The GW
HATCHET
March 3, 2025 Vol. 121 Iss. 21
AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER • SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904 • ONLINE AT GWHATCHET.COM
Staff Council presses GW for more communication on new promotion, hiring review process HAILEY PRUNIER REPORTER
SHEA CARLBERG STAFF WRITER
The Staff Council sought clarity on the University’s new promotion and hiring approval process in a statement Thursday, writing that staff members are “deeply concerned” about the announcement’s implications. Officials announced in an email to faculty and staff late last month that GW is adding a “position management review process” to the promotions and hiring process through at least fiscal year 2025 to preserve the University’s “limited” resources as officials brace for potential hits to the University budget from recent executive actions. In response, the council requested that officials clarify what factors they will use to determine if reviews will be approved or delayed and asked them to commit to evaluating “all areas” of GW when attempting to cut costs, including “administrative salaries” and “discretionary spending.” Officials distributed instructions and communications to each vice president and dean regarding the new position review process to distribute to their staff, according to the council statement. The process
NIDHI NAIR REPORTER
ARWEN CLEMANS | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR Staff Council President Kim Fulmer at a Board of Trustees meeting in February
involves a review of new positions, backfills, position changes, reclassifications and student hires and will include the approval of a unit or school leader, as well as a review by Chief Financial Officer Bruno Fernandes, Provost Chris Bracey and Chief of Staff Scott Mory. “Staff have a deep emotional contract with the University,
built on dedication and trust, and we ask that all decisions affecting their livelihood be made with great care and compassion,” the council wrote in its statement. The council wrote that officials indicated the University is in a strong financial position in their announcement of the position management review, but
President Donald Trump’s recent attempt to pause research funding and the Department of Education’s threat to pull funding from any academic institution that considers race in its operations has prompted officials to start taking proactive steps to prevent layoffs. See ANNOUNCEMENT Page 5
Federal task force to visit GW, gather information on campus antisemitism: DOJ HANNAH MARR NEWS EDITOR
A U.S. Department of Justice antisemitism task force on Friday announced it will visit GW and nine other universities that they said have experienced “antisemitic incidents” since the onset of the war in Gaza. Leading Task Force Member Leo Terrell said in a press release Friday that the task force will meet with University leadership, “impacted” students and staff, local law enforcement and community members before they decide whether “remedial action” is war-
Proposed textbook program prompts faculty questions on affordability
ranted. The announcement comes after GW was one of ten universities accused by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce in October of failing to sufficiently discipline pro-Palestinian protesters who violated University policies following an investigation into antisemitism on college campuses. Six Republican members of the House of Representatives Oversight Committee also visited the pro-Palestinian encampment in University Yard in May, where they called on D.C. officials to arrest protesters involved in the demonstration.
University spokesperson Julia Garbitt said the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division asked to meet with officials to discuss the steps they have taken, and continue to take, to combat antisemitism. She said GW has “long maintained” strong anti-harassment and anti-discrimination policies, which officials have articulated in GW’s Code of Conduct and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy. Garbitt also said the University “recently” convened a group of officials and “outside advisors” to consider how GW can address the rise in antisemi-
tism, where officials built on “lessons learned” and discussed how they could lay a foundation for “positive growth.” She said the University has demonstrated public support of GW’s Jewish community, as officials have rejected calls from pro-Palestinian protests for GW to divest from companies with ties to Israel. She added that the University does not support academic boycotts or other actions called for by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Garbitt said GW has on several occasions “publicly and prominently” condemned acts of anti-
semitism and encouraged members of the community to report incidents and seek support. The Justice Department created the task force in early February in response to President Donald Trump’s Jan. 30 executive order that directed the DOJ to take “immediate action” to “investigate and punish anti-Jewish racism in leftist, anti-American colleges and universities.” A University spokesperson said the task force has not scheduled the meeting yet and officials do not have details about the agenda nor the participants.
