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Monday, September 18, 2023 I Vol. 120 Iss. 5 INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER • SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904
What’s inside Opinions
The editorial board points out potential flaws in GW’s crisis response protocol. Page 6
Culture
Forget the fake ID and opt for these late-night activities for underage students. Page 7
Coast to coast: Granberg sets off on national tour to attract alumni, donors NEWS EDITOR
RORY QUEALY
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR
Columbian College of Arts & Sciences officials eliminated reimbursements for tenured faculty academic travel for this fiscal year, leaving professors with doubts about GW’s research mission and connection to the academic world. CCAS Dean Paul Wahlbeck said the college is experiencing “very modest” revenue increases this year because of decreased graduate student enrollment alongside a jump in expenses due to inflation and compensation, leading the college’s leadership to cut off reimbursements for tenured professors’ academic travel this fiscal year. But in a June 30 letter sent to University President Ellen Granberg, about 37 professors contested the elimination of reimbursement funding, stating that the lack of accessible academic travel threatens their research and limits their ability to interact with other academics. “If GW aspires to be a top-tier research University, then it must at a bare minimum support faculty
“very excited” that Granberg is visiting Los Angeles early next year because her appearance will continue strengthening alumni engagement as the network works to rebuild their activity to pre-pandemic levels. He said past University presidents, including Mark Wrighton, Steven Knapp and Stephen Joel Trachtenberg had visited Los Angeles during their tenures.
More than three years after GW first shut down campus during COVID-19, officials remain quiet on their preparations for responding to future pandemics — or a potential resurgence of COVID — after pulling back nearly all COVID-related policies last spring. Officials announced the end of GW’s COVID-19 vaccine requirement, contact tracing and testing services in May following a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announcement ending the federal public health emergency. While officials said they are continuing to monitor the state of COVID on campus and will adjust their policies when necessary, the University is an outlier in its rollback of COVID policies among its 12 peer schools — 10 of which continue to offer on-campus testing following the CDC’s announcement. This semester, the University “strongly recommends” — but does not require — GW community members be vaccinated against COVID and masking remains optional but may be required in some spaces, like some health care facilities, according to the University’s COVID-19 guidance. The guidance states that GW no longer offers COVID testing through the University and that community members can find PCR tests at physicians’ offices and local pharmacies and antigen test kits at pharmacies and retail stores.
See ALUMNI Page 4
See PANDEMIC Page 4
FILE PHOTO BY AUDEN YURMAN | SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR University President Ellen Granberg will visit 10 U.S. cities as part of GW Together, where she will garner thoughts on the GW’s strengths and challenges from alumni, students, faculty, staff and other “friends” of GW.
desired qualities of GW’s next president, officials said they are looking for someone who will collaborate with all constituencies to develop a strategic plan. Granberg, who began her term July 1, will begin the tour in Philadelphia on Tuesday before visiting Denver; Chicago; New York City; Miami; Palm Beach, Florida; Los Angeles; San Francisco; and Seattle. She will also hold a “Presidential Conversation” in the University Student Center during Alumni
CCAS cuts travel funds for tenured faculty in FY23 RACHEL MOON
Volleyball split a pair of matches in a Virginia invitational this weekend. Page 8
Officials quiet on prep for future pandemic response
IANNE SALVOSA University President Ellen Granberg is embarking on a transcontinental tour to speak with alumni and donors three months into her tenure. Starting this week, Granberg will visit 10 U.S. cities between September and March to meet with alumni and GW community members as part of GW Together, an initiative to leverage the GW community’s ideas for forming goals for the University’s future. University spokesperson Julia Metjian said GW Together is Granberg’s “listening campaign” so she can garner thoughts on the University’s strengths and challenges from alumni, students, faculty, staff and other “friends” of GW. “All members of the GW community are encouraged to share their thoughts on the President’s website through photos or video, audio or written messages,” Metjian said in an email. “Input from our community will be valuable and important to informing the President’s approach to the future of GW.” GW has lacked a strategic plan since 2020, when officials labeled former University President Thomas LeBlanc’s plan “obsolete” due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Critics of LeBlanc’s plan said it left out the wider GW community, accusing it of not adhering to principles of collaboration or shared governance. In the 2022 Presidential Profile, a document listing the
Sports
and Families Weekend on Sept. 30. Metjian declined to comment on the cost of the trips. Chairs of regional alumni networks said the trips, which are tailored toward committees of donors and alumni, will motivate attendees to engage with the University through “face time” with Granberg, leading to more donations and volunteering from alumni. George Urch, a co-chair of the Los Angeles-Orange County alumni network, said he is
LeBlanc, Diaz saw pay bumps before departures IANNE SALVOSA NEWS EDITOR
research at previous levels, even in fi nancially challenging times,” the letter states. The letter states that travel restrictions can cause junior faculty members who contribute “significantly” to GW’s diversity in race, gender, sexual orientation and disability to leave GW over the possibility of officials cutting their funding, which could threaten the University’s diversity and inclusion commitments. The letter also states that cutting travel funds is “deeply inequitable” because some academic disciplines rely on travel to conduct field research while others do not. The letter didn’t specify which subjects would be most affected. “We are convinced that this problem can only be resolved by decisions at the highest level,” the letter states. “GW needs to reconsider its budget model in the long term, and, more immediately, examine quite seriously how this shortterm savings will impact GW’s long-term reputation, as well as the morale of its faculty.” See TRAVEL Page 4
