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13/02/2025

WashU students arrived back on campus for the 2025 Spring Semester to be greeted by the Shopper Shuttle, a new shuttle that takes students to stops including Saint Louis Galleria, The Promenade at Brentwood, and the Walmart at Maplewood Commons. The shuttle runs on Saturdays from 9 a.m. through 6 p.m.

Assistant Vice Chancellor for University Services Jason McClellan mentioned that the new Shopper Shuttle pilot builds off of a previous transportation system the school had a few years ago.

“Before the current transportation program and WashU’s partnership with Metro, WashU operated three shuttle routes — the Redline, Greenline, and Goldline,” McClellan wrote in an email comment to Student Life. “The Redline incorporated stops at the Galleria and Promenade shopping areas. Ultimately, Metro took over those routes and later reconfigured its routes.”

Even though WashU provides free Metro U-Passes to all full-time students, McClellan and WashU’s Parking & Transportation Department developed the shuttle route to address the lack of direct transportation.

First-year Julianna Cool said she was excited to try out the Shopper Shuttle since she had previous difficulties getting to the Target in Brentwood.

“Getting an Uber is expensive, and it’s money I don’t want to spend. With public transportation, it’s usually not on time and it’ll take the whole day,” Cool said. “Especially when we took [the Metro] to the Brentwood Target, we had to trek behind the Chick-fil-A and walk down a hill that’s like all mud.”

Another student, first-year Carlos Hernandez, expressed that he wished the shuttle had longer hours.

“I wish [the Shopper Shuttle] went on for longer. Ending at 6 p.m., I don’t know. I wish it was maybe [running until] 7:30,” Hernandez said.

WashU hired Lawrence Chavis — who has owned and operated his own limousine chauffeur service for over a decade — to drive the revived Shopper Shuttle.

Students such as Wills expressed how much they love Chavis, who goes by Mr. Lawrence to students, for his prioritization of student safety and friendly attitude.

Read more at the link in bio.

✍️ by Mary Konstorum
📷 by Ben Gondzu

13/02/2025

On Friday afternoon, the National Institute of Health (NIH) announced a $4 billion research funding cut spearheaded by the Trump administration. A federal judge temporarily paused the cut nationally on Tuesday following lawsuits filed the day before.

A WashU professor, who wished to be anonymous and will be referred to as Professor Z, said this decision uproots the biomedical research pipeline.

“This is all a ludicrous proposition that fails to understand the whole ecosystem of how this all works,” Professor Z said.

“Indirects are the lifeblood of grants,” one professor who wished to remain anonymous and will be referred to as Professor Y, said. “Indirects are just so much more than just even the money. When you’re seeing those numbers, there are people behind them. It’s not just a light bulb. It’s actual people and their jobs.”

Professor Y does research that focuses on how to apply research innovations in beneficial ways for communities that need them. They have specialized in grant writing for about 20 years, and said that judging from their experience, people should be worried.

“The university is saying, ‘Don’t panic, we’re figuring this out,’” they said. “But the time to panic is now.”

To remediate the situation at an institutional level, WashU must either find new funding sources for this amount, reallocate current funds, or scale back research.

Associate Professor of Molecular Microbiology, Sebla Kutluay, said that while the University may be able to cut some indirect costs, the unaccounted costs will largely fall on the shoulders of scientists. To Kutluay, this cost could mean the end of research institutions altogether.

“Universities will not want to have scientists,” Kutluay said. “There will be no incentive for the universities to expand the science program [so] I think that will be the first thing they cut.”

Read more at the link in our bio.

✍️ Tanvi Gorre, Quinn Moore and Victor Huang
🎨 Sydney Tran

12/02/2025

WashU has two undergraduate students and two graduate student representatives on its board of trustees. The board, composed of just above 40 members, has overseen distribution of the University’s resources since 1853. Apart from the student members, other trustees include alumni, parents, community members, and donors. The board meets in-person quarterly.

