Volume 116 Issue 18

Monday, January 13, 2020 I Vol. 116 Iss. 18

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AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER • SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

What’s inside Opinions

The editorial board discusses how enrollment cuts will impact diversity Page 4

Culture

Students are spinning off NPR’s Tiny Desk concerts from the comfort of their residence hall rooms Page 5

Sports

Men’s basketball maintains a “growth mindset” after an inconsistent conference skid Page 6

DOE complaints decline by more than two-thirds since 2015 SHANNON MALLARD ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR

ARIELLE BADER | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR In 2019, GWPD officers received 173 calls from on-campus blue light stations and made contact with nine of those callers.

Blue light phone use drops almost 20 percent in 2019 GRAHAM HURLEY REPORTER

Blue light emergency phone use on campus decreased by nearly 20 percent between 2018 and 2019, according to GW Police Department data. In 2019, GWPD officers received 173 calls from oncampus blue light stations, of which officers made contact with the caller nine times, the data shows. In interviews, more than 10 students said they’ve never needed to use blue lights, but knowing the phones can be used to call emergency services makes them feel secure while walking around campus. Mary Paradis, the former interim chief of police, said blue light callers rarely made contact with police officers because callers typically leave the area before officers arrive. GWPD officers did not make contact with nearly 90 percent of all blue light calls since 2016. “It is not as important for students to use them as it is for students to be aware that we have these phones and to be aware of their location,” Paradis said in an email. “Blue light phones are strategically placed around campus as a means to connect the community with GWPD.”

GWPD received 110 blue light voice calls in 2016, but GWPD only made voice contact with the caller on 23, or about 20 percent, of the calls. In 2017, the department received 228 calls and 26 callers made contact with the caller, about an 11 percent increase from the previous year, according to GWPD data. Paradis said the University added “several” blue light phones to campus in 2017, which likely caused the spike in calls that year. She said GWPD more frequently responds to blue light calls than to the calls made from the PAL app, which allows users to text or call GWPD about an emergency and tracks the user’s location using GPS. Paradis said the University will begin transitioning to a new “app-based” security system this spring. “The vast majority of our calls for service are through our emergency telephone line,” she said. “Calling the GWPD emergency line allows you to interface with dispatchers and provide the most detailed information about the emergency.” Eleven students said they’ve never used a blue light phone but feel safer knowing that the phones are a back-up option to calling emergency services.

ALYSSA ILARIA | GRAPHICS EDITOR

Senior Jennifer Nwokolo said the blue light phones make her feel secure on campus, but she doesn’t know if they’re functional or not because she’s never used one. “If something were to happen and there’s no resort, it’s good to know that they’re there,” she said. Freshman Danielle Shakib said her roommate used a blue light recently because she felt unsafe when she was walking home late at night. “She pushed the button, but somebody was there to help her right away and walk her home, so it was no big deal,” she said. Freshman Ryan Shiwoo-Kim said the blue light phones and GW’s other security services, like Safe Ride and consistent GWPD

patrols, contribute to his overall sense of security on campus. “It’s great that it is there for people who might need it,” he said. “And I feel like it is placed strategically around campus. So it’s definitely accessible.” Campus security experts said college students typically opt to call emergency services on their own cell phones, but the blue light is a secure option for students to use. Marc Lovicott, the director of communications for the University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department, said an “overwhelming majority” of his department’s blue light activations are generally accidental or prank calls. See LIGHTS Page 2

The number of complaints filed against GW in the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights has declined 70 percent over the past five years. The OCR – a DOE branch that investigates discrimination allegations – launched 10 federal probes into discriminatory behavior claims in 2015 but only investigated three cases of alleged discrimination in 2019. Discrimination law experts said the number of complaints may have decreased after officials mandated diversity and Title IX trainings and better handling of cases at the University level. Caroline Laguerre-Brown, the vice provost for diversity, equity and community engagement, said the number of complaints filed with the OCR each year is “unpredictable” and cannot “easily” be attributed to specific factors. Laguerre-Brown said an individual could file more than one report with the OCR in a certain year, and the DOE may consider each grievance as a separate complaint. “Still, we fully recognize that regardless of whether the number of complaints filed with OCR increases or decreases in any given year, complacency is simply not an option, and we remain committed to ongoing analysis and improvement of systems and processes for addressing student concerns,” LaguerreBrown said in an email. Laguerre-Brown said officials have taken measures like revising the Code of Student Conduct and reworking the Equal Opportunity, Non-Discrimination, Anti-Harassment and NonRetaliation Policy to ensure GW is equipped to handle discrimination cases. Officials debuted a bias incident reporting website last February that allows faculty, students and staff to report bias-related acts for the Bias Incident Response Team – which includes administrators from offices like the Division of Operations – to review. LaguerreBrown added that officials “regularly” evaluate ways to increase student awareness of resources like the Title IX and ethics offices.

