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The GW Hatchet, Washington D.C., DC (2026)

08/03/2026

NEWS | Amazon filed an initial application to build four new data center buildings totaling over 800,000 square feet on GW’s Virginia Science and Technology Campus last week.

Amazon’s proposed development of the campus, which Amazon named the Bridgefield Tech Center in their proposal, comes five months after GW sold the 122-acre property in Loudoun County — deemed the “data center capital of the world” — to Amazon Data Services for $427 million. Amazon indicated at the time of the sale that they intended to use the site for data center development, and an initial proposal filed with Loudoun County July 28 is now seeking approval from the county to build four data centers on the campus totaling 805,092 square feet.

District Supervisor Juli Briskman, who represents the Algonkian District that the campus is housed in, said in a statement released by her office that she will “fight” the proposal “every step of the way.” She said the proposal seeks to use “outdated” zoning policies that could allow the project to move forward without a public hearing, approval from the county’s Board of Supervisors or review by the Loudoun County Planning Commission.

“Replacing the George Washington University campus with four massive data center buildings would be a profound loss for our community,” Briskman said in her statement.

An Amazon spokesperson said Amazon looks forward to working with Loudoun County and community stakeholders as the review process unfolds.

“The filing of a concept site plan for a redevelopment of the George Washington University’s Virginia Science and Technology campus is the first formal step in a lengthy review process,” an Amazon spokesperson said.

Loudoun County has seen an explosion of interest in its land from tech giants, like Amazon, Meta, Google and Microsoft over the last decade and has the highest concentration of data centers in the world, with 54 million square feet already built. As of July 2026, Northern Virginia has 266 operational data centers with 23 under construction and 99 planned.

Story by Shivu Sathe
Photo by Arwen Clemans

08/01/2026

NEWS | A U.S. District Court Judge for D.C. dismissed without prejudice Friday alumni’s complaint alleging GW allowed “pervasive and severe” antisemitism to escalate on campus since the onset of the war in Gaza largely on procedural grounds, giving the plaintiffs until August 31 to refile their complaint.

Judge Trevor McFadden dismissed the complaint without prejudice — meaning the plaintiffs have 30 days to file an amended complaint — stating the complaint is too long due to its inclusion of “excessive narrative,” which the judge says violates federal pleading guidelines that require brevity. The 176-page lawsuit filed in May of last year by two alumni and an anonymous group of community members — including current students, alumni and professors — alleged that a pattern of on-campus incidents dating back to 2019 reflected GW’s “shameful complicity” in permitting “unchecked” antisemitism, which they alleged had intensified in the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel and ensuing war in Gaza.

“Though the Complaint paints a dark picture, its length — spanning nearly two hundred pages and over one thousand paragraphs— violates basic pleading rules,” McFadden wrote.

Alumni Sabrina Soffer and Ari Shapiro and an anonymous group of students, alumni and other stakeholders known as “Compliance, Accountability, Policy, Ethics – Ed,” or CAPE-Ed, argued GW violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and the D.C. Human Rights Act — which prohibit educational programs from discriminating based on race, national origin and religion — by allowing “hostile acts” to be perpetrated against Jewish and Israeli students.

Lawyers representing GW filed a motion in August 2025 requesting the judge dismiss the complaint with prejudice in its entirety, which would prohibit plaintiffs from refiling the suit, arguing the plaintiffs failed to show the University acted with deliberate disregard to discrimination against Jewish and Israeli students.

A University spokesperson said in a statement that officials are “pleased” the court granted the motion to dismiss the complaint.

Story by Isaac Harte
Photo by Rachel Kurlandsky

07/31/2026

NEWS | GW, Universal Health Services and the D.C. Office of the Attorney General reached an agreement Tuesday where GW and UHS will close their deal over the Medical Faculty Associates July 31, but OAG will continue their review of the deal and eventually accept or reject it.

GW in May announced they reached an agreement with UHS to transition the MFA’s clinical operations to a new nonprofit physician group and to cap the University’s financial support for the practice after years of continued losses. UHS will take over full financial responsibility for clinical practice operations for GW Hospital, Cedar Hill Regional Medical Center and affiliated outpatient sites after a transition period of five years, with most MFA physicians transitioning to CMG and retaining their faculty appointments at the School of Medicine & Health Sciences.

