The GW
HATCHET
February 23, 2026 Vol. 122
Iss. 20
AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER • SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904 • ONLINE AT GWHATCHET.COM
Staff Council urges officials, Board of Trustees to resist federal pressure ALYSSA WISMAR REPORTER
ARUNMOY DAS REPORTER
The Staff Council called on officials and the Board of Trustees Friday to reject federal agreements and resist preemptive compliance with President Donald Trump’s policies that could impose ideological or structural changes undermining the University’s mission. The council at its Friday meet-
ing adopted a proclamation declaring that the University must reject any federal mandate or agreement that would undermine its academic foundations — like freedom of expression, academic freedom and commitment to diversity — and resist altering policies in the event of a settlement offer. The move comes as GW faces two Justice Department probes into diversity practices in admissions and campus antisemitism, echoing probes at other universities that prompted their officials
to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and reach financial settlements. “At a minimum, the proclamation presents an opportunity to reaffirm the University’s commitments to its community and to articulate, with clarity and confidence, the values that guide us, particularly at a moment when higher education itself is under sustained critical examination,” Staff Council Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee Chair Tricia Greenstein said in an
email after the meeting. Greenstein, who presented the proclamation, said councilmembers drafted the document after noting parallels between President Donald Trump’s Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education and settlement agreements the federal government has offered to institutions in the Association of American Universities — a consortium of leading research universities that includes GW. According to the proclamation, both the compact and the federal agree-
ments seek to curtail community members’ rights to free expression and academic freedom. Greenstein said Brown University, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Virginia — all universities that Trump’s administration directly offered the higher education compact to — declined but had already reached separate settlements with the federal government with similar terms. See BOARD Page 5
Students, alum criticize GW’s response to campus antisemitism in testimony JENNA LEE
SENIOR NEWS EDITOR
TYLER IGLESIAS
SENIOR NEWS EDITOR
Two students and an alum testified before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Friday, detailing their experiences of antisemitism at GW and criticizing the University’s insufficient response to their reports. GW alum Sabrina Soffer, who graduated in 2025 and sued the University in May for not adequately responding to antisemitism on campus, junior Archer Berenson and sophomore Mara Riegel testified that persistent antisemitism from fellow students, antiIsrael comments from faculty members and a lack of University response have made them feel unsafe on campus. Their testimony was part of the public comment portion of a hearing on rising campus antisemitism following the outbreak of war in Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, and came at a moment when GW could face punitive measures after the Department of Justice’s August findings that GW acted deliberately indifferent to campus antisemitism. “Violent, atavistic antisemitism on GW’s campus is not rare, not abstract and not confined to the margins,” Berenson said at the hearing. University Spokesperson Julia Garbitt said GW condemns antisemitism in the “strongest terms” and has long maintained and enforced anti-harassment and anti-discrimination policies. She also said officials launched the Office of Access and Opportunity in June to man-
age discrimination and harassment complaints. “We have made it clear to our GW community that we prioritize fostering an environment that is respectful, accountable and safe for all and that behavior that is disruptive, harmful or does not comply with GW policies will not be tolerated,” Garbitt said in an email. Berenson, Riegel and Soffer all cited heightened antisemitism on GW’s campus since the start of the war in their testimonies. Berenson said a student told his friends not to spend time with him after they discovered he was Jewish, and a professor in a class he took on human rights said Hamas was a “creation of Israel.” Berenson said he did not testify in the hope that the federal government will retaliate against GW or any other universities, but he felt it was necessary to tell the truth about what is happening on campus, which he said is “darker than most people imagine.” Riegel, who is also a Hatchet opinions writer, said students harassed her during a protest last spring, and she filed a complaint with the Office of Conflict Education & Student Accountability and received “not a shred of justice.” “The pervasiveness of antisemitism on this campus has made me not feel, but know, that I cannot be my full self in front of my peers, and it’s made me feel very scrutinized, and it’s made me feel like I’m under a microscope in a way that other people aren’t,” Riegel said in an interview after the hearing.
KAIDEN J. YU | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Graduate forward Luke Hunger high fives his teammates during a game against the University of Maine in November.
