Faculty Senate Executive Committee Chair Katrin Schultheiss stepped down from her role after committee members requested she resign over unspecified concerns, prompting heated commentary at the body’s Friday meeting over the nature of the committee’s request.

Schultheiss stepped down from her role helming FSEC — a committee elected by the Faculty Senate and tasked with guiding the body’s work — sometime before Friday’s meeting at the request of six of nine FSEC representatives, in lieu of the committee’s alleged threat to hold a vote of no confidence. The three FSEC members who opposed calls for Schultheiss’ resignation criticized the other members’ request, prompting Faculty Senator Jamie Cohen-Cole to draft a resolution to remove all FSEC members from their positions, though the motion never reached a vote after the meeting lost quorum.

Based on comments made at the meeting, six FSEC representatives — Arthur Wilson, Jonathan Eakle, Scott Kieff, Amita Vyas, Sameh Badie and Rhonda Schwindt — called on Schultheiss to step down, while John Warren, Jennifer Brinkerhoff and Jeffrey Akman opposed the way the six members handled the situation. The members cited a build up of unspecified concerns over several months as their reason for their request.

The three representatives that backed Schultheiss — Warren, Brinkerhoff and Akman — declined to comment further on the matter, and none of the six who requested Schultheiss step down returned a request to comment.

Schultheiss was not present at the meeting Friday and did not return a request for comment. She served as FSEC chair for just under six months, beginning her tenure in May at the conclusion of former FSEC Chair Ilana Feldman’s term.

During her tenure as chair, Schultheiss presented two reports to the Board of Trustees and led FSEC as they convened a special Faculty Senate meeting in August for officials to address the financial challenges facing the University.

Akman, the FSEC representative for the School of Medicine & Health Science, initiated the discussion of Schultheiss’ resignation during the meeting’s brief statements and general questions period, rebuking the six FSEC members’ handling of their concerns over several months because they didn’t bring up their issues in front of the Executive Committee for a vote. He said they instead met with Schultheiss separately, excluding the SMHS and Elliott School of International Affairs voting members, which he said “disenfranchised” three schools’ votes, including the Columbian College of Arts & Sciences.

Akman said he’s never seen a faculty member treated “so poorly” by their peers, adding that they damaged Schultheiss’ reputation after questioning her confidence and integrity. He said it’s going to be “very hard” to continue to work with the group and suggested each school appoint a new FSEC representative due to the possibility that one of the six will become the new chair.

“I wouldn’t mind if, and I’m going to throw my stuff on the sword too, if each school just put a new representative on FSEC and started a whole new group because I think it would be almost a little self-serving for somebody to come out of the cabal who pushed Katrin out to serve now as chair,” Akman said.

Warren, the College of Professional Studies’ non-voting FSEC representative, said he agreed with Akman that Schultheiss shouldn’t have been treated so poorly, and he isn’t sure what the “egregiousness” toward her stemmed from. He said his trust in the committee “has been lost” though he still has respect for them, adding that he wasn’t invited to be in their discussion.

“I understand that other members were not happy with the way things were going, but it wasn’t made clear to the committee what those were, and it didn’t seem to me that she really had a chance to respond or defend herself,” Warren said.

Brinkerhoff, the Elliott School’s FSEC representative, clarified there was technically no formal meeting or vote to ask Schultheiss to step down, though a “threatening email” was sent to Schultheiss saying six of nine FSEC representatives are requesting her to step down to “save face.” She said the email gave Schultheiss three hours to resign or else the group would call a formal meeting to vote her out.

It’s unclear when the six FSEC members sent Schultheiss the email requesting her to step down or what the email included.

Following the three FSEC representatives’ comments opposing the way the rest of the group called on Schultheiss to resign, Schwindt, the School of Nursing FSEC representative, recalled the series of events from her perspective. She said FSEC members with concerns met with Schultheiss in an informal meeting to share their concerns, where Schultheiss took notes and asked questions, though she didn’t specify when the meeting took place.

“It’s also important to remember when we scheduled that meeting with those of us, our chair was fully aware of who was attending, what people would not be there,” Schwindt said. “There were no stipulations to meeting. She was very receptive to that.”

Schwindt said Schultheiss at the meeting agreed to get back to the members in a week about changes they could make to move forward with the situation with Schultheiss still as chair. But she said as the group approached three weeks from the meeting with no response from Schultheiss, they asked her if she would voluntarily step down, which she agreed to do.

Schwindt said they requested Schultheiss step down within three hours because the deadline to submit the agenda and paperwork for the next FSEC meeting was approaching, and it would allow enough time for CCAS senators to nominate a new representative to have them on FSEC for their meeting next Friday.

She said a new CCAS representative started serving on FSEC as of Friday, and they are ready to start their work next week but didn’t specify who the new representative was.

“It was not in any way disparaging,” Schwindt said. “I’ve not heard a single word from any of the six of us that has in any way demeaned our colleague, but we just learned over a period of time is that the concerns were the same, even though we came from very different perspectives.”

Schwindt said the six FSEC representatives asked Schultheiss to step down, citing several examples over the last few months, but she did not specify any during the meeting.

She also said the senate’s parliamentarian, Sarah Binder, prepared FSEC on how to elect an interim chair, which she said they intend to do at their committee meeting this Friday.

