Officials are closing in on a deal with Universal Health Services over the debt-ridden Medical Faculty Associates, having agreed on an “enormous” amount while a few issues remain, University President Ellen Granberg told the Staff Council Wednesday.
Granberg, during her second appearance before the Staff Council this year, said the University’s negotiations with UHS are moving along “quite well,” adding she doesn’t expect it to be “too much longer” before officials announce the finalized deal. Granberg also said School of Medicine and Health Sciences Dean and former MFA CEO Barbara Bass, who is set to retire Saturday, is not on the negotiating team with UHS but serves in a similar advisory role, meeting regularly to provide feedback to the officials leading the talks.
“I don’t think it’s going to be too much longer before we have something definitive that we can announce, but we’re not quite there,” Granberg said.
GW in October reached a preliminary agreement with UHS, who also owns and operates GW Hospital, that halved the University’s financial support for the MFA as both parties negotiate a deal to end its financial support for the medical enterprise. Granberg told the Staff Council last month officials were “working very hard” to finalize an agreement with UHS but had yet to resolve complex issues, including employment agreements and challenges tied to the academic enterprise.
Chief Financial Officer Bruno Fernandes told the Staff Council in December that GW and UHS hope to reach a resolution on the MFA within the next month or two, adding that the process is “not going as quickly” as officials anticipated because of “concerns in terms of the physicians.”
Granberg also outlined at the meeting officials’ rollout of the strategic framework’s Foundational Excellence Initiative on Tuesday, which she said seeks to “repair” and improve GW’s operations. She said the new initiative will look at how GW’s administration is organized, its purchases and real estate portfolio, including assessing how officials can pull more money from those investments.
The initiative’s website states that its focus is to strengthen GW’s long-term financial health and is an “urgent” response to ongoing financial headwinds universities nationwide, including GW, are facing, like decreased international student enrollment, shifting federal policies and the University’s ongoing financial losses from the MFA.
Granberg said the initiative will also look at other opportunities to grow revenue and modernize the University’s technology to complete basic daily tasks to leave staff room for “really important work.” She said the initiative is a long-term project that will be developed over the next three to five years and will not affect officials’ plan to offer merit salary increases for the next fiscal year.
The initiative’s website states it will provide steps to eliminate the University’s current structural deficit and invest in the strategic framework, with the possibility that the measures may lead to additional layoffs. Staff Council President Mindy Galván asked Granberg to expand on officials’ plan to reduce staff as outlined in the initiative.
Granberg said officials don’t currently plan to lay off staff as a result of the new initiative, though officials wanted to be transparent that it may happen. She said officials will do “as much as possible” to reduce staff through attrition or by terminating positions once they’re vacated.
Officials laid off 43 staff members at the end of September 2025 due to budget cuts, the first University-wide layoffs since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We felt that it was unfair to not be honest that there is the possibility that something like that might be a part of the initiative, but nobody’s starting out, and we would first use as much as you could, attrition and vacancies,” Granberg said.
Galván, on behalf of a staff member, asked Granberg how officials’ budget contingency plans, including 5, 10 and 15 percent reductions, will impact staff, given their unit was already “cut to the bone.”
Granberg said officials’ budget contingency planning is “painful,” though officials need to be proactive and prepared in the event international student applications don’t increase, given officials are already seeing “warning signs” with international applications.
“I am very empathetic to the point that a lot of units have already cut down to the bone,” Granberg said. “That’s a very common feeling around campus, and so we’re going to do our best to make sure that we’re not asking people to cut into bone.”
Galván asked Granberg about officials’ long-term plans to sustain enrollment as the University experiences a decline in international students.
Granberg said officials don’t know what enrollment levels will look like in the years ahead, though the University has an “incredibly strong foundation,” including high undergraduate demand. She said officials in the coming years will look at GW’s degree programs to anticipate future student demand, which could include consolidating degrees or creating new interdisciplinary programs.
“You know, suppose we could offer a master’s degree that was in, say, the combination of international affairs and cybersecurity,” Granberg said. “We’re probably one of the few institutions that could do that at a world-class level.”
Galván asked Granberg for her thoughts on GW’s hybrid policy that requires staff to work on campus either Monday or Friday. Granberg said she believes in workplace flexibility, though GW’s status as a residential university with “very, very high tuition” rates require the need for staff to work on campus and provide in-person services.
“It’s the balance between really wanting to support workplace flexibility, but also understanding and being aware that we are fundamentally an in-person business, if you will,” Granberg said.
Zoomel Ghauri contributed reporting.