The board is composed of 10 committees, several subcommittees, and occasional ad hoc task forces. The student representatives serve a yearlong term on the “Student Experience” subcommittee, and generally report to that subgroup aside from a final meeting in May, when they present in front of the entire Board.

The current undergraduate student representatives are seniors Amaya Daniels and Sarai Steinberg, and the current graduate student representatives are Jean Brownell and Andréa Charles.

Apart from the four board meetings, student representatives are expected to meet regularly with members of the administration and serve as a liaison between the student body and the Chancellor. Graduate student representatives also are expected to attend the Graduate Professional Student Council and Graduate Professional Coordinating Committee meetings.

The application process to become a representative on the board is rigorous, with an extensive application and several rounds of interviews with former student representatives, the current chair of the board, and the former chair.

Applications to serve on the board will open in the Spring semester.

Read more at the link in bio.

✍️ by Nina Laser

12/02/2025

On Feb. 26, 2022, two months after he graduated from WashU, Justin Hardy subbed into WashU’s final regular season game against The University of Chicago. Weak from months of chemotherapy, he dribbled down the court and scored the Bears’ final points of the game. When the final buzzer went off, WashU and Chicago players embraced Hardy in what would be his last game for the Bears.

Five months later, Hardy tragically passed away after a 13-month-long battle with cancer which he fought while undergoing treatment and playing his senior season at WashU.

Now, three years later, WashU took to the court against Brandeis University on Jan. 31 for the second annual HardyStrong game, a game honoring Hardy’s legacy and raising awareness about stomach cancer.

“There are so many people that were touched by [Hardy’s story], not only in our community here at WashU and his hometown, but nationally, and I think all of us feel a sense of responsibility to carry forward,” WashU head coach Pat Juckem said about Hardy’s legacy.

Hardy was diagnosed with stomach cancer before his senior season. What at first seemed like an insurmountable obstacle became a motivation for not only Hardy but also his teammates, family, WashU, and eventually the nation.

In February of 2022, Hardy sat down for a segment with ESPN’s College Gameday and in March for one with SportsCenter. From there his story grew, showing people what his mantra “mind over matter” truly meant.

In the SportsCenter segment, he said, “you write your story. From the opening cover to the very last page. This disease cannot take that away from you. Go out there and defy the odds. Rewrite how to live with cancer. You are going to do some incredible things.”

Read more at the link in bio.

✍️ Lewis Rand
📷 Ella Giere

11/02/2025

The Connection Points project is a walkable route opening in the next couple of weeks connecting 15 mental health locations with native plant life spread across campus. Each stop includes photos from each season, a description of the plant life, their Indigenous names, a meditation exercise, and a podcast episode expanding on the stories of the plants and WashU’s relationship to indigeneity.

Through this path, students and faculty can walk from spot to spot and engage in the mental health exercise associated with each location, while reading about the historical significance and names of the indigenous plants. Graduate student Victoria Meza said this initiative works to facilitate a relationship between Indigenous peoples in the area and WashU, recognize their history with the land, and publicize their culture and language.

“These plants have Latin names, but those are not their true names. Indigenous people had given these trees their names centuries before European settlers came in,” junior Shelby Negosian, who worked on the project, said. “Incorporating Indigenous language into campus is really powerful.”

Beyond native plant life, these points function “as a way to bridge mental health with Indigenous history,” Negosian said.

Read more at the link in our bio.

✍️ Sara Strassberg
🎨 Anna Dorsey

10/02/2025

In the past three years, two WashU professors have been publicly accused of sexual misconduct by students, leading to discourse online and student protests. To date, the University has not commented on its investigations or even confirmed that an investigation is happening.

Jessica Kennedy, Director of the Gender Equity and Title IX Compliance Office, said that federal laws prevent the office, and the University at large, from speaking about specific investigations publicly — or even confirming if someone is being investigated. Most significantly, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) limits what information a school can disclose about students.

Kennedy said that, if the Title IX Office receives a complaint about a professor, they will investigate the claim in a process almost identical to the process for investigating a student. In both cases, the only people made aware of the investigation are those involved and the members of the investigation panel, which typically consists of three people.