Under the agreement, UHS will pay OAG a $610,000 for alleged delays in the review process, per Schwalb’s announcement.

The OAG on Monday filed a civil complaint against GW, MFA, CMG and UHS to stop them from finalizing the transfer until the office ensures it complies with the Healthcare Entity Conversion Act, which requires OAG to approve such transactions due to concerns that the nonprofit’s assets may not be used for nonprofit purposes and the for-profit may take advantage of the value built through public subsidies to the nonprofit.

As part of the legal proceedings, Schwalb filed an agreement with GW, MFA and UHS Tuesday stating the transaction will operationally close on July 31, but the OAG can modify or reject the closure as per their review, which will continue until Sept. 30.

Story by Arunmoy Das and Paris Albrecht
Photo by Nicholas Ware

07/25/2026

NEWS | Officials moved last week to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a 2025 alum alleging GW retaliated and discriminated against her after she criticized the University’s ties with Israel during her graduation speech, arguing the complaint fails to show GW deliberately defamed or discriminated against her.

GW’s motion, which Jason Schwartz from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP — the firm representing the University — filed on July 17 in the D.C. District Court, requests the judge hear an oral argument from the University about its motion to dismiss Cecilia Culver’s complaint against GW and its officials with prejudice, which would prohibit Culver from refiling the suit. Schwartz filed a separate memo alongside the motion, arguing University officials’ remarks following Culver’s speech — which included statements that Culver had deviated from her preprepared graduation speech and that her statements do not reflect the views of the University — were true and therefore do not meet the requirements for defamation.

“As a threshold matter, virtually all of Culver’s claims are based on the contention that two University officials falsely claimed her delivered remarks were different than those she had shared with GW in advance,” Schwartz’s memo states. “But Culver herself concedes that her delivered remarks were different than those she had shared with GW.”

Culver filed a lawsuit against GW, her former employer Ernst & Young and a dozen GW and EY officials on April 16, claiming they defamed and violated her civil rights following her speech at the Columbian College of Arts & Sciences undergraduate graduation ceremony on May 17. Culver used her speech to condemn the University for suppressing pro-Palestinian activism related to the war in Gaza and urge graduates to withhold donations from GW until officials disclose all financial investments and divest from companies tied to Israel.

Story by Arunmoy Das
Photo by Karsyn Meyerson

07/20/2026

NEWS | Officials confirmed the Medical Faculty Associates will begin permanently shutting down its operations in September, which comes after its deal with Universal Health Services to transfer the practice’s assets to the newly created Capital Medical Group.

MFA Chief Executive Officer Bill Elliott said in a July 8 notice to the Virginia Department of Workforce Development and Advancement that the MFA will begin “winding down” its operations on or within 14 days after Sept. 6, regardless of whether GW and UHS are able to close their transaction. A University spokesperson confirmed the MFA will eventually dissolve, with Elliott overseeing the process to ensure a smooth transition for patients, faculty and staff from the MFA to CMG.

Elliott said in the notice the MFA will lay off its 1,270 employees as a part of the closing, though he expects CMG — a nonprofit physician practice group UHS created to transfer over the MFA’s operations — to employ “many” of them if the transaction closes. A University spokesperson told The Hatchet that over 80 percent of MFA physicians and staff offered contracts at CMG accepted them.

Elliott sent the notice to Virginia Works to comply with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which requires employers to provide written notice to affected employees and local government officials at least 60 days before a mass layoff or planned closing. The notice comes after GW and UHS finalized a deal in May to move the MFA’s clinical operations to CMG.

“Without money to keep operating, the MFA faces real prospects of bankruptcy for its clinical operations,” Elliott said at the hearing. “Our ability to ensure continuity of care for our patients would be much more challenging in a scenario where our clinical operations have filed for bankruptcy.”

Story by Arunmoy Das
Photo by Nicholas Ware

07/17/2026

NEWS | The School of Medicine & Health Sciences faces a projected $18 million deficit for fiscal year 2027, requiring the school to lay off staff, the school’s interim dean confirmed in emails to faculty and staff.