Top officials’ salaries increased from 2020 to 2021, according to University tax forms. As a nonprofit institution, the University is required to report its revenues and expenses to the IRS via Form 990 each fiscal year, which begins July 1 and ends June 30, and the highest-paid employees’ compensations from the University and “related organizations” for each calendar year. The form reveals that former University President Thomas LeBlanc’s compensation grew from $1,246,803 in 2020 to $1,527,713 in 2021 — a $280,910 pay increase — prior to the end of his term in December 2021. The documents show that former interim University President Mark Wrighton, who began his term Jan. 1, 2022, had no reportable compensation for 2021 because officials recorded their tax information under the calendar year, according to a University spokesperson. Prior to his tenure at GW, Wrighton served as the chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis until 2019 and was the seventh highest-paid private university president in the country, collecting more than $2.8 million in total compensation. Former Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Mark Diaz experienced a pay increase from $852,686 in 2020 to $1,318,578 in 2021 — a $456,892
AN NGO | GRAPHICS EDITOR
bump — before leaving his position in June 2022, according to the form. Diaz began his GW tenure in August 2018 and oversaw facilities repairs and the consolidation of the IT department but left the University in June 2022 amid tension with faculty for his alleged involvement in a University project that monitored student, faculty and staff movement across campus. LeBlanc’s pay dropped from $1,451,969 in 2018 — the 40th highest private university president compensation that year — to $1,362,178 in 2019. He took a slight pay cut due to the onset of COVID-19 in March 2020, taking
a $115,375 decrease from 2019 to 2020. Highly compensated employees also include Barbara Bass — the dean of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences and CEO of the Medical Faculty Associates, an independent group of D.C. doctors who teach students in the School of Medicine and Health Sciences — who received $1,324,917 in 2021, which is $81,358 more than her $1,243,559 compensation in 2020. Shahram Sarkani, a professor of engineering management and systems engineering and director of GW Online Engineering Programs, earned $1,214,539 in 2021 and $1,196,956 in 2020.
Officials restock contraceptive vending machine, prepare for future sellouts
Petition calling for on-campus abortion pills hits 600 signatures: student group
HANNAH MARR
FIONA BORK
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
LYDIE LAKE STAFF WRITER
A District House contraceptive vending machine sold out of 50 morningafter contraceptive pills in less than a week and a half earlier this month, which student leaders say proves the necessity of the program. Officials restocked one of two new campus contraceptive vending machines Wednesday with 200 emergency contraceptive pills — four times as many as the initial stock that sold out. Stephanie Spector, the copresident of GW Reproductive Autonomy and Gender Equity — a student orga-
nization that advocates for reproductive justice on campus — said although GW RAGE was initially unsure how quickly the emergency contraceptives would sell out, they were not surprised when they did because they knew that demand for emergency contraceptives on college campuses is “really high.” Spector said the machine selling out quickly demonstrates how the new dispenser has improved since officials first installed one in the University Student Center in January. Officials installed a new dispenser on the B2 level of District House and in West Hall on the Mount Vernon Campus late last month, moving the machine from the student center after stu-
dents said it was inaccessible during the night because the building is closed from midnight to 7 a.m. “There are a lot of methods in place to get Plan B on campus and we really don’t have any concerns with the ability to stock it going forward,” Spector said. “The higher the demand is, that’s not going to cause any issues because that just shows that there was a lack of access previously.” Spector said the company that operates the vending machine, Canteen, and members of GW RAGE will continue to “repeatedly” check on the vending machines to ensure they are properly stocked and functioning. See CONTRACEPTIVES Page 5
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
More than 600 people have signed a petition calling on officials to offer abortion pills through the Student Health Center, the student organization that launched the form said. GW Reproductive Autonomy and Gender Equity launched the petition Friday, asking officials to provide medication abortion — also called the abortion pill — on campus after “repeated requests” have garnered no results. The petition states that GW has a responsibility to offer abortion pills for its students and anyone else seeking abortion care because D.C. is one of the few remaining places where people
can receive abortions near the southern United States in the wake of the Dobbs v. Jackson Supreme Court decision, which overturned federal abortion protections in June 2022. Though the petition’s number of signatures is not publicly available because GW RAGE launched the appeal via a Google Form, the organization’s leaders said the petition reached more than 500 signatures in its first 24 hours and has surpassed 600 signatories as of Sunday. D.C. legislation mandates that the District remains a “human rights sanctuary” for people seeking abortions from states with restricted access, like South Carolina, which bans abortion after six weeks, and West Virginia, where
abortion is completely banned with limited exceptions. The petition asks respondents for their name, email, affiliation with GW and includes an optional field for signatories to elaborate on why they support abortion pills on campus. The petition lists six “barriers” to accessing abortion after the Dobbs ruling, including finding legitimate health care providers, transportation to a clinic, a lack of private spaces, cost, wait times and the presence of protesters outside of clinics. “Providing medication abortion on campus in the Student Health Center would reduce these barriers for students and would destigmatize abortion care,” the petition states.