April 15, 2021 Student Life Newspaper, Washington University in St. Louis

The independent newspaper of Washington University in St. Louis since 1878 THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 2021

VOLUME 142, NO. 22

CLEANING UP

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What WU students did to clean up a neighborhood park (Scene, pg 4)

Baseball loses first game of season but is ranked top team in DIII (Sports, pg 8)

All Student Theatre produces ‘Jerry Finnegan’s Sister’ in Brookings Quad (Cadenza, pg 5)

WU undecided on vaccine requirement as rising number of other schools mandate the shots GRACE KENNARD NEWS EDITOR

HN HOFFMANN | STUDENT LIFE

Students fill out paperwork as they wait in line to get vaccinated at the vaccine clinic on the Medical School campus last Friday. Washington University paused its distribution of Johnson & Johnson vaccines Tuesday and plans to resume the vaccine clinic with Pfizer vaccines this Friday.

WU pauses J&J distribution, plans Pfizer to start Friday ORLI SHEFFEY, GRACE KENNARD AND JULIA ROBBINS NEWS EDITORS Washington University canceled this week’s Johnson & Johnson vaccine clinics at the medical school campus Tuesday morning, following recommendations from federal health agencies after six cases of “extremely rare” blood clots emerged in recipients. Students, faculty and staff who had their appointments canceled will be able to receive the Pfizer vaccine starting Friday, after the University secured a supply of those two-dose vaccines from the Barnes-Jewish

system.

The University had been offering the J&J vaccine to students, faculty and staff since last Friday.

“We’re likely going to be able to reschedule everybody who is scheduled for today to be able to get the Pfizer vaccine later in the week… so to be able to accommodate those who had already been scheduled and signed up,” Dr. Steve Lawrence, the University’s top viral infectious disease expert, said in an interview with Student Life Tuesday.

The University announced the pause on distribution of the J&J vaccine in an email from Eva Aagard, senior associate dean for education in the School of Medicine, and Kirk

Dougher, associate vice chancellor for health and wellness.

“The agencies have made this move out of an abundance of caution due to the identification of a rare, but serious potential side effect in approximately one per million vaccine recipients,” Aagard and Dougher wrote. “It is important to note that we do not yet know if these cases are due to the vaccine. We will follow the investigation closely and determine our next steps based on the findings and federal recommendations.”

All six individuals who suffered the rare blood disorder were women between the ages of 18 and 48. One

woman has died, while another was hospitalized in critical condition.

In all cases, symptoms developed within six to thirteen days after vaccination. Federal officials are concerned that doctors might not be trained to spot and address the symptoms of the rare blood disorder in vaccine recipients; different treatments are required to combat the specific blood clot potentially linked to the vaccine.

Though news of these potential side effects is “scary,” Lawrence said that University members who just received the vaccine should not be alarmed.

SEE PAUSE, PAGE 2

Washington University administrators have not determined whether they will require students to be vaccinated against COVID19 for the upcoming in-person fall semester, despite a rising number of peer institutions announcing the requirement.

While at least 14 colleges and universities, including Duke, Brown, Cornell, Northeastern and Notre Dame, have announced vaccine requirements, in an email to the University community about the fall planning process, March 31, Chancellor Andrew Martin and Provost Beverly Wendland wrote that they hope all community members will have access to the vaccine by August, but did not announce it as a requirement to return to campus in the fall.

“This would be a major step forward for us in being able to return more fully to an in-person campus experience,” they wrote. “It is possible that we will require the vaccine for students, faculty or staff, depending on vaccine availability. We highly recommend that everyone gets vaccinated, if you are able to do so.”

SEE VACCINE, PAGE 2

‘Failing to act urgently is unreasonable’: Cori Bush calls for racial justice at WU climate change dialogue OLIVIA DANNER STAFF REPORTER Representative Cori Bush called for urgent racial and climate justice at a panel hosted by Washington University and the University of Missouri-St. Louis, April 7.

The two universities partnered to host the webinar “Green Recovery, Climate Solutions, and a Just Transition” as part of a nationwide series of over 125 climate dialogues aimed at solving climate change by 2030.

The panel was moderated by Washington University sophomore Nina Silverstein.

In addition to Bush, Sal Martinez, CEO of Employment Connection, Ashlen Busick, senior regional representative of Socially Responsible Agriculture Project (SRAP) and Dr. Rachel Owen, executive director of Missouri Science and Technology (MOST) Policy Initiative, spoke about methods of combating climate change in Missouri.

