By Carly Lagrotteria and Sarah Scire | The GW Hatchet

A George Washington University alumnus working for the State Department was found dead in Ethiopia this week and U.S. government officials say his death is being investigated as a homicide.

Brian Adkins, who graduated in 2007, worked for the State Department as a Foreign Service officer stationed in Ethiopia’s capital city, Addis Ababa. Representatives from the State Department said Wednesday that Adkins died on Saturday, but would not give further details because it was an ongoing homicide investigation.

Adkins, who would have turned 26 on Feb. 2, completed both his undergraduate and graduate studies at GW, graduating summa cum laude as an international affairs major from the Elliott School of International Affairs in 2005. He joined the State Department after receiving his master’s degree in 2007 and was assigned to Ethiopia.

After studying the indigenous language and culture for nearly a year, Adkins moved to Ethiopia as part of a Thomas R. Pickering Foreign Affairs Fellowship.

John Wysham, head of the Ethiopia desk at the State Department, said he was unable to provide details about Adkins’ death or the homicide investigation.

“The trouble here is that it is a crime scene we are talking about,” Wysham said. “It wasn’t like he fell off a rock and hit his head.”

He added, “We’d love to talk about it and stop some of these rumors but we cannot.”

Wysham said that he has been in contact with the Ethiopian embassy and Ethopian police forces about the ongoing investigation.

A Foreign Service officer also stationed in Africa is planning to accompany Adkins’ body from Ethiopia to the United States, Wysham said. The casket will be transported by military aircraft.

Ginny Boncy, a member of the State Department’s casualty assistance department, said Adkins was in the first year of his assignment and performing consular work for the State Department.

Consular work typically includes providing services like assisting Americans in distress and handling visas and passports.

Though Adkins’ father could not be reached for comment, senior Michael Geremia, one of Adkins’ best friends, described the Ohio native as “selfless, hardworking, confident, funny, charming, articulate, a scholar and a gentleman.”

“The world has lost someone who had so much to offer. I miss him tremendously,” Geremia said. “When I received word of his death on Monday, which would have been his 26th birthday, a piece of me died in Ethiopia.”

Geremia said that he last spoke to Adkins on Sunday, Jan. 25, when the two friends started to plan Adkins’ summer vacation in D.C.

“He was so excited to be in Africa serving his country as a diplomat, promoting American values,” Geremia said. “As much as he loved his career, he missed the U.S.”

Geremia said that despite the trials of living abroad, Adkins was optimistic about his future as a diplomat.

“Whenever I would urge him to be safe, he would reassure me that Ethiopia was safer than D.C.,” Geremia said.

As a student in Foggy Bottom, Adkins was a leader at the Knights of Columbus and the Newman Center, two organizations devoted to the Catholic faith.

He served as a trustee and held several officer positions with the Knights, including chancellor in charge of membership. After graduating, Adkins served as state ceremonial chairman and district warren for the Knights. In 2007, he was named Knight of the Year in D.C.

“He was friendly to everyone, incredibly devoted to his faith, and always willing to volunteer and give of himself,” said senior Conrad Murphy, a former grand knight. “When he left for Ethiopia, we found that it took at least three of us just to fill his shoes.”

Friends and fellow members of the Knights of Columbus, including Murphy, said Adkins will be remembered as incredibly intelligent and always working to master a new language. He spoke French, Arabic and Amharic, the official working language of Ethiopia.

Tom Saccoccia, a fellow 2007 alumnus and close friend, said Adkins will also be remembered for his humility.

“He just wasn’t a credit grabber, even though he did everything,” Saccoccia said. “He was just an all-around good guy.”

Adkins was a native of Columbus, Ohio. A Rite of Christian Burial is planned in his honor at St. Mary’s Church in his hometown.

EDITOR’S NOTE: There are more political prisoners than college students in Ethiopia under the US – and EU-financed brutal dictatorship in Ethiopia.

By John Gill | Times Higher Education

Concerns about heavier workloads and the “managerialist” culture of universities are not the exclusive preserve of the UK – they are also being voiced in Ethiopia.

The worries are set out in a paper published in the journal Higher Education Quarterly, which analyses the consequences of the expansion of Ethiopia’s university sector.

In the country, which has a population of 80 million, education is underdeveloped. Primary schooling is not available to all, and access to tertiary education is worse than in any other sub-Saharan nation.

However, the past 15 years have seen the “massification” of higher education, with access to universities growing four- to fivefold. By 2007, enrolments had risen to almost 200,000, according to the paper by Kedir Tessema, an academic at Addis Ababa University.

Ethiopia has 21 universities, many of which were started from scratch two to three years ago. But the report highlights an “acute” shortage of qualified staff, with the proportion of lecturers holding a PhD falling from 28 per cent to 9 per cent in just six years.

The study suggests that academics are bogged down by the number of tasks they have to do and struggle with class sizes, which on average have grown from 35 students in 2000 to more than 100 today.

One academic interviewed said: “Too much teaching, plus administrative assignments, plus my own research … is damaging my social and family life.”

The paper says: “Massification has resulted in increasing workloads and extended work schedules for academics. A managerialist attitude has evolved that measures teaching against instrumental outcomes. There is a sense of deprofessionalisation and deskilling among staff.”

(The writer can be reached at [email protected].)