“We don’t announce when investigations are happening,” Kennedy said. “That information is kept private, but we don’t restrict the parties involved from talking about an investigation because we understand that complainants and respondents alike will seek support for what they’re going through.”

Sophomore Sonal Churiwal said that the lack of transparency from the University creates a culture of apathy towards sexual misconduct at WashU.

“At UMich and Harvard, after sexual violence allegations came out, and there was widespread discourse and protests, both professors ended up retiring,” Churiwal said. “No professor wants to have their name tarnished by being found responsible for sexual violence, so if they truly believe the school takes it seriously, its not uncommon for professors to just exit early.”

Read more at the link in bio.

✍️ by Lily Taylor

10/02/2025

After acknowledging the rapidly shifting landscape of modern health, Galea first described the most important part of health and highlighted humanity’s progress over the past 200 years in bettering human health.

“The capacity to live a full, rich life: that is what health is about,” Galea said. “For most of [humanity’s] ~75,000 years, [health] has been terrible, like really, really bad … In 1940 most of the world had life expectancies still in the 50s, maybe 60s. Now, we get most of the world’s life expectancies in the 70s, 80s.”

However, according to Galea, the U.S. still has a ways to go, especially in regards to equity.

“It is important that we recognize that our priorities in health should be driven by an effort to create space for all of us humans to live full, rich lives … that drives what we prioritize in health,” Galea said. “There should be no conversation about health without equity at the heart of the conversation.”

Read more at the link in bio.

✍️ by Quinn Moore
📷 by Gabriella Cullen

09/02/2025

Due to the heavy precipitation followed by freezing temperatures, Anderson noted that the early January storm posed a significant challenge for the Facilities team.

“The combination of heavy precipitation followed by extremely low temperatures prolonged our response and put great stress on our team. I’m proud of how [we rose] to the occasion to serve the WashU community,” Anderson said.

Each year, WashU’s Facilities outlines a budget which takes into account expected supplies and manpower needed based on previous years. When winter storms occur, Facilities, combined with WashU’s landscape contractor, Focal Pointe, is prepared to mitigate the effects of bad weather through a coordinated response with Emergency Management, WashU’s Police Department, and Parking & Transportation.

Read more: https://www.studlife.com/news/2025/02/05/januarys-weather-may-be-a-glimpse-into-the-future-and-heres-what-we-can-do-about-it

✍️ by Tanvi Gorre and Abbie Sapira
📷 by Elma Ademovic

08/02/2025

Although WashU has numerous traditions on campus, the most widely known and attended are the various cultural shows put on each year. While other campus traditions foster community within their organizations, something about the cultural shows instills a sense of pride in the identity of their members.

For many Black students, that is Black Anthology.

Black Anthology is one of the four main cultural shows at WashU. The others are Diwali, Lunar New Year, and Carnaval. Cultural shows allow students to showcase customs and practices that are important to themselves, their friends, classmates, and fellow WashU students. They give students from diverse backgrounds a community that supports and understands where they’re coming from.

Black Anthology was created by Marcia Hayes-Harris, who started at WashU in 1980 as a Residential Life Coordinator. During her time with ResLife, Hayes-Harris was involved with the program Quest for Success, an initiative that developed programming for African American students and other students from underrepresented backgrounds. She was tasked with creating something during orientation that would bring together Black students on campus.

“One night I was asleep, and this production emerged in my dream,” Hayes-Harris said.

Once she returned to work, she pitched her idea for Black Anthology to Tony Novak, her supervisor, who was on board with the idea.

“[Tony and I] were thinking it was just gonna be a one-time event,” Hayes-Harris said. But there was such a positive response that they decided to make it an annual event. “It wasn’t just for the residence hall students. It was for all students.”

Read more at the link in bio.

✍️ Siobhan Davenport
📷 Mike Peter

07/02/2025

It’s difficult not to notice the stumps left behind from the cleared trees of Mudd Field. On Jan. 17, WashU announced the reconstruction of Mudd Field in the upcoming years, an endeavour that will close Mudd Field from after this year’s commencement until Fall 2028. While WashU administrators have expressed excitement regarding the project, some students are upset by the prospect of losing Mudd Field for the rest of their time in college.