Emphasizing the disproportionate impact of climate change on Black and brown communities, Bush set forth several goals in her address, including eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from all

federally owned buildings by 2022.

In response to those who called her goal of 100% renewable energy by 2030 “unreasonable,” Bush says that her constituents cannot wait for change.

“The people of St. Louis, of Ferguson, of Normandy, of Florissant and communities all across Missouri’s first district cannot wait around for what establishment politicians think is reasonable,” Bush said. “Failing to act urgently is unreasonable.”

She emphasized that President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion climate plan is insufficient, explaining how she hopes to “transform the very structures of how we live.”

“I am fighting to make electricity, clean water and sewage and broadband basic human rights for everyone to enjoy,” Bush said.

“Bringing utilities into public ownership is just one example of how we can set up our system to work for people and the planet.”

Touching on a similar note, Owen argued that despite a lack of state-wide dialogue surrounding climate change, the problem’s widespread impacts should bring it to the forefront of lawmakers’ attention.

“We really try to focus on thinking about climate as part of every issue, you know, even if they’re talking about a health insurance bill,” Owen said. “There’s health impacts of climate change, and that’s something that should be brought into the conversation. So, instead of trying to force climate change as a priority, we try to really highlight how climate is this overarching problem that’s affecting everything.”

Owen also discussed the work of MOST Policy Initiative in bringing scientific information to state policymakers with the goal of inciting palpable political change.

“Primarily we work here at the capitol in Jefferson City talking with lawmakers and answering their questions related to science,” Owen said. “We also have a statewide science network called the local science engagement network where we work with scientists across the state to help them find ways to elevate science and policy conversation.”

Furthermore, to get more government resources and investments in St. Louis, Bush added that Missouri’s first congressional district needs to gather more data on environmental justice to fully understand

its disproportionate impacts.

“This work will build on the incredible, locally-developed Environmental Racism in St. Louis Report from 2017, so that we can make the case for the resources and investments that Black and brown and Indigenous communities so urgently need,” Bush said.

Bush said her perspective on climate change is informed by her first-hand experience growing up in St. Louis.

“There are 11 more 90 degree days per year in St. Louis than when I was born, and that number will continue to grow,” Bush said.

“When I was unhoused and living in my car, rising temperatures made it even less safe for my children and me as the windows replicated the greenhouse effect on a small scale. When I did have housing I was often unable to afford to turn on the air conditioning in the hot St. Louis summers.”

All four panelists also provided recommendations for fighting climate change, including understanding local, statewide and federal climate policies, supporting Missouri climate nonprofits and engaging in dialogue with those who have differing opinions on climate

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Martinez described how his company, Employment Connection, began a solar panel installation training program as part of a larger effort to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in the regional green economy. Notably, participants earn significantly more than the 2020 average Employment Connection client wage, $10.96 per hour.

“We’re very excited to be in a position to help establish a pipeline for minorities and women to enter this very, very exciting field,” Martinez said. “The participants received $15 an hour for their paid internships, and then several of the participants were ultimately hired by private solar companies at wages starting at $16.50 per hour with benefits.”

Despite the challenges ahead for climate advocacy and legislation, Bush remained optimistic at the panel. “Together we will fight to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2030. Even when so many tell us we can’t,” Bush said. “We are going to decarbonize the economy and create millions of jobs in the process, and we are going to do it together as a fundamental part of our campaign for racial justice and climate justice.”

2 STUDENT LIFE

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theFLIPSIDE FLIPSIDE THU 15

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FRIDAY 16 Intersection of LGBTQ and African American Health in St. Louis Virtual Event, 12 p.m.

Erise Williams, Jr., MPH is the co-founder of Williams & Associates, Inc, a community based non-profit agency addressing minority health disparities and health equity issues that impact minority health for 19 years. He has served as the founding executive director of Blacks Assisting Blacks Against AIDS (BABAA- 1990-2002), which under his leadership, became one of the premier minority ASOs (AIDS Service Organization) in the Midwest region. Mr. Williams served in this position for 12 years, before leaving and starting Williams & Associates Inc, to address minority health disparities and health equity.

SATURDAY 17 Outdoor Viewing: Hostile Terrain 94 Women’s Building Lawn, 12 p.m.

Stop by the North Entrance of the DUC (near Mudd Field) to experience the finished Hostile Terrain 94 exhibit memorializing over 3,200 lives lost in the Arizonan Sonoran Desert.

