The University expects to unveil a website displaying GW’s publicly available financial documents in a few weeks as students press officials for transparency on its financial assets.
Chief Financial Officer Bruno Fernandes said the website is in progress but declined to provide an anticipated launch date. University President Ellen Granberg said at a May Board of Trustees meeting that the website was planned to launch in the late summer and will mark a step toward providing the community with “greater clarity” on GW’s investments and funding.
She said at the meeting that GW finance officials will be available to answer questions about the website’s contents following its launch.
GW is required to file and publicly disclose their Form 990 annually as a nonprofit organization, where they report the University’s financial details including revenues, expenses, executive compensation and investment income. The form does not disclose investment sources.
The Finance Division also publicizes the University’s audited financial statements, rating agency reviews and bond offerings, but they do not release interim or unaudited financial statements, according to their website.
“Work on the financial website is still in progress, and we expect to launch the site in the next few weeks,” Fernandes said in an email.
Fernandes declined to say which University officials have been involved in the website’s development and if officials consulted outside actors while compiling the site. He also declined to say if the site will include any other information besides the University’s publicly available documents.
Pro-Palestinian students pushed Granberg to publicize the University’s investments starting in October. The Student Coalition for Palestine at GWU set up an encampment in University Yard for two weeks last spring with demands that officials disclose investments and divest from companies supplying arms to Israel. After local police cleared the encampment, arresting 33 protesters, officials said they refused to consider changes in their endowment investment strategies, academic partnerships or student conduct processes.
University investments contribute to the endowment, a financial foundation to fund professorships, scholarships, research and facilities.
Representatives from the pro-Palestinian coalition met with Deputy Provost for Academic Affairs Teresa Murphy and Associate Provost for Undergraduate Affairs and Special Programs Jeffrey Brand on Friday afternoon, where they asked for an update on the status of the website and its contents. Ilana Feldman, a professor of anthropology and international affairs who joined the meeting as the coalition’s “trusted” faculty member, asked if the website will include information on donations totaling more than $20,000 — one of the coalition’s requests.
Murphy said she “honestly didn’t know” but would take the request back to administrators.
One of coalition representatives present at the meeting asked Murphy and Brand to look through the coalition’s disclosure requests and provide reasoning for why each point will or will not be included on the website.
The coalition’s disclosure demands include that the University make public information on any donations and academic department funding that totals more than $20,000 — including money sent to institutes and centers — and disclose all externally funded research and investments that are processed through Strategic Investment Group — which a coalition representative said handles a “vast majority” of GW’s pooled endowment.
Staff Council President Bridget Schwartz said the body is anticipating the site’s release and hopes it will promote more transparency with GW leadership after observing an “increased need for communication” between officials and community members during the encampment last spring.
A coalition of 14 student organizations and 17 professors representing five of GW’s schools sent a letter in January 2023 calling on officials to disclose “restricted gifts,” one-time donations to GW that fund an initiative that a donor selects and total more than $50,000 from for-profit and nonprofit entities. Organizations including Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine were among the student organizations who signed the letter.
Former Vice Provost for Research Pamela Norris said at a Faculty Senate meeting in January 2023 that she has been working to increase University funding from Raytheon, an aerospace and defense company.
Defense companies including Northrup Grumman and Raytheon have a relationship with the University through Corporate and Foundation Relations, which establishes partnerships with companies to support students and student programs, while also securing funding for research, faculty and campus facilities.
Former University President Thomas LeBlanc in 2018 rejected a controversial resolution passed by the Student Government Association that requested GW remove its alleged holdings from Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Elbit Systems Ltd., Caterpillar Inc., CEMEX, General Electric and Motorola Solutions, Inc. due to the companies’ reported contributions to Palestinian suffering.