At a Student Union Senate meeting on Jan. 21, Associate Vice Chancellor and Dean of Students Rob Wild said that the field will transform from an open-programming space into an enclosed space bordered by trees. Part of the rationale for a tree border around the field is to offer shade from heat during the summer in St. Louis.

“If you’ve ever been in St. Louis in the summer, you don’t really ever want to go on Mudd Field because it’s hot and there’s no shade,” Wild said.

Along with plans to border the field with trees, there are plans to create a pathway through the field to increase accessibility.

“One of the problems right now with Mudd Field is you can’t really get across it without going into the grass,” Wild said. “The new Mudd Field is going to have some hard state, accessible, wide pathways across it.”

Student Life spoke to several students who were dismayed by the sudden change, including sophomore William Weinstein.

“It’s a little bit abrupt of a change without [holding] a forum for debate,” Weinstein said. “It seems like it’s going to all be closed for a really long time.”

Although disappointed about the construction on campus, Wild and other students like Weinstein acknowledge that it is a necessary part of a growing school.

“There’s never a great time for construction, but we know the improvements to Mudd Field will ultimately be worth the wait. When it’s done, we expect it’ll be even more of a destination for students to relax and enjoy campus,” Wild wrote in a statement to Student Life.

“I feel bummed. I knew this would happen sooner or later, and WashU has to grow and evolve,” Weinstein said. “It’s just sad when you catch it at the wrong time.”

✍️ Sydney Tran
📷 Sam Powers

06/02/2025

The annual Lunar New Year Festival (LNYF) show took place this past weekend from Friday, Jan. 31 to Sunday, Feb. 1. Students celebrated East Asian and Southeast Asian cultures in a show which consisted of 15 acts, ranging from dance to percussion. This year’s theme was “Interwoven,” a tribute to the Year of the Snake.

📷 Asher Lubin, Eran Fann, and Isabella Diaz-Mira

06/02/2025

The 2025 Black Anthology show, titled “Echoes of Her,” runs from Friday, Feb. 7 through Saturday, Feb. 8, at 7 p.m. on both nights. Each show has a pre-show panel that begins at 6:15 p.m. The details of the show are kept secret until the opening performance, but will live long after the curtains have closed.

The show represents a year-long process of creativity and cooperation between students from all different academic divisions and expertises. For many, BA is a source of great pride and is just as much about the community as it is about the show. Cast and executive members work together both on stage and behind the scenes — their efforts culminating in this annual event.

Each year, BA partners with a local organization to raise money and awareness, expanding their impact beyond WashU’s campus. This year, their partner is Jamaa Birth Village, Missouri’s first Black-owned midwifery clinic.

As Black Anthology adds another year to its storied history, its members encourage WashU students to attend with an open mind, ready to think about the issues raised by the show in this iteration.

Read more at https://www.studlife.com/scene/2025/02/06/echoes-of-her-2025-black-anthologys-impact-reaches-beyond-the-stage.

✍️ Alice Gottesman
📷 Eran Fann

02/02/2025

A Beyoncé bit, a marathon, an empty seat — the ways in which best friends meet and cement their friendship status can appear just about anywhere. While friendships are sometimes surface-level, routine, or circumstantial, best friendships are a separate tier, reserved for mutual number-one status. Maybe they’re the first person you invite to lunch, or the one you always call with news (good or bad), or the person you just miss the most when you’re separated. Regardless, that person is special in a way understandable only to the two people involved. Before a friendship enters this sacred territory, it starts with an ordinary moment.

Read the two pairs' full stories at https://www.studlife.com/scene/2025/01/29/love-scene-best-friends-forever.

✍️ Katie Hanson
🎨 Jaime Hebel

02/02/2025

As another semester rolls around, we say our hellos and goodbyes to many things. We say goodbye to our restful breaks, and hello to another assortment of classes. We also say goodbye to friends and classmates embarking on their studies abroad, and hello to those who are just returning from their trips.

