting the A-10,” said interim Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Keith Anderson. “But Visit DC is supporting them with venues. So when they have these tournaments, we can maximize the economic impact here in the District of Columbia.” Bowser said investing in higher education is an integral part of her strategy to “bring the vitality” of the city back as part of her Comeback Plan.
Student Health Center to offer weekend, evening hours; expand staff RORY QUEALY
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
Officials hired new staff and expanded the Student Health Center’s hours this semester to include weekend and evening appointment times. The SHC is now open from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays, 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays and noon to 4 p.m. Saturdays — after previously operating only on weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. last academic year. University spokesperson Julia Metjian said the expanded hours will better serve students who have classes or work during the day. Metjian added that Medical Services hired a gynecology advanced practice provider this fall and that Counseling and Psychological Services hired a clinician who specializes in LGBTQ+ student concerns in response to student feedback. She said CAPS currently has
13 counselors and “several” additional positions to be filled later this semester — an increase from 12 last semester, according to website archives. Metjian said officials also expanded SHC service to the Mount Vernon Campus this semester by adding appointment times in Merriweather Hall Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and CAPS walk-in hours from noon to 4 p.m. “Increasing our hours and increasing our staff numbers opens more appointment slots for students to establish a relationship with our providers and to access our services,” she said. In January, officials partnered with telehealth company AcademicLiveCare, which Metjian said “expanded” access to SHC services, like counseling, psychiatric and medical care, to 24 hours a day. She said the partnership supplements the SHC’s hours, especially after the SHC closes and
when students are not in the District. “As the number of students presenting with health concerns has grown at various times, SHC advocates for more staffing, supplies, virtual platforms, changes in hours, etc. to keep the Center fully accessible to all of our students,” Metjian said. “We have been consistently supported by the institution in these efforts.” More than 20 students said they find weekend and evening hours more accommodating, with more than a dozen saying they are now more likely to make an appointment with the SHC than before the change. More than half a dozen students said they previously experienced long wait times and difficulty getting in touch with SHC staff when trying to make an appointment because of the SHC’s limited appointment slots. Jordan Fields, a sophomore majoring in interna-
CHUCKIE COPELAND | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER A student lounges outside of the Student Health Center’s Foggy Bottom hub.
tional affairs, said adding Saturday appointments is a “step in the right direction” to give students sufficient opportunities to seek help. She added that the later weekday hours would improve the “well-being of students”
because students with classes until 5 p.m. can still visit the SHC. Fields said last fall, SHC staff told her she could not get an appointment for two weeks when she was “more sick” than she’d ever been and could
barely talk. She said she hopes the expanded hours will increase the number of available appointments so that students can get an SHC appointment sooner. See PATIENTS Page 5