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AN INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER SERVING THE GW COMMUNITY SINCE 1904

The GW Hatchet

Serving the GW Community since 1904

The GW Hatchet

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Officials name senior vice president, chief of staff
By Fiona Riley, Assistant News Editor • March 26, 2024

“Gelman guy” returns to dorm room

A week has gone by since Marco Chomut left his temporary home in Gelman Library, but people still know him as the “Gelman guy.”

The sophomore, who had lived in the library for about a month, is now a campus celebrity following a report in The Hatchet on his life, he said.

“A lot of people recognize me when I’m walking down the street,” Chomut said. “They’ll yell out ‘Hey, Gelman guy’ or ‘Hey, Mr. gelman.'”

But Chomut said he is not letting the newfound attention get to his head.

“It’s really weird being talked about by all these people I’ve never met before,” he said. “I don’t really feel any different.”

On Thursday, Chomut was finally able to move back into his residence hall, the result of his ability to formally register for the classes he was attending. His year-long bureaucratic misadventure is over.

Chomut said the return to campus housing has been an adjustment.

“It was weird the first day,” Chomut said. “I had all of these habits I had accumulated living in the library.”

He added, “Waking up in a bed was confusing. I live on the top bunk and after sleeping on couches near the floor for so long, I almost fell off.”

The biggest difference, he said, is being around all his friends and roommates again in a much more regular setting.

“My friends found the whole situation pretty hilarious and just wanted to know what it was like,” he said.

His roommates had mixed reactions about his return from Gelman Library.

“Meh,” said roommate Ben Clarke, a sophomore. “It was nice to have a double for a while. Now we have less space. But I guess it’s less boring. And he can help with the group project that we’re supposed to work together on, which he hasn’t.”

They say the same situation arose last fall, when Chomut was evicted mid-semester. Clarke and sophomore Chris Brese said Chomut continued to live with them and planned to do the same this spring, until housing authorities found out.

“We think it was pretty much his fault – the whole situation,” Brese said.

“He’s lazy and irresponsible,” Clarke said, adding that he and Brese had seen numerous notifications that the University sent, some labeled as containing “Important Student Loan Information,” which Chomut seemingly ignored.

In an interview with The Hatchet last week, Chomut said he did not receive such notifications from the University, though he admitted there was more he could have done to avoid the situation.

Although Chomut’s University housing saga for this year is over, he inadvertently missed next year’s housing application process while still unregistered and now plans to live in an off-campus apartment in the fall.

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