In Castro’s absence, Luke Hunger seizes his moment RYAN JAINCHILL BASKETBALL EDITOR
Graduate student forward Luke Hunger’s role on the team felt decided in mid-January. Brought in to transform the frontcourt and form a towering, two-big lineup alongside redshirt senior center Rafael Castro, Hunger instead found himself confined to brief, sheltered minutes off the bench — a contrast to the vision Head Coach Chris Caputo laid out in July. By the time the Revolutionaries faced the then-unbeaten Saint Louis Billikens on Jan. 28, he was averaging just 6.0 points and 4.1 rebounds per game with only one start, struggling to deliver the impact the team expected him to make. Meanwhile, Castro — an Atlantic 10 Player of the Year contender coming off a breakout 2024-25
season — was thriving, further cementing his role as the focal point of the frontcourt, averaging 14.20 points and 8.9 rebounds per game, which relegated Hunger deeper into the background. But that trajectory would shift in the days after the loss to Saint Louis. In the days that followed, Castro suffered a foot injury in practice, sidelining the Revs’ anchor and suddenly elevating Hunger from a complementary piece to the team’s primary presence in the paint. The adjustment was abrupt. Hunger’s minutes climbed to 22 in the first game without Castro, then to a season-high 31 in the next as his responsibilities expanded in real time. But the increased workload did not immediately translate to team success — the Revs dropped both contests despite being
favored, still searching for stability without their star center. That tide would begin to turn in the third game of the team’s stretch without Castro during a road game against Duquesne, when Hunger logged a career-high 38 minutes and delivered 17 points and 13 rebounds for his third double-double of the season. The 6-foot-10 forward was beginning to morph into the player Caputo saw he could be. “It definitely took some time to adjust, but once I kind of got settled in and realized that I wasn’t going to come out of the game too much, it helped me get in a rhythm and helped me be able to make shots and get my teammates open,” Hunger said. Game after game, Hunger began turning opportunity into production. In the Revs’
win over Rhode Island that snapped a four-game losing streak, Hunger set a career-high in points with 21 in 36 minutes, including some big baskets as the Rams tried to get back into the game. The surge was impressive, but Hunger’s breakout was only just beginning. After that win on Feb. 10, the Revs hosted the George Mason Patriots in the season’s second edition of the Revolutionary Rivalry, a team that, in the first leg, they had lost to just a month before. In need of a big performance in Castro’s absence, Hunger stepped up, scoring a career-high 31 points and hauling down 10 rebounds to give the Revs a 72-53 statement victory in a game in which the 6-foot-10 forward could not miss a shot. See HUNGER Page 8
Meet the candidates vying to lead GW Law’s student government ELIJAH EDWARDS
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
Law students will elect the Student Bar Association’s next president and executive vice president on Wednesday, following a term marked by tightened budgets, advocacy against federal immigration activity and heightened collaboration with the Student Government Association. Candidates for SBA president and executive vice president said they hope to boost transparency between law school officials and students surrounding broader University challenges, like federal investigations and budget constraints, and raise law school student awareness of SBA’s existing resources, like funding for professional conferences. Two presidential candidates and one executive vice presidential candidate are running to take the helm of the SBA’s next term, which begins in April. All law students can vote in the election using a Google Form sent to their emails, which will open on WHAT’S
INSIDE
Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Candidates for SBA president: SBA Sen. Juliana Fernandez
Juliana Fernandez, a secondyear law student originally from Venezuela, said serving as an SBA senator for the last two years and taking over as SBA President Amanda Hichez’s chief of staff in January taught her how to coordinate between the body’s branches and with law school officials to accomplish her goals. Fernandez said, if elected, her top priority would be strengthening communication between GW Law officials, SBA leaders and students by pushing administrators to provide more regular updates on issues affecting the law school community, like budget cuts, federal investigations and University policy changes. She said this year officials have not been fully transparent with students about pressures facing the law school and the University, including how internal budget cuts and federal
NEWS Faculty are pushing officials to shorten academic integrity panel trainings to boost participation. Page 2
PHOTOS BY AURORA UNDERWOOD, NICHOLAS WARE AND KRIS PARK From left to right: Thaddaeus Canuel, Juliana Fernandez and Jaimon Graves Cater.
pressures could affect GW Law’s funding, programming or operations. The SBA took a nearly $50,000 — or 25 percent — budget cut at the beginning of this academic year, which leaders attributed to
OPINIONS The editorial board urges professors to implement more creative assignments as students’ artificial intelligence use rises. Page 6
broader University budget strain. GW Law officials also laid off the school’s assistant dean for environmental law studies in October amid University-wide budget cuts. “I would like for the students
CULTURE Shoebox Music transformed the basement of Guthridge Hall into a stage Saturday night for its “Music for Lovers” open mic. Page 7
to know what is going on with their school,” Fernandez said. “I want to make it transparent for students to know if there’s information that they need to know.” See SBA Page 5
SPORTS Men’s swimming and diving captured their sixth consecutive Atlantic 10 championship, but women’s placed second. Page 8