PAUSE from page 1 “I think I might be more concerned if I was a woman,” Codel said. “But at the same time, other medications have higher blood clot risks. And I think weighing the risk of blood clots from a vaccine versus not getting vaccinated and potentially spreading the disease to other people, and they get hurt or die as a result, I think the benefits outweigh the costs.”

Even though Codel said he still would have taken the vaccine after learning about the six cases, he supported the University’s decision to halt J&J vaccinations.

“I think that the school is probably doing the right thing,” Codel said. “It’d be a little weird for Wash. U. to continue while the U.S. government is recommending something else.”

Junior Lucy Schlueter, who had been scheduled to get vaccinated today, agreed that it was the right decision for the University to pause the vaccinations.

“My dad’s a physician, so he also emailed me this morning because he knew I was supposed to get my vaccine and he was like, ‘Just so you know, the blood clots,’ he said, ‘were specifically in young women,’” Schlueter said. “It looks like it was our demographic, and I’d rather not take that chance because if there’s a better way, if there are other vaccines out there, then I’d like to avoid that risk, definitely.”

“I believe the CDC and the FDA,” Schlueter added.

“They’re top notch doctors, so they’re gonna make the right choice and I’m happy to abide by that.”

Announcement of Abdul-Jabbar for class of 2021 commencement speaker sparks excitement MATTHEW FRIEDMAN

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EVENT CALENDAR

“I would not be overly concerned if I had just gotten vaccinated,” Lawrence said. “It is too early to say if those occurred because of the vaccine, or if they would have occurred anyway.”

Lawrence added that even though students should not be too worried about having received the J&J vaccine, pausing new administrations of the vaccine is the right thing to do.

“The appropriate thing to do is what’s being done,” he said, describing the move as “a pause while further data are collected to try to determine if there is a direct causal effect because that has not been established yet.”

Lawrence added that the one per one million occurrence of the rare blood clots is slightly lower than the risk for a severe allergic reaction to the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines (a rate of about two to five per one million), and many epidemiologists have noted that the blood clot rate was lower than that associated with some common forms of birth control.

Prior to today’s news from public health officials, the University had strongly encouraged students to get the J&J vaccine on campus.

The ‘One and Done’ single dose nature of the J&J vaccine makes it attractive for college campuses, Dougher told Student Life last week.

Freshman Carsen Codel, who received the J&J vaccine yesterday, said that he has not been “super concerned” about receiving the shot, in part because the six blood clot cases occurred in women.

THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 2021

Freshman Keona Dordor, who got the J&J vaccine from the University on Friday, said that she “wasn’t too fazed” by the blood clot concerns.

“I’d take an odd of getting a blood clot over COVID any day, and the odds aren’t even that bad,” Dordor said.

However, freshman Rosie Lopolito, who was vaccinated with the J&J vaccine on the Medical Campus yesterday, said that news of blood clots made her “really nervous.”

“This feels like something important considering the cases of the blood clots of young people; it feels like a pressing issue for us,” Lopolito said. “But then I am comforted by the fact that only six people have had issues out of the millions of people who have gotten the vaccine. So I hope that I’m completely average and then nothing happens to me.”

The pause on new vaccinations comes as the J&J vaccine is still overcoming hurdles in the production and distribution process from earlier this year, including the contamination of up to 15 million doses at a Baltimore manufacturing plant in March.

Students looking to receive a vaccine off campus can refer to the new website for scheduling appointments in the St. Louis area that was just launched, April 13. Per an email from the St. Louis County Department of Public Health, vaccinations are administered from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., seven days a week at The Dome in downtown St. Louis.

Missouri has halted the distribution of J&J vaccines across the state.

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6254 DELMAR BLVD IN THE LOOP

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF AND MANAGING EDITOR Seniors reacted with excitement last Thursday afternoon to Chancellor Andrew Martin’s announcement that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the leading scorer in National Basketball Association history, will be the commencement speaker for the class of 2021.

Abdul-Jabbar, who has been a prominent advocate for racial and social justice since his playing days, will record a speech before commencement that will be broadcast on large screens at Francis Olympic Field and streamed to graduates who will not be at the in-person ceremony.

“So often, athletes get pushed into just one category, but he really represents that you can be an athlete and you can still be an advocate, you don’t always have to be that quiet voice,” said senior Caira Watson-Haynes, co-president of the Washington University Black Letterwinning Athletes Coalition. “I was really excited, and I think a lot of

COURTESY OF THE SOURCE

Abdul-Jabbar, who is the National Basketball Association’s all-time leading scorer, will record a virtual address ahead of the individual commencement ceremonies next month. Each ceremony will have no more than 500 graduates.

people are very excited about who the University got.”