GW is considering implementing a flat-fee textbook program next academic year, stirring initial apprehension among faculty members. Follett ACCESS would provide digital access to course materials, like textbooks, to students for $245 per semester, a University spokesperson said last week. Members of the Faculty Senate Educational Policy and Technology Committee expressed concerns about GW’s possible implementation of the program during its January committee meeting and the senate’s full February meeting, particularly regarding its student-facing costs, potential conflict with the library’s existing resources and the lack of an opt-out feature for professors. University spokesperson Julia Garbitt said officials have made no final decision about whether the Follett ACCESS program will be carried out at GW because conversations are ongoing. She said the Follett ACCESS program imposes no restrictions on faculty as “all content” can be included and poses “no disruption” to professors’ course plans. The University would automatically enroll all students in the program by default, she said. She said the course materials included within Follett ACCESS are not limited to just textbooks but also extend to “eBooks, courseware (access codes), physical textbooks and even courserelated supplies/kits.” Follett ACCESS, would provide digital textbook access on the first day of class for a fixed fee per semester, charging students for course materials under tuition fees with an opt-out option, according to its website. Follett did not return a request for comment. Students in the Follett ACCESS program at various schools have reduced the cost of their course materials by up to 80 percent, according to its website. During the Faculty Senate’s February meeting, Sarah Wagner, the cochair of the senate’s EPT Committee, said the committee believed the program would not be an appropriate fit for GW. She said the program “undermines” the libraries’ existing initiatives to deliver educational resources at no or reduced cost to students. “The Education Policy Committee was pretty clear that we didn’t think it was a good idea, and if that really was going to happen, we felt that the entire senate should be involved in that discussion,” Phil Wirtz, an EPT committee member, said at the meeting.
MFA hires physicians for Cedar Hill hospital amid staffing, outreach concerns JENNA LEE
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
Officials from the Medical Faculty Associates are hiring new physicians amid concerns from local government leaders about the practice’s ability to staff a new hospital due to its financial instability. Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center GW Health — a $434 million facility set to be staffed by MFA physicians and operated by Universal Health Services, the owner of GW Hospital — will open April 15 as part of Mayor Muriel Bowser’s plan to combat health disparities in wards 7 and 8. MFA officials said they are working to hire new physicians to staff the hospital after D.C. councilmembers expressed worries that the MFA will be unable to meet the hospital staffing obligations since the enterprise requested late last year to renegotiate its contract due to its financial challenges. City officials chose UHS to own and operate the Cedar Hill hospital in 2020, including staffing the facility with physicians from the MFA, a group of physicians and faculty from the School of Medicine & Health Sciences and physicians at the GW Hospital. In the original agreement, the MFA pledged to staff the hospital with 160 physicians, the Washington Post reported. Sometime around December 2024, the MFA requested that UHS renegotiate its contract due to financial chalWHAT’S
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lenges. The practice has lost $107 million in the last fiscal year. District and hospital officials held a hearing in December where D.C. councilmembers raised concerns about the MFA’s recent financial losses and Cedar Hill official’s alleged lack of outreach to local health care providers in Ward 8. At the hearing, UHS and Cedar Hill officials indicated that negotiations are ongoing and there is no set date for when the agreement will be final. MFA spokesperson Anne Banner said the practice continues to “be in discussions” with UHS to ensure the MFA provides services at Cedar Hill on a “costneutral basis” by working to hire more physicians to staff the new hospital. “The MFA is in the process of hiring physicians and advanced practice providers for the Cedar Hill hospital, and we continue to work in coordination with UHS towards the planned opening in April and for the staffing that will be required over subsequent phases,” Banner said in an email. Wards 7 and 8, which have a majority Black population, have long faced health disparities due to a lack of quality health care centers. Residents of Ward 8’s life expectancy is 15 years lower than those of Ward 3, the area with the highest life expectancy at 87 years. Residents over the age of 40 east of the Anacostia River are four times more likely to face cost and geographic barriers to accessing health care than those other wards, according to AARP.
NEWS Researchers at GW say President Donald Trump’s efforts to slash federally funded research have put their studies in limbo. Page 2
The entrance of the Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center GW Health in Ward 8
Bowser has invested in health care infrastructure in Southeast D.C. the past few years to address these disparities, including opening Cedar Hill hospital and moving D.C. Health headquarters to Ward 8. Banner declined to comment on why the practice requested a renegotiation of the contract. Kimberly Russo, the UHS D.C. region group vice president and
OPINIONS The editorial board argues that giving power to generative artificial intelligence in academia usurps one’s own. Page 6
ARWEN CLEMANS | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR
the CEO of GW Hospital, said at the December hearing that the MFA was “revising and refining” their professional services agreement “as a result of financial challenges.” Officials from UHS did not return a request for comment on the current status of the negotiations and what they are looking to change in the contract to ensure the MFA is financially pro-
CULTURE Meet the GW professors who have bent their loyalty to the Revolutionaries to teach at neighboring universities in the D.C. region Page 7
tected. At-large D.C. Councilmember Christina Henderson, who called the December hearing, said in an interview that she initiated the hearing because she was concerned about the Cedar Hill hospital officials not reaching out to community health care providers in wards 7 and 8. See OFFICIALS Page 5
SPORTS The Smith Center’s in-house DJ talks spinning tracks and electrifying the crowd during GW basketball games. Page 8