The GW
HATCHET
January 26, 2026 Vol. 122 Iss. 17
AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER • SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904 • ONLINE AT GWHATCHET.COM
CCAS to shrink, halt doctoral program admissions in 7 percent package cut GIANNA JAKUBOWSKI ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
The Columbian College of Arts & Sciences will cut doctoral packages by about 7 percent next year, shrinking cohorts in 13 programs and pausing admissions in five — a move faculty warn will further erode the school’s research capacity and undermine programs’ missions. Director of Graduate Studies for Economics Roberto Samaniego confirmed CCAS will fund 197 new doctoral packages in 2026-27, and officials reported that the clinical psychology, anthropology, human paleobiology, political science and mathematics Ph.D programs will admit no new funded students — a choice some program heads deemed unavoidable given the tiny cohort the school permitted post cuts. Several faculty said years of shrinking packages — which officials reportedly tied this year to a looming graduate student union
contract, set to raise student pay and benefits and fiscal strain stemming from President Donald Trump-era policies — will weaken research programs and leave clinics understaffed. “Graduate student Ph.D student lines are the bread and butter for maintaining a research program at any university,” said Department of Biological Sciences Chair Guillermo Orti. “If you’re cutting Ph.D packages to recruit students, you’re basically cutting the capacity to do research at the University.”
“You’re basically cutting the capacity to do research.” GUILLERMO ORTI CCAS Vice Dean of Programs & Operations Kimberly Gross said the roughly 7 percent cut to CCAS-funded Ph.D packages is
a temporary measure designed to ensure the college can support current students while offering “more competitive” packages in the future. She said the college’s standard graduate teaching assistantship includes a stipend, salary and tuition support, and they also offer higher-value fellow packages to attract the “best students.” The Hatchet contacted all 35 CCAS directors of graduate studies and department chairs asking if they planned to fund new Ph.D students in 2026-27. It’s unclear how many new students the American studies, chemistry, professional psychology, cognitive neuroscience, economics, English, history, physics, public policy and public administration and statistics programs will admit because the faculty either declined to comment, did not return a request or said they were waiting for more information from CCAS. Samaniego said he did not know the exact number of Ph.D
packages the school funded this academic year, but Gross’ confirmation that CCAS cut about 7 percent for next year indicates officials funded about 212 new Ph.D packages in 2025-26.
“It is very detrimental and devastating for our program.” MIMI LE “Like many universities, we have been taking a close look at how best to support our PhD programs while maintaining the highest standards in doctoral education in a difficult fiscal environment,” Gross said in an email. Some faculty in programs not admitting Ph.D students said officials offered them limited funding, but they declined to admit anyone, citing minimum class size rules and the need for student socialization. They also said
they’re concerned about the future viability of their programs, noting that doctoral students are essential to sustaining research. CCAS offers 18 doctoral degree programs across the humanities, social and behavioral sciences, clinical programs, natural sciences, mathematics and statistical analysis, forensic and natural sciences and policy and administration disciplines. Mimi Le, the director of graduate studies for the clinical psychology Ph.D program, said they will not admit any new Ph.D students in 2026-27 despite consistently bringing in between three and five students in prior years. She said officials on Jan. 8 notified the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences — which houses three doctoral programs — that it would receive funding for a total of two Ph.D students, which the department would have to divide across three programs. See OFFICIALS Page 2
PHOTO ESSAY: HISTORIC SNOWSTORM BLANKETS THE DISTRICT
ARWEN CLEMANS | SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR GW facilities employees shovel snow near Lisner Auditorium on Sunday.
Students play in the snow by the Washington Monument on Sunday.
