The GW
HATCHET
April 27, 2026 Vol. 122
Iss. 27
AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER • SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904 • ONLINE AT GWHATCHET.COM
In a year defined by cuts, Granberg sees strategic framework as path forward GIANNA JAKUBOWSKI ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
University President Ellen Granberg said when she started her tenure as GW’s 19th president in July 2023, she “couldn’t even have imagined” the number of challenges GW would be facing today. But in a sit down interview with The Hatchet at the end of her third year in office, she said she sees her newly launched strategic framework as the University’s path toward amplifying the roots of the student experience as GW continues to navigate the financial impacts of a structural budget deficit and President Donald Trump’s overhaul of higher education. Granberg said she often hears students’ desire for improved services like enhanced advising and more D.C. experiences, even as officials continue to cut student services and GW’s cost of attendance nears $100,000, but efforts like the $427 million sale of the Virginia Science and Technology Campus and budget cuts in strategic areas will manifest into measurable improvements to the student experience over the next year and into the long term.
“People are not asking for things that are out of line,” Granberg said of student demands for improved resources. “Part of this is to say, ‘Okay, let’s up the base of what every student can expect,’ and that’s part of what the framework is intended to do.” Student and faculty frustrations about cuts to dining, academic, transportation and student life services across the University throughout fiscal year 2026 have been a consistent theme of Granberg’s third year in office. She acknowledged in the interview the University will have to conduct additional budget cuts in FY2027 — largely due to continuing declines in international and graduate student enrollment — which she said are necessary to achieve broader goals in the strategic framework, like improving student financial aid and strengthening career and academic advising, both issues she said she often hears from students that officials need to improve. “It’s not just about cutting, it’s also about how do we make sure that we’re spending our money in the places that are going to have this impact?” Granberg said.
University President Ellen Granberg during a sit-down interview in April.
Students urge GW to boost current services as Revolutionary Promise looks ahead ARUNMOY DAS STAFF WRITER
LOUISA HANNOUCENE STAFF WRITER
Students say GW’s newly announced Revolutionary Promise, which outlines financial aid guarantees for incoming students, represents a disconnect between promises officials are making to new enrollees and the quality of experience current students enjoy. After officials earlier this month announced GW will cover the cost of tuition for domestic residential undergraduate students with household incomes of less than $100,000 starting with the class of 2030, a majority of more than 30 students interviewed said they feel it is unfair for officials to place disproportionate financial burdens on returning students as GW’s cost of attendance inches toward $100,000 and officials continue to make cuts student services. The students said the exclusion of cur-
rently-enrolled students from the initiative shows officials are more committed to bolstering enrollment than investing in its current students, and pressed officials to match the commitments made to incoming students with improvements to current services offered at the University. Jayden Nuamah, a first-year
student majoring in entrepreneurship and innovation, said officials should be “more concerned” about caring for their current student population, given he has seen students transfer or plan to do so due to GW’s high cost of attendance. “I just feel like there are students who are not getting their needs met,” Nuamah said.
ABBY BROWN | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Students walk through Kogan Plaza in April.
MATHYLDA DULIAN | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR
Cedar Hill fractured community trust after quality, safety lapses care long absent east of the Anacostia River. 8D01 Commissioner and ANC Chair Dionne Brown, an independent health policy consultant, said Ward 7 and 8 residents already faced worse health outcomes than the rest of the city before Cedar Hill opened, and a hospital they cannot trust compounds those disparities by causing people to seek care somewhere further away, with some choosing to delay or not seek care at all. She said city leaders promised residents a hospital east of the river would finally address their healthcare needs, but failed to ensure Cedar Hill could actually meet those expectations. “I’m embarrassed to say our city did this at the risk of human lives,” Brown said. Residents’ skepticism about the hospital hardened into mistrust as reports of surgical mistakes and long waits mounted since the hospital’s opening, Brown said, and many residents now call friends and family in medical crises instead of 911 to avoid Cedar Hill. “I don’t even say, ‘Why didn’t you call 911?’” Brown said. “We already have an understanding.”