Senior Jack Nolan, a player on the Washington University men’s basketball team, agreed. “[Abdul-Jabbar] has just led an incredible life,” he said, “so to get the chance to hear from a man like Kareem is going to be an exceptional opportunity for the entire class.”

The recorded speech will not be the only difference from past commencements. The University is limiting each graduating student to only two guests to conform to COVID19 restrictions. Because of limits on large gatherings, eight separate smaller ceremonies for a maximum of 500

graduates each will be held on Francis Field over the course of May 20-21, instead of the traditional larger ceremony on Brookings Quadrangle.

Abdul-Jabbar played 20 seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers and Milwaukee Bucks between 1969-1989 and was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom for both his athletic achievement and his social advocacy from thenPresident Barack Obama in 2016.

The University will also hold a May 30 commencement ceremony for the class of 2020, whose commencement last spring was canceled because of the pandemic.

VACCINE from page 1 Dr. Steve Lawrence, an infectious disease expert at the University, said one factor guiding the decisionmaking for the University is the impact vaccination has on the community.

“If we know we have very, very high levels of vaccine uptake in the environment that we’re operating, we have that much more confidence that everything can be done safely,” Lawrence said.

Lawrence added that this past year has demonstrated that classes can be held safely without the vaccine, but it requires a significant amount of distance and modification, which has limitations. High levels of immunity and low levels of transmission are needed to operate in a more normal way, he said.

“When we get to a point where there is both reduced levels of transmission within the community and very high levels of immune individuals, through mostly vaccination, then we will have much more ability to be able to have not only classroom, but other activities that are much closer to what would normally be seen in a non-pandemic situation,” Lawrence said.

Though the spring semester has not ended yet, some colleges and universities are setting expectations for vaccine documentation in the fall. In a statement to the Duke University community, President Vincent Price wrote that a high vaccination rate is the only way to safely return to campus.

“Looking ahead, we know that widespread vaccination will be the only way to facilitate a return to normal and robust campus life,” Price wrote.

“With this in mind, we plan to require all new and returning Duke students to present proof of vaccination to Student Health before they can enroll for the Fall 2021 semester.”

Similarly to Duke, Brown University announced last week that all students wishing to attend in-person in the fall semester need to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Russell Carey, Brown’s executive vice president for planning and policy, told

the Brown Daily Herald that the decision was made with admitted students in mind, so it is “really clear what will be expected of them.”

The Washington University administration declined to comment on when a decision about a vaccine requirement would be announced. “At this time, there is nothing more to say beyond what was in the March 31 message to the community,” Vice Chancellor for Marketing and Communication Julie Flory wrote in a statement to Student Life.

When weighing the benefits of such a mandate, Lawrence said a vaccine requirement would ensure that people feel more comfortable on campus next year.

“The primary benefit is that it gives confidence for the other students, for the faculty, for administrators,” Lawrence said. “It gives confidence that we have created what is likely to be an even safer space.”

Lawrence added that, along with increased confidence, a mandate would reduce COVID-19 transmission, allowing for fewer restrictions on events and social activities.

“A very large proportion of a college experience has to do with the socialization and that is something that we haven’t been able to do safely, and so having an environment where there is a vaccine requirement would [increase] the likelihood of having more social activities that are safe and allowable,” Lawrence said.

Student Union senator junior Junior David Mathisson said that he has called for a vaccine requirement on campus.

“I think that we absolutely 100% should have a vaccine requirement with the very important provision that Wash. U. make the vaccine available to whoever does not have access to it over the summer,” Mathisson said.

“The fact that they have not already made this requirement is frankly shocking to me,” Mathisson said. “It’s so abundantly clear that Wash. U. is likely to be able to obtain the vaccines to help out everyone who doesn’t have access

and that the vaccine is safe [and] effective, and it is vital as a way to both help our community and as a way to protect people from the virus.”

Mathisson noted that the requirement should also include faculty and staff and that the University should also provide vaccines for workers “who work so hard for the community” because “they deserve to be able to get the vaccine.”

The University began offering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to students, faculty and staff, April 8, but has paused the distribution following recommendations from federal health agencies.

The University has since secured a supply of the twodose Pfizer vaccine from Barnes-Jewish Hospital, and hopes to resume vaccinations Apr. 16.

The University already requires students to receive other vaccines, including the annual flu shot this past fall. In a survey of 100 fouryear institutions across the country, almost all required at least one vaccine for enrollment. The main difference, Lawrence noted, is the polarization around the pandemic.

