The GW
HATCHET
August 17, 2026 Vol. 123
Iss. 3
AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER • SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904 • ONLINE AT GWHATCHET.COM
Credit rating agency lowers GW’s bond rating, returns outlook to stable
Granberg’s total pay nears $2 million, surpasses previous GW presidents: tax forms ARUNMOY DAS
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
GW paid University President Ellen Granberg $1.9 million in her first full year in the University’s top post, topping the compensation of her two immediate predecessors in their first year at the helm. Granberg received $1.4 million in base compensation, the highest of any employee in base pay in available records, and $507,380 in bonuses and other compensation from January 2024 to December 2024. In her first full-year publicly reported pay since she began her role as president in July 2023, Granberg’s total pay in 2024 surpassed those of former University Interim President Mark Wrighton and University President Thomas LeBlanc during their first years in office, even when adjusted for inflation. GW’s Form 990, which annually reports the University’s revenues and expenses, also reveals four top officials and employees received total pay increases of at least 10 percent, including Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Bruno Fernandes, Vice President for Board Relations and Secretary of the University Jonathan Post, Men’s Basketball Head Coach Chris Caputo and Professor and Director of GW Online Engineering Programs Shahram Sarkani. The University shared GW’s FY2025 Form 990 with The Hatchet after the paper requested it under a policy requiring tax-exempt organizations to provide copies digitally upon request before they’re posted online. The form is now publicly available on sites like ProPublica, which displays Form 990s after Internal Revenue Service processing. GW’s status as a nonprofit institution requires officials to report its revenues and expenses to the IRS using the Form 990 each fiscal year, which begins July 1 and ends June 30, and includes the compensation of up to 20 current employees who make more than $150,000 a year from GW and “related organizations.” Officials’ compensation on the form is reported by calendar year from January to December, unlike the form, which is reported based on the fiscal year. Here is a breakdown of the University’s latest public finan-
PARIS ALBRECHT
CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR
GW’s six highest-paid officials each earned more than $1 million in total compensation in 2024, including senior administrators and a professor. In 2023, only three current employees — Bass, Sarkani and former Provost Christopher Bracey — made more than $1 million in total compensation. Former Chief Financial Officer Mark Diaz also made over a $1 million in 2023, the majority of which comprised of severance pay. Fernandes saw a pay raise of $407,261 in 2024, earning a total of $1,068,130 compared to $660,869 in 2023. He received the highest pay bump of all University employees listed in the form — about 62 percent — in 2024.
A top credit rating agency on Wednesday downgraded GW’s bond rating but boosted the University’s credit outlook to stable after dropping them to negative last year. Moody’s Ratings dropped GW’s bond rating from A1 to A2 in its fiscal year 2025 report, citing high debt, weaker operating performance due to losses associated with the Medical Faculty Associates and low asset liquidity as factors contributing to the decreased ratings. The report states the stable outlook comes from the agency’s expectation that operating performance will stabilize as the MFA transitions to the new non-profit physician enterprise Capital Medical Group, reflects liquidity gains from the sale of the Virginia Science and Technology Campus and acknowledges “generally consistent” student demand. A downgrade in an institution’s bond rating signifies the borrower is less likely to pay its debts on time or in full as expected when the debt obligation began, and also often subjects the organization to paying higher interest rates for new loans. The downgrade in credit rating comes after Moody’s gave the University a negative credit outlook last year, citing the MFA’s years of debt as central to its decision and warning that continued financial pressure from the organization could weaken GW’s liquidity and lead to a lower credit score in future years. A University release published Tuesday said officials expected the downgrade from Moody’s but added that they remain focused on improving GW’s financial position and operating results while maintaining strong enrollment and meeting student demand. “We are committed to building on GW’s strong foundation and advancing our academic mission for the long term,” Chief Financial Officer Bruno Fernandes said in the release. S&P Global Ratings, another top credit rating agency that released a report on GW’s creditworthiness in August 2025 and also downgraded the University’s outlook from stable to negative, has not yet published a report for the University this year.
See CONTRIBUTIONS Page 5
See GW Page 5
GRAPHIC BY MATHYLDA DULIAN AND SOFIA ANG
cial disclosure:
Granberg’s compensation totals nearly $2 million in first full year in office
Officials paid Granberg $1,907,439 in total in 2024: $1,400,059 in base compensation, $210,000 in bonus and incentive compensation, $39,157 in other reportable compensation, $143,150 in retirement and other deferred compensation and $115,073 in nontaxable benefits, per the form. Her total compensation tops Wrighton’s first full-year total pay of $1,293,735 — $1,386,719 in 2024 dollars — in 2022 and LeBlanc’s total pay of $1,451,969 — $1,813,835 in 2024 dollars — in 2018. Granberg started her role as president in July 2023 and received $815,103 for her first six months in office, from July 2023 to December 2023 — the first time tax forms reported her compensation. Prior to joining GW, Granberg made $577,338 during her last full year in office at Rochester Institute of Technology from January 2022 and December 2022, where she served as provost from 2018 to 2013, according to RIT’s FY2023 tax forms. LeBlanc — who began his role as president in August 2017 — experienced a similar
pay hike to Granberg in his first full year in office, receiving $797,662 his first five months in office and earning at least $1.2 million in total compensation each year between 2018 to 2021. GW paid him $1,167,000 in severance pay in 2022. Steven Knapp, who served as the University’s president from August 2007 to July 2017, received $1,972,528 — about $2.5 million in 2024 dollars — in his last seven months as president from January 2017 to July 2017, the highest amount GW has ever paid an employee in a single year, according to previous tax forms. A bulk of his pay, $1,050,787, was made up of other reportable compensation, while his base compensation was about half of Granberg’s in 2024 at $728,187 when he left office in July 2017. Base compensation refers to compensation listed on an employee’s W-2 or 1099 forms, like salary and wages, while other reportable compensation includes any compensation not listed on those forms, like severance, sick pay and cashed out vacation leave, according to the IRS. A University spokesperson declined to comment on why Granberg earned more compensation than her predeces-
sors. Granberg’s total pay in 2024 also surpassed that of thenSchool of Health and Medical Sciences Dean Barbara Bass, who was the highest compensated employee in 2023. Bass, who stepped down from her role in March, made $1,501,840 in total compensation in 2024, while she made $1,777,614 in total compensation in 2023.
