The GW
HATCHET
March 23, 2026 Vol. 122
Iss. 22
AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER • SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904 • ONLINE AT GWHATCHET.COM
Virginia campus faculty, staff full of questions after sale DYLAN EBS
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
GIANNA JAKUBOWSKI ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
Board of Trustees Vice Chair Mark Chichester and trustees Todd Klein and Jeffrey Flaks during a meeting last year.
COLLAGE BY LEXI CRITCHETT
Board of Trustees taps Vice Chair Mark Chichester as next chair GIANNA JAKUBOWSKI ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
GW announced Sat‑ urday that the Board of Trustees elected Vice Chair Mark Chichester as its next chair, succeeding longtime leader Grace Speights as the University navigates strate‑ gic planning and financial strains. Chichester, co-founder of healthcare consulting firm Atlas Research, has served as vice chair since May 2022 and will lead the University’s top governing body for three years beginning June 1 as
GW implements University President Ellen Granberg’s strategic framework, works to reverse the structural defi‑ cit and grapples with Trumpera policies reshaping higher education. The Board also elected Trustee Todd Klein to a three-year term as vice chair and reappointed Sec‑ retary Jeffrey Flaks — who began serving in the role last June — to a three-year term. The Board voted last March to extend Speights’ and Chichesters’ terms for an additional year — made pos‑ sible by a 2024 bylaw amend‑ ment that permits trustees to
extend an officer’s term for a year. Before the amendment, bylaws mandated that Board officers could not serve more than six years in the same position. Speights is no longer al‑ lowed to serve on the Board given she is leaving her offi‑ cer role, and the bylaws have a 12-year trustee term limit. Chichester has served on the Board since 2013 — ex‑ ceeding the bylaws’ 12-year limit for trustees — but the document permits trustees to surpass that limit if they are serving in an officer role. Speights, who is now
serving her seventh year as Board chair, will step down on June 1 after leading the University through a con‑ sequential period including the contentious tenure of former University President Thomas LeBlanc, Interim University President Mark Wrighton’s tenure and the Board’s selection of Universi‑ ty President Ellen Granberg. Speights also oversaw the body’s controversial decision to arm select GW Police De‑ partment officers, retire the Colonials moniker. See TRUSTEE Page 5
Faculty and staff oper‑ ating out of the Virginia Science and Technology Campus say the Univer‑ sity’s decision to sell the property without con‑ sulting them or outlining relocation plans has left them in the dark about how exactly officials will use the profits and the fu‑ ture of their programs. Half a dozen faculty and staff say the sale will help combat GW’s struc‑ tural deficit and support University President El‑ len Granberg’s new stra‑ tegic framework, but of‑ ficials so far have failed to detail how exactly they will use the money or account for the campus’ more than 850 employees, 20 degree and certificate programs and 17 research labs. These faculty and staff, alongside Loudoun County officials, say GW failed to consult them on the decision to sell the property to Amazon for data center development, which could significantly disrupt education and research and will con‑ tribute to environmental degradation. “Quite frankly, they have much more work to do,” Ellen Scully-Russ, an associate professor of human and organization learning at the Graduate School of Education and Human Development, said. “As a faculty mem‑ ber, I would much rather
see a conversation around how this money is going to be invested and spent to support the growth of the University.” GW last month sold the VSTC campus, locat‑ ed in Loudoun County, for $427 million to Ama‑ zon Data Services, which plans to develop the site into a data or informa‑ tion technology center. Chief Financial Officer Bruno Fernandes told The Hatchet last month that officials hadn’t spo‑ ken to community mem‑ bers about the sale before they publicly announced it, though University spokesperson Julia Garb‑ itt said officials would now consult VSTC cam‑ pus leaders and com‑ munity members as they navigate the sale’s impact on campus programs. Garbitt reaffirmed of‑ ficials’ commitment to a smooth and well-planned process of moving the campus’s operations in a way that ensures the con‑ tinuity of VSTC programs and services and engage‑ ment of the “entire” GW community, but she cited confidentiality provisions in the sales agreement as officials’ reason for not sharing specific details with Loudoun County’s Board of Supervisors or VSTC employees. Garbitt said officials are in the process of fi‑ nalizing a timeline and structure for a “coordi‑ nating group” that will help transition campus operations. See VSTC Page 5