Phil Wirtz, a faculty senator from the School of Business, motioned to go into executive session to privately discuss the events, which was approved by 22 supporting votes. Cohen-Cole was the lone objection.

Following an almost hour-long executive session, the meeting reopened to the public, where Cohen-Cole proposed a resolution to undo the appointment of the entire FSEC. He then proposed an amendment to his resolution to urge the resignation of each FSEC member instead of forcing them to resign, which failed to garner a majority of Faculty Senate votes.

Eakle, the Graduate School of Education and Human Development FSEC representative, spoke after the executive session and said the committee exchanged over 700 emails since May that tried to bring “order” and “sanity” to FSEC. He said he didn’t support Cohen-Cole’s resolution because it would be “very difficult” to resign without conferring with his school due to the responsibilities they have bestowed on him and also given that the public only knows “partial information” about the situation.

Schwindt said she wanted to remain on FSEC but wouldn’t expose the written exchanges and documentation to maintain her position on the committee as revealing the emails would expose other members’ comments and actions. She added that it would be unfortunate if the Faculty Senate decided to not allow FSEC — which she described as a group of “dedicated colleagues,” including representatives Akman, Warren and Brinkerhoff, who opposed the six FSEC’s representatives’ request that Schultheiss step down — continue working together after they voted to appoint a new temporary representative.

“I will not resign, but I will if we’re voted off, obviously, then I will remove myself,” Schwindt said. “I think that’s really unfortunate that that’s where we’ve gotten, given that you have six people telling you that they are not willing to go to the level of exposing private communications and behaviors.”

During the debate over the resolution before the vote, Faculty Senators Guillermo Orti and Siobhan Rigg left the meeting, leaving the senate at exactly a quorum. Cohen-Cole walked out of the room, effectively ending the meeting as the body lost quorum, also dropping his resolution that called on each FSEC member to resign in the process.

University President Ellen Granberg left the meeting prior to the executive session, stating she had to attend two Family Leadership Circle group events with donors she only meets once a year. Before she left, she said she would provide any resources to support the Faculty Senate and FSEC toward a resolution, regardless of cost.

A University spokesperson said in an email that officials were made aware of Schultheiss’ plans to step down as chair prior to the Faculty Senate meeting Friday. They said officials offered to provide resources to support a resolution within the body, though they do not plan to intervene in the current “disagreements.”

In a pre-written report to the Faculty Senate due to the meeting’s late start time and compressed timeline because of Alumni & Families Weekend events, Granberg said graduate enrollment decreased this semester by about 420 international graduate and professional students and over 300 part-time master’s students, which she said was expected. She attributed the decline in graduate enrollment to ongoing international visa delays and “recent workforce changes” in the area.

Vice Provost for Enrollment and Student Success Jay Goff said at a Faculty Senate meeting in August that undergraduate international student enrollment dropped by 5 percent over the past five academic years and will continue to drop by about another half percent this year due to delays in issuing student visas as a result of President Donald Trump’s travel ban.

Granberg also said total degree-seeking student enrollment is down by about 3.3 percent this year compared to fall 2024.

Granberg also said in her report the University is ahead of projections on spending reductions to manage fiscal year 2026’s structural deficit and is also matching revenue projections, though she didn’t provide an update about where the deficit currently stands. She added that final information on revenue is not available due to late enrollments and officials accepting financial aid appeals later in the semester than usual but said officials will provide an update of the FY2026 budget and efforts to reduce the deficit before the end of the semester.

Interim Provost John Lach said in his pre-written report GW had 62 externally-funded awards terminated as of Oct. 21, including 35 direct awards and 27 subawards that span 10 schools and units as a result of federal actions. He said the losses equal $7.2 million for the current period and $10.5 million for following years.

Lach said officials filed 17 appeals for reinstatement of the funding, with three direct and five subawards being reinstated. He said officials will continue to track the status of pending appeals and file new appeals after “careful consideration.”

John Simon, a consultant at Education Executives leading the provost search, said a subcommittee, consisting of the co-chairs and three faculty and trustees, completed the provost profile and is awaiting final formatting by the University’s marketing and communications offices. He said the entire search advisory committee and Granberg edited and amended the position profile that outlines the qualities in a provost the University seeks, including a person with a record of distinguished scholarship, ability to maintain a visible and approachable presence on campus and have a sense of humor.

Lach was not present for Simon’s update on the provost search, though Senior Senate Office Assistant Jenna Chaojareon left the room to get Lach and bring him into the room after Simon finished his update.

Simon said interested applicants have to submit a letter of interest, their complete curriculum vitae and a document describing their accomplishments and previous leadership positions. He said 15 people submitted applications and him and his colleague Anda Webb have reached out to 141 people about the position.

Of the 141 people they’ve reached out to, Simon said eight expressed interest in being a candidate, 34 people are considering the position, 13 want to read the position description before having a conversation, 70 are “still in play” while 16 declined.

Simon said the committee will hold the first round of Zoom interviews in early 2026 and expects to determine the finalists by mid-spring of 2026. He said the Office of the President will handle the finalist interviews and that the expectation is to have a new provost by early summer 2026.

“We’ll just keep working to build the pool,” Simon said.

Arjun Srinivas, Arushi Agarwal, Dylan Ebs and Madeleine Phillips contributed reporting.