Commitment Deposits Fall Nearly 20 Percent Amid Enrollment Cut, Pandemic ZACH SCHONFELD Ber of Pell Grant Recipients Also CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR Declined
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Monday, May 11, 2020 I Vol. 117 Iss. 1 INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER • SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904 WWW.GWHATCHET.COM What’s inside 2020 2020 2020 Opinions Culture Sports The contributing Read The Hatchet’s Take a look back on one of opinions editor calls on guide to this year’s the most unusual seasons GW to prorate tuition online Commencement in college athletics for online classes. ceremony. history. Page 6 Pages 7-8 Page 9 Commitment deposits fall nearly 20 percent amid enrollment cut, pandemic ZACH SCHONFELD ber of Pell Grant recipients also CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR declined. Blake said he asked enroll- Undergraduate enrollment ment officials to implement a 1 deposits fell by about 18 per- percent drop in GW’s discount cent this year in the wake of rate – the average discount giv- the COVID-19 pandemic and en to students through schol- efforts to reduce the under- arships and grants off of the graduate population. sticker price. Provost Brian Blake said “That one point was done at a Faculty Senate meeting by strategically investing in Friday that the number of en- students with high need,” he rollment deposits fell short of said. officials’ modeled target by 4.8 Ben Toll, the dean of under- percentage points. Although graduate admissions, said 170 the number of students who fewer international students have committed to GW fell, committed to attend GW this Blake said officials anticipate year compared to last year. In the revenues they receive from fall 2019, 1,416 international the incoming class will be undergraduate students – “slightly higher” than last year. about 354 per class – attended “We’re in the season now the University, according to in- to look at transfers,” Blake stitutional data. said. “We’ll go much harder at “Internationally, there is a GRACE HROMIN | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR them.” lot of uncertainty in regards As COVID-19 fatalities in the United States remain high, fewer admitted students than last year have submitted enrollment deposits, Provost Brian Blake said at a Faculty Senate meeting Friday. Admissions staff moved to whether international stu- programming online and ac- dents will be able to secure cepted a small number of stu- student visas and/or whether dents from the waitlist early there will be COVID-19-related Officials unveil on-campus, online scenarios for to attract additional students travel restrictions,” Toll said in as officials brace for potential an email. next academic year enrollment changes because He said a “bit more” than of the pandemic. Officials will 2,350 students have submitted ZACH SCHONFELD and then, that conclusion also reassess a planned 20 per- their enrollment deposit – in- CONTRIBUTING NEWS may change.” cent cut in the undergraduate cluding about 250 waitlisted EDITOR Officials have said they population in the wake of the students. are planning to resume pandemic’s effects. University President in-person classes this fall. He said “diversity” fell by See STUDENTS Page 5 Thomas LeBlanc said of- The pandemic is expected about 1 percent, and the num- ficials must be able to to cause revenues to fall by provide sufficient testing, $45 million by the end of contact tracing and places the fiscal year. to quarantine for students LeBlanc said the three to return in the fall. projections for the fall in- Administrators vow to not LeBlanc unveiled three clude key assumptions fall scenarios to the Faculty like the student retention Senate Friday for the next rate and graduate enroll- tap into endowment academic year: on-campus ment, which could shift as instruction and residential a result of the pandemic. ZACH SCHONFELD our financial standing in the housing, a hybrid of on- LeBlanc said making a fi- CONTRIBUTING NEWS EDITOR future,” Speights said at the campus and online course- nal decision in June will senate meeting. “We cannot work or a continuation of provide students, families As officials project losing sacrifice our long-term fu- the instructional continu- and faculty enough time tens of millions of dollars ture to resolve the challeng- ity period, which would to prepare for the fall se- from the ongoing pandemic, es posed by this pandemic.” cause expected revenue mester. they are doubling down on LeBlanc first announced shortfalls of $100 million, The scenarios capture intentions to not tap into his intent to not use the en- $200 million and $300 mil- the “range of possibili- GW’s endowment. dowment in a letter to the lion, respectively. Officials ties” for the next academic University President GW community April 27. will announce a final deci- year and may need to be Thomas LeBlanc and Board Anthony Yezer, a faculty sion by June 15 but might tweaked in the coming of Trustees Chair Grace senator and a professor of extend the decision date