Beloved economics professor, principled faculty senator dies at 76 GIANNA JAKUBOWSKI ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
Joseph Cordes, a longtime economics professor, co-direc‑ tor of the Regulatory Studies Center and faculty senator, died on Feb. 26 after more than 50 years at GW. He was 76. Cordes held several faculty appointments and leadership roles in his five decades at the University, including professor of economics, public policy and public administration and in‑ ternational affairs, chair of the economics department, faculty senator and one of the founding members of the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Pub‑ lic Administration. Colleagues, students and family remember
Cordes as a generous, enthusi‑ astic leader who eagerly shared his knowledge of economics with everyone he met. “Joe Cordes was one of a kind, and so we just can’t have the idea that we can find a re‑ placement for him,” said Steven Balla, who serves as the Regula‑ tory Studies Center’s co-direc‑ tor and described Cordes as a mentor. “That would be an im‑ possibility, but what we can do is move forward and honor his spirit.” Cordes was born on April 16, 1949, in San Francisco, Califor‑ nia. He earned his bachelor’s de‑ gree in economics from Stanford University in 1971 and his Ph.D. in economics from the Univer‑ sity of Wisconsin-Madison in
SNAPSHOT
1977, according to his LinkedIn. He began his career as an eco‑ nomics professor at GW in 1975. Sarah Cordes, his daughter, described him as a “brilliant” and “incredibly kind” person who never got angry. She said he loved his grandchildren and often took them on walks and to the playground when they came to visit. She said her father never bragged about his accomplish‑ ments, recalling how she didn’t know GW was holding a 50thanniversary celebration for him until one of his colleagues emailed her, saying they knew Cordes wouldn’t tell her him‑ self. See COLLEAGUES Page 5
KYRA WOOD | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR
HATCHET FILE PHOTO Economics professor Joseph Cordes at a Faculty Senate meeting in 2018.
GW lifts 10-month freeze on student group applications RYAN SAENZ
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
Students gathered in Square 80 to celebrate Holi, the Hindu festival of colors, on Saturday.
WHAT’S
INSIDE
NEWS The share of students who graduated with double majors reached 19.8 percent during the 2024-25 academic year. Page 3
OPINIONS The editorial board urges officials to acknowledge community concerns over adjunct faculty compensation. Page 6
Officials reopened student organization applications earlier this month after a 10‑month freeze that students said stifled community building and pushed some to form unofficial groups, operating without funding or campus resources. The Division for Student Affairs reopened applications after comparing their approval process to peer schools’ and updating its evaluation rubric to include anticipated financial needs and potential safety risks, a University spokesperson confirmed. DSA implemented the pause at the end of the spring 2025 semester to “improve the support structures” for current student organizations, which prompted students to unofficially form new organizations on campus without access to resources like University funding and campus spaces.
CULTURE Meet the Foggy Bottom volunteer gardeners who spend their spare time beautifying the neighborhood. Page 7
A University spokesperson confirmed that DSA received 13 applications by last Monday’s priority deadline — which would allow new groups to apply for Student Government Association funding for the fall semester — and expects to receive additional applications ahead of the extended Thursday deadline. They said the DSA does not have a cap on the number of applications they will approve. “While work on this front continues, DSA was committed to opening the process so that, if interested, approved organizations would be eligible for the SGA budget allocation request process for fall 2026 funding,” the spokesperson said in an email. The spokesperson said during the pause, officials reviewed student organization approval processes at GW’s peer schools, which prompted them to improve support structures for student groups.
SPORTS Men’s basketball fell 86-61 to the University of New Mexico on Sunday night, ending their season. Page 8