Monday, October 2, 2023 I Vol. 120 Iss. 7
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INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER • SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904
What’s inside Opinions
The editorial board argues the “Secure D.C. Plan” is not guaranteed to decrease crime. Page 6
Culture
A student group fosters a safe space for Armenian students on campus. Page 7
Sports
Ride along on an earlymorning women’s rowing practice. Page 8
Ad campaign to ‘Rev Up’ waning graduate enrollment
Congress evades government shutdown with stopgap funding
IANNE SALVOSA
ERIKA FILTER
NEWS EDITOR
NEWS EDITOR
SOPHIE LHERT
LIYANA ILYAS
REPORTER
REPORTER
A new GW marketing campaign is popping up across popular D.C. spots in an effort to rev up graduate student enrollment. University spokesperson Julia Metjian said the Rev Up campaign will promote GW’s graduate and certificate programs on digital billboards in “high-traffic” areas across D.C. like Reagan National Airport, Nationals Park, Metro stations and bikeshare kiosks as well as digital ads on mobile devices, social media and audio and video streaming platforms. Metjian said the Rev Up tagline, which alludes to GW’s new Revolutionaries moniker, highlights the increased career opportunities for individuals with a graduate degree. “The Washington, D.C. region is highly competitive with many universities with a presence in the area,” Metjian said in an email. “We want to make sure GW’s graduate programs are top-of-mind for those who are seeking graduate degrees or certificates.” Graduate student enrollment has decreased by 9 percent in the past six years, from 15,821 graduate students in 2017 to 14,383 students in 2022, according to the enrollment dashboard. Graduate certificate, or nondegree program, enrollment declined from 372 students in 2017 to 314 in 2021 despite the addition of more than 20 certificate programs over the past five years. Higher education experts said the programs’ high cost and the lack of guaranteed job security may deter students from the certificate programs. University President Ellen Granberg said at a Faculty Senate meeting last month that the Office of Communication and Marketing and the Office of the Provost collaborated to create the Rev Up campaign, which is the first major promotion of graduate programs in years. Officials hired advertising agency Tribal New York to promote GW’s graduate programs in 2014 amid an enrollment slump but cut ties with Tribal New York and hired LMO Advertising in 2015 to carry out its online marketing. Officials paid $4,228,237 to LMO Advertising in Fiscal Year 2022, which is listed as Laughlin, Marinaccio & Owens Inc. on the University’s Form 990, a tax form for nonprofit institutions to report their revenues and expenses. “As I understand it has been many, many years since we’ve done a comprehensive campaign to market our graduate programs,” Granberg said at the meeting. “And certainly this is a time when we’re looking to increase enrollment, so I’m delighted that that’s going on.” Advertisements in Metro stations display a photo of a GW graduate with the caption “Make your career unstoppable,” and include a QR code and link to the Rev Up campaign website.
Congress passed a stopgap government funding bill Saturday, averting a government shutdown for the next 45 days. President Joe Biden signed a shortterm funding bill — passed by the Senate less than three hours before the shutdown would have gone into effect — into law Saturday night. The funding resolution means student interns in federal offices can continue their work until at least Nov. 17, the deadline for Congress to either fund the government through next year or issue another stopgap measure. Officials announced that GW would have operated normally under a shutdown last week, but students interning at government offices may have lost work. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy struggled to work with the far-right flank of his party, who wanted dramatic spending cuts, to avoid the shutdown. The speaker eventually teamed with Democrats to approve the temporary spending plan. The measure passed the House with a vote of 335 to 91, with 90 Republicans and one Democrat in opposition. McCarthy’s move may have put his speakership at risk. Far-right Republicans who warned McCarthy against teaming up with Democrats are reportedly looking to oust the California Republican. Officials said in an email to students Friday that a potential shutdown would not affect students’ financial aid but could have delayed military-affiliated students’ education and tuition assistance packages, which are offered through the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense.
See FACULTY Page 4
KARSYN MEYERSON | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER University President Ellen Granberg addresses students and families at the Presidential Conversation in Lisner Auditorium on Saturday.