BRYSON KLOESEL
CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR
NATALIE NOTE
CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR
Health citations, delays in care and quality lapses at Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center GW Health have eroded community trust in the hospital in its first year of operations, local leaders said. Cedar Hill opened in April 2025 in an agreement between the District and Universal Health Services, GW Hospital’s owner and operator, to expand access to healthcare in Southeast D.C., but staffing shortages and high turnover in the hospital’s highest leadership roles have spelled long wait times, unopened services and low quality of care for residents. Local leaders in Ward 8, which has a majority Black population and has long experienced health disparities due to lack of access to medical care, said surgical mistakes — including a patient death in January — and numerous health citations have fostered community mistrust toward the hospital, dashing hopes that the hospital would finally deliver the quality
A look inside GWPD’s public de-escalation simulator training session RYAN SAENZ
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
KRIS PARK | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER GW Police Department Captain Derek Hemphill participates in a training simulation.
KRIS PARK | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER GW Police Department Chief Victor Brito speaks during a de-escalation training demonstration. WHAT’S
INSIDE
NEWS The outgoing Student Government Association leaders say they left the body with stronger relationships with officials. Page 3
The screen flashed an image of a man in a mental health crisis holding a knife, threatening to hurt himself and others, as a student stood facing GW Police Department’s de-escalation and firearms training simulator. David Tennant, a member of the Black Student Union participating in the demonstration, had called for backup to deal with the armed man. “Do you mind putting the knife down for me?” Tennant said. The man did not put the knife down. But Captain Cheryl Crawley insisted Tennant continue communicating with the man rather than draw a weapon. The interaction came as GWPD officers walked six students, including Student Government Association President Ethan Lynne, Tennant and a Hatchet editor, through how GWPD trains its officers to de-escalate potentially violent situations at GWPD’s headquarters in the basement of Rome Hall Tuesday. “As chief said, our biggest weapon is our voices,” Crawley said. Four officers, led by Chief Victor Brito, demonstrated and led students through various scenarios as a part of GWPD’s monthly de-escalation training using the department’s virtual training simulator, which they also use for firearms training. But no officers drew weapons Tuesday, as Brito said officers should only do so as a “last resort” as the department emphasizes teaching officers how to resolve
OPINIONS The Editorial Board argues the Graduate School of Education and Human Development must emphasize transparency in “right-sizing.” Page 6
situations through communication. “If you can’t communicate in our profession, you’re not going to be successful and have successful outcomes, nor are you going to build relationships,” Brito said. Brito — who’s nearing the end of his first academic year as the head of the University’s embattled police department — said the simulator serves as part of the trove of preparations the department has on hand for training their armed officers, on top of mental health and implicit bias discussions. As the department attempts to rebuild community trust and transparency following severe safety violations during the initial arming of officers, Brito said the community should feel safe due to the robust training he is giving armed officers. Brito took the helm of the department in August 2025, after former Chief James Tate resigned in the wake of The Hatchet’s September 2024 investigation into the department’s gun safety failures, including the force’s top two officers carrying unregistered firearms. The investigation revealed the University’s police force failed to properly train its officers to use their firearms, prompting officials to launch a third-party investigation into the department’s controversial arming rollout that ended in a report full of recommendations for GWPD. Brito said in an interview with The Hatchet after the demonstration the department is still in the process of hiring a training officer — one of the third-party report’s recommendations — but declined
CULTURE John Kiriakou told The Hatchet how he channeled his GW education in his career as a Central Intelligence Agency whistleblower. Page 7
to provide a timeline for doing so. He added that the training program has remained “solid” and the department holds its officers to training standards “above and beyond” what the law requires. The simulator, piloted by one of GWPD’s two instructors — Captain Ian Greenlee or Lieutenant Derek Hemphill — is fairly interactive and has a flurry of differing “playlists” that allows the instructor to direct the simulation to a more or less hostile situation for the trainee. Brito said the department only has six officers armed — well below the department’s goal of 22 armed officers under the 2023 plan — and doesn’t have a timeline for when the department will arm additional officers. University spokesperson Julia Garbitt confirmed in March seven additional officers — including Brito — completed the University’s arming training and would be armed once licensed, however, only six armed officers are licensed and can go on patrol. Brito said conversations about opening up trainings to the public, including Tuesday’s demonstration given to SGA officials, BSU members and The Hatchet, came about “naturally” out of his want to “humanize” the University’s police officers. “I want our community to know, from our students, our faculty, our staff and our overarching community — people live near here — is I want them to know that we’re human beings and we care and we’re empathetic, and we exercise compassion, and we want to help people,” Brito said.
SPORTS Lacrosse senior defender Stella Ray reflects on a dominant career of broken records and lockdown defense. Page 8