ABBY BROWN | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Students blast GW Law for declining to disinvite ICE from public interest fair TYLER IGLESIAS
SENIOR NEWS EDITOR
Students condemned GW Law officials’ decision not to revoke U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s invitation to a public interest career fair on Friday after more than 1,000 students signed a petition calling on officials to bar them over concerns about its immigration enforcement practices. Students petitioned to
disinvite two ICE divisions from GW Law and Georgetown University Law Center’s joint annual virtual Public Sector Recruiting Program last week, gathering over 1,200 signatures and gaining a meeting on Wednesday with Dean Dayna Bowen Matthew, who ultimately chose not to bar the organization, citing free expression, University policy and accreditation rules. While ICE’s legal arm voluntarily
withdrew the morning of the career fair, half a dozen GW and Georgetown law students said they remained disappointed the school didn’t take a stronger stand against an organization they considered antithetical to the values of their law school and the public interest sector. Though ICE’s Office of the Principal Legal Advisor pulled out of the program, the second participating ICE division, the Human Rights Violators
GW Hospital renews bargaining with service workers union JENNA LEE
SENIOR NEWS EDITOR
GW Hospital announced Thursday it has begun open bargaining with a service workers union, more than a year after the National Labor Relations Board ruled the hospital violated labor laws by bargaining in bad faith. GW Hospital ceased recognizing the 1199 Service Employees International Union in 2018 following a series of bargaining sessions from 2016 to 2018 over wages and working conditions. The hospital and the workers have hosted two bargaining sessions since they resumed in December, according to a press release from the union, which comes after the NLRB ordered the hospital in 2024 to recognize and bargain with the union in good faith, rescind changes the hospital made to employment terms in 2018 and compensate employees for any lost benefits. 1199 SEIU covers the cleaning, food service and ambulatory workers at the hospital. GW Hospital nurses voted for union representation from the D.C. Nurses AssociaWHAT’S
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tion in July 2023 to address their concerns about insufficient staffing and training with hospital officials. A GW Hospital spokesperson did not return a request for comment. The 2024 ruling states the hospital “failed” and “refused” to bargain with the union in good faith from 2016 to 2018, ordering the hospital to resume bargaining in good faith, rescind changes the hospital made to employment terms and conditions unilaterally after October 2018 and compensate employees for any lost benefits, earnings and all adverse tax consequences and expenses. The union had represented service workers at GW Hospital for more than 20 years before the hospital received a decertification petition on Oct. 25, 2018 — which 81 of the 156 employees in the bargaining unit signed — and notified the union that it was immediately withdrawing recognition of the 1199 SEIU with claims that the union had lost support of a majority of employees in the bargaining unit. Hospital officials then canceled all future bargaining sessions and implemented a new compensation structure.
NEWS GW signed a power purchase agreement to fund off-site solar energy, ending its reliance on renewable energy credits. Page 2
and War Crimes Center, continued to participate, students said. “To bring an organization whose sole mission is to divide people, make people feel unwelcome, remove people from spaces and create a sense of unsafety and unrest into that space — a space that so many people in this community have worked so hard to curate — was very insulting to the people who have tried to make this such a welcom-
ing place,” said Anapaula Pérez-Gaitan, a GW Law student who also works as a program manager at the school’s public interest center. The petition, which was launched by Georgetown students on Jan. 16, called on officials from both schools to stand by their values of inclusion and justice by uninviting ICE from the career fair and refusing to invite the U.S. Department of Homeland Security or
ICE to future job fairs or events. At least 20 employers withdrew from the career fair after officials refused to disinvite ICE, following student emails to interviewers about the petition and ICE’s participation in the program, multiple students said. Students said many of the organizations still offered to meet with them outside the fair’s online platform, with many resorting to Google Meet and Zoom.
SGA reports most diverse membership in governing body’s history ISAAC HARTE REPORTER
JUWON KIM REPORTER
The Student Government Association is more gender and racially diverse than at any point in its history, according to preliminary data from an internal demographics report. The SGA’s inaugural Spring 2026 Preliminary Demographics Report — which The Hatchet obtained but the SGA has not yet publicized — concludes that the SGA’s gender and racial makeup more closely matches GW’s student body than ever before. The data signal a shift for the organization after years of criticism over gender imbalance and racial underrepresentation and follow a senate resolution last term acknowledging those gaps and calling for expanded outreach and mentorship for marginalized groups. The survey referenced in the
OPINIONS After a year of high leadership turnover, the editorial board urges GW to prioritize an internal hire in its search for the next provost. Page 6
GRAPHIC BY AN NGO
report collected 72 anonymous responses from SGA members, including senators, executive staff and first-year legislative assistants, out of 137 total members. Among all respondents, 61.1 percent identified as cisgender female, 34.7 percent as cisgender male and 4.2 percent preferred not to disclose their gender.
CULTURE School of Media & Public Affairs professor Jesse Holland and his wife opened a running store in Maryland. Page 7
Within the group of senators specifically, 50 percent identified as cisgender female, 39.3 percent as cisgender male and 10.7 percent preferred not to say. The jump in female representation in the senate marks a significant increase from previous terms, given only 27 percent of senators identified as female in 2024.
SPORTS Women’s basketball beat Fordham 58-47 on Saturday night in the Smith Center, putting the game away with a 10-0 run. Page 8