Granberg outlines alumni engagement, access to education as priorities IANNE SALVOSA
proximity to governmental institutions to kickstart the beginning of her tenure. “As a president here, part of my job is to be a catalyst for all of that possibility,” Granberg said at the event. “To help our community to leverage our proximity, our pursuit of impact and our people and to ensure that we are marshaling the resources we need, creating the infrastructure we need and ensuring that the members of our community have the support they need to truly make a difference.” Attendees asked Granberg questions about her plans for the University’s future, GW’s position in national rankings and the arming of some GW Police Department officers this
NEWS EDITOR
University President Ellen Granberg outlined priorities for her tenure, like improving access to education and career services and encouraging research, at a GW Together event Saturday. Granberg held a Presidential Conversation in Lisner Auditorium during Alumni and Families Weekend as part of GW Together, her national tour to speak with alumni and donors to leverage goals for GW’s future. Granberg, who began her term as University president July 1, said she wants to use the University’s ascension to the Association of American Universities, volunteering and
fall. Granberg said the University would benefit from more alumni participation in donations and student mentorship. She added that alumni can attend the regional GW Together events to converse with her and other GW community members about how to improve the GW experience. Alumni and donors gathered in Philadelphia last month for the first GW Together Presidential Reception and Granberg will meet with other community members in Denver, Chicago, New York City, Miami, Palm Beach, Florida, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle from October to March. See GW Page 5
Actress, alum Kerry Washington talks time at GW, new memoir CADE MCALLISTER EVENTS EDITOR
GW alum and actress Kerry Washington discussed how her time at the University improved her acting at Lisner Auditorium on Wednesday. Washington, who graduated in 1998 with a bachelor of arts in anthropology and sociology and attended GW on a now-discontinued Presidential Performing Arts Scholarship, said she learned to focus on the process of acting while studying at GW rather than booking jobs during a book talk for her new memoir. The conversation about the memoir — “Thicker Than Water” — with her “Scandal” co-star Tony Goldwyn was hosted by D.C. bookstore Politics and Prose. After graduating from GW, Washington went on to play crisis manager Olivia Pope in the Emmy award-winning political drama “Scandal,” which ran for seven seasons from 2012 to 2018,
and starred in several movies, including as Broomhilda von Shaft in the 2012 western “Django Unchained.” University President Ellen Granberg delivered introductory and concluding remarks, announcing the establishment of the Earl and Valerie Washington Endowed Scholarship, named after Washington’s parents. The scholarship will provide financial support to undergraduate students pursuing liberal art degrees in the Columbian College of Arts & Sciences, according to a University release. Granberg said Washington spoke with students from the Corcoran Theatre Arts Program before the event and that she is honored Washington continues to make GW part of her “remarkable journey” through campus visits. Washington said she learned the “art of storytelling” at GW, including how to analyze a scene and create a character. She said
KARSYN MEYERSON | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER “Scandal” star and GW alum Kerry Washington discussed her acting career and time at GW during a discussion at Lisner Auditorium on Wednesday.
this education differed from her acting experience prior to coming to the University, where she mainly starred in commercials and as Heather in the ABC afterschool special “Magical Make-
Over,” a comedy about a teenage girl who wants to be popular. She said being a thespian at GW taught her that castmates must push each other to deliver better performances.
Broadcast executive and producer, SMPA professor dies at 71 RACHEL MOON
CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR
Michael Freedman, a broadcast news manager, editor and producer, professorial lecturer and the former University vice president of communications, died of pancreatic cancer on Sept. 18. He was 71. Freedman began at GW as the vice president for communications in 2000 and started working as a professorial lecturer in media and public affairs in 2001, according to a University release. Faculty, students and friends remember Freedman as a devoted educator with a warm, kind and thoughtful presence who was passionate about introducing his students to the world of journalism. Freedman was the executive producer of “The Kalb Report,” a television series that explored the role of the press in democracy, for nearly three decades from 1994 to 2023. He also led production at GW for more than 700 live CNN Crossfire telecasts in the early 2000s, according to the release. The release states that Freed-
man also served as the president of the National Press Club in 2020 and was the managing editor for United Press International’s broadcast division. He also served as the general manager of CBS Radio Network and won 12 Edward R. Murrow Awards for Excellence during his career. Freedman was also a senior vice president and journalist in residence at the University of Maryland Global Campus, per the release. Joe Bondi, one of Freedman’s former students who graduated in 2001, said taking a class with Freedman was “everything a GW class should be” and included excursions to major newsrooms across D.C. and an “unbelievable” array of guest speakers in classes. Bondi said Freedman was a passionate professor and mentor and that the students he mentored over the years will represent his legacy. “It’s one of the things that I think makes the GW education as amazing as it is, the city is your classroom and these practitioners are your teachers and there was just no better example of that than Mike’s class,” Bondi said.
Bondi said some of his favorite memories of Freedman include when he recruited Tony Bennett, an honorary doctor of music and GW President’s Medal recipient, to speak at his Commencement in 2001 and when they both rode the “rollercoaster” of the Washington Nationals’ 2019 World Series win together. Bondi said he and Freedman bonded over a love of baseball and kept in touch over the years by getting coffee together and talking on the phone during their commutes. “Mike made friends everywhere he went. There were just very few people that weren’t his friend,” Bondi said. “He just had a kind of personality about him that people were just attracted to, and he kept his friends so close and that is a big part of his legacy is his network of friends. And we’re all connected through him.” Heather Date, a former student of Freedman’s and the vice president for communications and engagement at UMGC, said she first met Freedman when she was a sophomore at GW in 1995 when he invited her to be a volunteer for “The Kalb Report.” Date said
COURTESY OF HEATHER DATE Michael Freedman (left) sits alongside former CBS and NBC Chief Diplomatic Correspondent Marvin Kalb at a National Press Club event.
Freedman cared deeply about media history, news literacy and journalism ethics and excellence. “For 28 years, Mike Freedman was my mentor, colleague, and most of all — my friend,” Date said in an email. “I often said that
Mike was trying to ‘save journalism one crazy idea at a time.’ He saw boundless possibilities in ideas, and he saw unlimited potential in people.” See COLLEAGUES Page 5