weeks, he said. Speights said at a Faculty economics, said it made one week, LeBlanc said. He said officials are Senate meeting Friday that sense to finance revenue The revenue losses working with GW’s medi- they have no plans to use losses resulting from COV- could encompass up to cal experts to determine the University’s $1.78 billion ID-19 by taking on new debt nearly 30 percent of GW’s testing plans, but admin- endowment to mitigate the instead of tapping into the annual operating budget, istrators may need to test financial impact of the CO- endowment and losing out which has hovered slightly students and employees VID-19 pandemic. Speights on interest accrued to the above $1 billion for the when they initially return SIDNEY LEE | GRAPHICS EDITOR said officials have a fiducia- fund tax-free. past few years. to campus, weekly during ry duty to protect the Uni- “If we can borrow “I can’t tell you today the first month of the aca- through the banks at 5 per- some students – including Provost Brian Blake is versity’s long-term financial what the safest mechanism demic year and bi-weekly cent, especially given that vulnerable populations, leading an effort with the health despite the short- is because it will depend thereafter. GW would we don’t pay any taxes on like those with certain deans to explore “alterna- term effects of the virus. on the condition,” he said. need to administer about the gains in the endowment, respiratory illnesses, and tive academic options” for “Tapping the endowment “But our current plan is to 250,000 coronavirus tests we ought to do that,” he international students – those students, like online or reserves today would not try to be open and to have under that plan, he said. said. may be unable to return classes or assignments that be a prudent decision or in it try to have a residential LeBlanc said if students the best interest of GW be- experience in the fall. If can return in the fall, an to campus or participate can be done while social cause it will only hamper See FAT Page 5 facts change between now “optimistic” scenario, in classroom instruction. distancing, LeBlanc said. Faculty say online classes have helped develop new teaching strategies FALYN O’BRIEN She said placing lecture ma- the summer and will not be REPORTER terial online and using class able to implement the same time to apply the material tools she used during the vir- JULIA RUSSO through discussions and ex- tual learning period like pre- STAFF WRITER ercises made her teaching recorded narrated lectures. more efficient. Her summer class will meet As the instructional con- Hoffman said she will four days a week, leaving her tinuity period potentially also introduce a new artifi- less time to record lectures comes to a close, 10 faculty cial intelligence marketing compared to her classes this members say they were able strategy course in the fall that semester that met twice a to develop new strategies for she thinks has many oppor- week, she said. teaching future classes. tunities for an asynchronous McClary said she plans to After faculty quickly al- component. use Blackboard Collaborate’s tered their courses during She said she plans to have breakout groups tool, which online instruction, professors students listen to prerecord- allows professors to put stu- said they were optimistic but ed lectures to save class time dents into small groups for needed to adapt to the chal- for discussing “cases” and discussion, to build com- lenges of the online environ- working on projects. munity while also engaging ment. Ten faculty members “I’m psyched about the with her students during her said students have been opportunities for doing this summer class. understanding of the limita- more generally, having asyn- “It was nice during the se- tions of online learning and chronous components that mester – I knew my students they have discovered time- are fun lectures,” she said. before we left,” McClary said. saving teaching strategies LaKeisha McClary, a “I’m not going to know these they plan to implement next professor of chemistry, said people over the summer.” semester, while others said a challenging part of virtual Kim Roddis, a profes- online tools limited student learning was transferring in- sor of civil engineering, said engagement. person General Chemistry she has faced problems in PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY ARIELLE BADER | ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITOR Donna Hoffman, a pro- II exams to an online format replicating the experience of Kim Roddis, a professor of civil engineering, said she found it difficult to replicate certain aspects of in-person fessor of marketing, said she while keeping the amount of in-person class with holding engineering classes, like drawing, over Blackboard Collaborate. used both asynchronous and cheating low because of how both of her classes, Structural synchronous learning – pre- easily students can look up Theory II and Design of Met- require a lot of student in- room courses as best we can has forced her to lecture lon- recorded lectures for stu- answers online during a test.