In an email sent to SMHS faculty and staff Tuesday, Interim Vice President for Health Affairs and Dean Andrew Artenstein said the school’s expenses are expected to exceed revenue by 10 percent due to growing economic constraints in higher education and academic medicine, labor costs, limited revenue streams and the restructuring of the Medical Faculty Associates.

The announcement comes after University President Ellen Granberg disclosed in May that officials reduced the University-wide budget by $46.5 million, with both administration and academic units implementing approaches to stabilize the University’s long-term financial outlook.

Artenstein said University-wide headwinds combined with a reduction in federal research grants, rising labor costs and declining revenue have contributed to the deficit. He added that officials are forming a “multi-pronged” path to manage the deficit that extends past FY2027 and are exploring different revenue streams, though those measures will “take time” to develop and will not be implemented during the current fiscal and academic year.

Artenstein said 80 percent of SMHS’ operating costs are attributable to continuously escalating labor expenses including benefits like health insurance, which he said mirrors nationwide challenges. He also said SMHS’ revenue is “largely driven” by tuition, resulting in limited revenue streams as generating more tuition revenue requires other investments into new faculty and staff as well as health system partners to secure clinical rotation slots for students.

SMHS graduate and undergraduate enrollment has steadily declined since 2020 due to increased employment opportunities in the health sciences field and competition from other universities offering online degrees. The school closed admissions to three of six of its undergraduate degrees after July 2024.

Story by Paris Albrecht
Photos from The Hatchet File and Katelyn Power

07/15/2026

NEWS | Officials began the process of constructing new fencing surrounding University Yard last week, taking down the fences that had encased the green space for over a year and a half after officials completed their installation following the pro-Palestinian encampment in spring 2024.

The new fencing aims to “enhance” the “historic nature” of U-Yard as one of the University’s few green spaces, mimicking the design of Kogan Plaza, and creating “cohesion” in GW’s Foggy Bottom campus, according a GW Today release Wednesday. This marks the first alteration to the fences since December 2024, even as students have consistently labeled them as obsolete and claimed the fences blocked off access to one of the only green spaces available on campus, with Student Government Association members calling on officials to remove them as months passed from the encampment that prompted their installation.

The construction, which officials confirmed began last week, is set to last throughout the remainder of the summer break, according to Wednesday’s release. Contractors are in the process of repairing the concrete foundations that will support the new fencing, with officials anticipating the new fencing to be installed by early August. Officials last week removed the previous fencing, and U-Yard will remain open and accessible during the construction.

Story by Ryan Saenz
Photo by Kyra Wood

07/15/2026

NEWS | The Pentagon has extended the deployment of the National Guard in D.C. through the end of President Donald Trump’s second term.

A Pentagon spokesperson confirmed to numerous outlets Tuesday the Department of Defense is extending the presence of the National Guard in D.C. through January 20, 2029. Trump initially deployed 800 troops belonging to D.C.’s National Guard in August after he declared a “crime emergency” in the city, but the total number of troops in the District now sits at over 5,000 after additional states sent troops to the District for semiquincentennial celebrations taking place in the city.

The plan to keep troops in D.C. through the end of Trump’s term was first floated by Pentagon officials in March, who told ABC News the plan was in its final stages and just required Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s approval.

District residents, leaders and students have met the deployment with fierce backlash, organizing dozens of protests, revitalizing the “Free D.C.” movement and filing legal challenges saying the deployment violates the city’s home rule.

The deployment has also faced legal pushback, including from D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb, who sued to remove the troops in September. A District Court judge originally found the troops’ presence unlawful and ordered for them to leave by Dec. 11, but the U.S. Court of Appeals paused the order in December, allowing the guard to stay in the city for at least the time being.

Story by Isaac Harte
Photo by Nicholas Ware

07/08/2026

SPONSORED | is recruiting. Interested in global health? Visit https://redcap.link/marburg to volunteer for a new Marburg vaccine study. This study requires 9 visits over 7 months.

07/03/2026

From Fourth of July festivities to the politics and history behind America’s 250th Birthday, here is The Hatchet’s coverage to this year’s semiquincentennial!

Stories by Isaac Harte, Shivu Sathe, Molly St. Clair, Diana Anos, Amelia Nelson and Adelaide Petras.
Photos by Erika Lopez-Cepero, Nicholas Ware, Lexi Critchett, Arwen Clemans and Daniel Heuer

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