Studying abroad gives students the opportunity to live, learn, and work in a completely different location than the one they call home. At WashU, students across each school can pick from programs in over 50 countries that cater to their major. WashU’s abroad office also works with financial aid services to eliminate barriers to the experience.

With stories as souvenirs, returning students have shared their reflections on and wisdom from their study abroad experiences.

Read more at the link in bio.

✍️ Nikol Krol

01/02/2025

At the 38th annual Danforth Campus Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration, audience members gathered in Graham Chapel to hear various speakers and choirs address themes of responsibility, resilience, and justice, in accordance with King’s lessons.

The event was co-hosted by senior Hussein Amuri, President of Student Union (SU), and sophomore Spencer Snipe, Co-President of ABS.

The event’s theme focused on responsibility, specifically King’s quote: “Ultimately, individual responsibility lies not in the external situation but in the internal response.”

Read more at https://www.studlife.com/news/2025/01/29/38th-annual-mlk-commemoration-highlights-responsibility.

✍️ Natalia Jamula
📷 Scott Zarider

31/01/2025

Vibrant colors, exciting acts, and lively music will soon light up the stage at Edison Theater on Friday, Jan. 31, and Saturday, Feb. 1 when students take center stage for the Lunar New Year Festival (LNYF), a yearly celebration of East Asian and Southeast Asian cultures.

The LNYF team is composed of a 23-person Board of Executives and an even larger 150-person performance team. This year’s theme — “Interwoven” — is a nod to the Year of the Snake.

LNYF showcases 15 total acts, including three new to this year’s show: Vietnamese Fan, Chinese Umbrella, and Chinese Contemporary. The show combines dance, percussion, and trick acts. Other notable performances include Samulnori standing drums, Taekwondo, and Tinikling dance.

Read more at https://www.studlife.com/scene/2025/01/29/lunar-new-year-festival-interweaving-communities-in-celebration.

✍️ Sara Gelrud and Madison Yue
📷 Isabella Diaz-Mira

31/01/2025

To many, it took a few days after returning from Winter Break to register that something was missing from Mudd Field: multiple beautiful, tall trees whose shade we lounged under just a few months before.

After the 2025 Commencement, Mudd will officially close down for construction, adding to the pre-existing noise and the obstacle course of maneuvering around the construction site of Riney Hall. Planned renovations include the addition of a few pathways across the field, many more trees, and better lighting during the night.

Amidst plans for major changes to this campus cultural touchstone, students have received minimal information about the approaching construction. The only notice has been an email from The Record sent to the student body mentioning the “Mudd Field makeover,” an email that went to several students’ spam folders.

In WashU’s own words, “Mudd Field is an essential part of the WashU student experience.” But for the next three years, the heart of campus will be reduced to yet another inaccessible pile of dirt.

The Student Life Editorial Board calls upon WashU to more publically provide further information so that students can properly plan and prepare for the incoming Mudd Field construction project. Additional information should include what changes to expect in the coming years as well as plans for accessibility and alternative accommodations during the years of construction.

Staff editorials reflect the opinion of the majority of our Editorial Board members. The Editorial Board operates independently of our newsroom and includes members of the senior staff.

📷 Photo courtesy of Washington University

31/01/2025

This February, the Association of Black Students (ABS) has a lineup of events centered around education and elevating Black students at WashU. From a Super Bowl watch party to a panel with Black law professionals, sophomore and ABS President Spencer Snipe hopes to engage the whole WashU community this month.

“When we first met as an Executive Board last spring following our election, we made it imperative to have meaningful and consistent programming throughout the year,” Snipe told Student Life. “Our Black History Month plans are a testament to this mission.”

For more information about Black History Month events at WashU, students can look at the ABS website and Instagram page, as well as WashU’s Cross-Cultural Connections’ calendar of events.

✍Aliana Mediratta
📷 Photo courtesy of the WashU Association of Black Students

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