Top six highest earners make more than $1 million
MFA reaches tentative settlement Presemester program enrollment rebounds in class action suit after 2025 drop PARIS ALBRECHT
CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR
Two Medical Faculty Associates employees reached a tentative agreement with the medical enterprise after filing a class action lawsuit in March alleging the MFA violated a federal labor law by selecting a poor performing, needlessly expensive retirement plan for their employees. The joint status report filed with the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on Wednesday states both parties agreed to reach a settlement encompassing over 4,000 impacted MFA employees, including the two plaintiffs who are expected to file a motion for preliminary approval of the settlement. The initial complaint claimed the MFA failed in its fiduciary duty to its employees when its leadership continuously selected and retained an employee retirement plan worth between $216 million and $345 million that consistently accumulated less value than industry alternatives, allowed employees to pay for more expensive investment options than necessary and failed to utilize the proper supervision for managers overseeing investment decisions. The joint status report did not disclose the terms of the tentative agreement but stated both parties anticipate working together to create a written settlement agreement before the end of August. The lawsuit said the MFA, as well as 30 unnamed defendants associated with the MFA who had fiduciary capacity, violated the Employee Retire-
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ment Income Security Act of 1974 — a law stating that organizations who sponsor retirement plans must act within the employees’ best interests when picking and monitoring investment options — by causing the plaintiffs to lose millions of dollars from their retirement accounts because of the fund’s weak performance and expensive fees. The plaintiffs requested the MFA to relinquish any profits made from the plans, restore “tens of millions” in losses to the retirement plans and cover the plaintiff’s attorneys fees, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit states the target-date fund from American Century Investments — the plaintiffs’ mutual fund retirement plan the MFA retained from 2018 to 2024 that shifts from stocks to bonds as employees get closer to retirement age — was consistently one of the worst-performing plans in regards to total assets compared to competitors like BlackRock and Vanguard over a period of several years. The plaintiffs alleged MFA retirement plan managers did not have a reason to believe the plan’s performance would improve but continued offering it to employees until 2024 despite its historical poor performance. The lawsuit alleges that the MFA and its unnamed defendants also continuously offered the more expensive version of the mutual fund retirement plan, even though lower cost options of the American Century Investments fund were available on the market. The plaintiffs allege the extra fees incurred from this more expensive plan ate into employees’ retirement savings under the plan.
NEWS Students are petitioning to reinstate GW’s only Persian language professor after the University did not renew his contract. Page 2
ADELAIDE PETRAS
ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
Enrollment in GW’s presemester programs for first-years significantly increased from last year following a sharp decline in 2024, according to a University spokesperson. Registration for LEAD GW, a GW-run leadership program, increased by 150 percent, jumping from 38 students in 2025 to 95 this year, and Adventure Bound, an outdoor program led by GW TRAiLS guides, grew from 23 to 53, or 130 percent, according to the spokesperson. Officials previously attributed last year’s drop to the University’s shift back to staggered summer new-student orientation sessions, saying the new model introduced students to campus life earlier than in past years and may have disincentivized attendance of presemester programs. “The Division for Student Affairs is encouraged by the strong interest in these programs and continues to monitor participation
OPINIONS The Editorial Board urges GW to reflect upon last year’s budget cuts to deliver an improved student experience this year. Page 6
First-year students move into Thurston Hall.
and student feedback to ensure these experiences meet the needs and interests of incoming students,” the University spokesperson said. Registration for Founding Scholars, a program for first-generation college students, saw a 29.9 percent decrease, falling from 67 in 2025 to 47 this year, according to the University spokesperson. The spokesperson declined to comment on why officials believe enrollment in LEAD
YNGRID GUEVARA | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
and Adventure Bound rose while Founding Scholars decreased. Siya Nayyar, a senior who has participated in LEAD for four years, said there is still a need for the program because presemester programs allow for more one-on-one connection, and friendships from those programs tend to “stick” more than friendships formed at orientation. She said although it was “unfair” that summer orientation ses-
CULTURE As the Dupont Circle staple Sign of the Whale shutters its doors, the GW community reflects on their time at the beloved bar. Page 7
sions “overpowered” presemester programs, officials expanded marketing for presemester programs this year following student advocacy, like by allowing LEAD to table at one of the orientation sessions. “I know last year there was a discussion about if there was a need for LEAD, and a lot of people that were dedicated to LEAD reached out to officials to advocate for it staying,” Nayyar said.
SPORTS Women’s soccer sits at a 1-1 record after defeating Temple University and suffering a blow from the University of Delaware. Page 8