Recent investigations

Of the 24 cases brought

against GW between 2015 and 2018, only one complaint stated that the University violated an individual’s rights and required officials to take corrective action, according to a ProPublica report. In 2017, the OCR began investigating GW’s website accessibility. The probe found that University websites lacked viewing features like video and photo captions to accommodate disabled individuals’ needs. Officials formed a task force in early 2018 to examine website accessibility issues. GW met its first OCR deadline to make online content more accessible last January. The OCR initiated an investigation into a complaint alleging that officials retaliated against a former student for protesting age discrimination last January. The complainant alleged that the University fostered a culture in which longer-serving professors “bully” non-tenured and clinical research faculty. When the DOE publicly listed the complaint on the OCR website in February, officials said they were “confident” they acted “appropriately” toward the student. The complaint is still listed on the OCR website. The OCR also opened two investigations into allegations of disability discrimination later that month. The first inquiry investigated whether GW denied an individual benefits on the basis of their disability, and the second launched an investigation into whether the University retaliated against an individual for protesting disability discrimination. Neither complaint is listed on the OCR website.

Education and enforcement

Alan Sash, a partner in the litigation department at the firm McLaughlin & Stern who has worked on Title IX cases, said students come from a variety of different backgrounds, so officials should establish clear standards of acceptable interpersonal behavior. He said instituting mandatory diversity and Title IX training for students could result in a decrease in the number of complaints filed with the DOE. See COMPLAINTS Page 2

Science and Engineering Hall has bolstered GW’s research output: faculty VITA FELLIG REPORTER

Since the biology department moved from Bell Hall to the Science and Engineering Hall five years ago, professor Courtney Smith said she’s noticed “simple” improvements in her working conditions. She said SEH’s more effective air conditioning system and the availability of pure deionized water in all of SEH’s sinks have made her research process faster and more efficient. The space available in the building has allowed her to keep an “animal housing room” in the basement, which she could not maintain at her former location. “These are the standard aspects of science buildings that should be available, and this new building has made it so it’s true for GW,” she said. Roughly five years after its official opening, Smith is one of several faculty members who said the hall – which houses more than 150 faculty and holds classes for thousands of students from four of GW’s ten schools – has enhanced student and faculty research opportunities. Officials said the building has helped students and faculty produce more competitive research, improved student satisfaction and led to more faculty from top-20

universities joining GW. “As a result of our hiring, our research expenditures have increased dramatically, our faculty’s publication numbers are up, the number of research-active faculty at SEAS is up – everything is up,” Can Korman, the engineering school’s associate dean of research and graduate studies, said in an email. Korman said the building – which cost $275 million to construct and opened in March 2015 – is the “key facility” in terms of infrastructure that supports GW’s scientific research. SEH encourages faculty research by providing more lab space and facilitating more crossdisciplinary work between researchers from different schools, he said. Korman added that the building, which is home to faculty fosters a “collaborative education” for students because they can work sideby-side. The building has also improved the sense of community among STEM students and faculty, he said. “Students like to spend time in the SEH common areas,” Korman said. “I see them gathered together studying all the time.” Jason Zara, an associate professor of biomedical engineering, said the building’s creation has been a “game changer” for promoting his department’s research because it created enough space

to house the entire department in one location. The biomedical engineering department was previously divided between Phillips and Staughton halls. He said the building has allowed him to expand the range of his research – which focuses on using imaging technology to try to detect illnesses, according to his faculty profile – to include sea urchins and biofilms. “Having proximity to other researchers has greatly expanded the scope of my research and led to many more collaborative projects,” he said. Igor Efimov, the chair of the biomedical engineering department, said research opportunities for students have improved as a result of SEH’s design by physically integrating research and academics together. The building houses classrooms and labs side-byside and separates them with clear glass panels. “I think that the transparency of the floor design is really helpful because you can essentially see what other laboratories are working on,” he said. Efimov said in his own laboratory, where he studies therapy treatments for heart disease, he has hosted at least 12 undergraduate students to work with him each year. He said the spaces in SEH allow so many undergraduate students to work in his lab

HATCHET FILE PHOTO Officials said the multi-million dollar Science and Engineering Hall has attracted top faculty and improved student satisfaction since it opened five years ago.

because they are conducive to working on research projects. He added that the proximity to SEH’s research facilities are a consideration for prospective students, who he said are clearly “impressed” with the building itself when they visit. Nirbhay Kumar, a professor in the department of global health, said that while SEH does provide a “pleasant” place to work, the building’s layout places large windows adjacent to lab space, which can present some obstacles to

his research which uses materials damaged by light. “I would have designed [the building] in an entirely different way and had the office spaces put near the windows, and labs put into the interior of the building, so there would be less outside light coming into the lab,” he said. Kumar added that he is concerned about the building’s lack of security. In June, a person stole camera equipment from SEH after breaking into an office in the building. Two months

later, someone assaulted a GW Police Department officer after the officer arrived at the building to investigate reported loitering. “One concern that people have always brought up is that in general the SEH building is open to anyone who can walk in, even the general public,” he said. “You have students studying in open spaces, and someone can just walk in and start doing something mischievous. I think building access has to be limited in this sense.”