“We unfortunately have experienced an interesting polarization of people’s views… They feel very strongly about this pandemic in general” Lawrence said. “Certainly there are people that have questions about the significance of this pandemic that made this much more of a polarizing topic and environment.”

As with other colleges requiring vaccination against COVID-19 in the fall, if a mandate is implemented by Washington University, Lawrence said there would be a process to adjudicate which COVID-19 vaccines would meet the requirement and what types of exemptions, including medical reasons, would be allowed.

Students have already been encouraged to upload documentation of vaccination against COVID-19 to their student health portals in order to prevent vaccinated students from being sent to quarantine following exposure.

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STUDENT LIFE 3

Juggling books and social media: WU students find fame online IZZY BRUCKMAN STAFF WRITER Most Washington University students squeeze in a variety of activities between classes, from varsity sports to the butter churning club. Among them are a handful of students who turn to their personal social media accounts in order to express themselves creatively and create content for the enjoyment of other people. We talked to four students, from freshman to recent alums, who have found their niches in vlogging, posting and filming. All have found success in reaching wider audiences, yet each have different motivations and stories behind their social media fame.

Studying and subscriber counts: Vlogging college life “I honestly started making videos because I was bored during quarantine last May… I wanted to see how far I could take it,” said Sophia Xu, a first-year Ervin Scholar and part time-YouTuber who has accumulated 4.01K subscribers in less than a year.

Xu took inspiration from her favorite fashion and vlogging YouTubers, such as Bestdressed, Arpi Park and Kurtis Conner. Though her content was originally fashion-oriented, she has since found her niche in vlogging about Wash. U. “I think about what I would’ve enjoyed watching before I came to Wash.

U. and try to make that for incoming students,” she said.

Xu noted she receives many direct messages from viewers curious about college applications; her most popular video, a college decisions reaction, has raked in almost 68K views. Xu posts roughly once a week, which requires a day of filming and around three or four hours for editing. Despite serving as an executive of the University’s medical education club, MedEd, and an intern in a psychology research lab, she “finds it pretty manageable”

BRIAN CUI | STUDENT LIFE

Freshman Sophia Xu, posing here on the East End, has found internet fame as a part-time YouTuber.

to balance schoolwork and uploading videos.

Since becoming a monetized creator in October, Xu earns around $100-200 monthly, but this past month she has made more than $500. The monetization, though sweet, doesn’t motivate Xu; she just hopes to continue making videos for as long as she has the time.

“Filming, editing and the whole video-making process is something I really enjoy doing as a hobby,” Xu said. “For now, though, my priority and career path is focused on getting into medical school and becoming a physician.”

The “ YouTube Guy” of Washington University Recent Washington University graduate Nathan Card has fossilized the entirety of his college experience on YouTube. He began his channel the summer before his senior year of high school, lightly inspired by Casey Neistat and other vloggers, but ultimately continued uploading that fall because he enjoyed the interactive aspect of posting videos.

“Having a group of people along for the ride, internet strangers as they were, made college admissions seem less daunting,” he said. His subscriber count has since grown

COURTESY OF NATHAN CARD

Recent Wash. U. alum Nathan Card, known on campus for his YouTube videos, is now working to become a park ranger.

to 3.55K, many of whom are loyal fans.

“The comments from subscribers who have been around for years are always the best,” Card said.

In his three years at Wash. U., Card mainly filmed “some mix of college vlogs and informational videos about college,” where he captured the daily antics of Wash. U. living interspersed with some truly remarkable moments, like times he met Anderson Cooper, Tyler Oakley and Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein. Card cherishes these digital time capsules.

“I can look back and watch myself and my friends grow up,” he said. “There’s something really human about that for me.”

Despite having served as his junior class president, a senator in SU, a model UN member and a tour guide, Card admitted to having earned the title of “YouTube guy” at Wash. U., which was “kind of fun” but something he’s happy to leave in the past.

After graduating two semesters early in August of 2020, Card drove straight to Moab, Utah with “no job, no plan and no housing,” just managing to land a tour-guiding gig at Arches National Park. He has since left Moab and enrolled as a student at the National Park Service Park Ranger Law Enforcement Academy (a mouthful, he knows). After leaving behind the novelty of college, Card said he’s learned that he “really likes working ‘real work’—like, where they give you money, not homework,” though he isn’t sure where that leaves his YouTube career.

“Post-academy, the nature of my work will be such that having a digital presence… could be a real problem,” Card said, though he hopes to continue vlogging whenever he can: “Old habits die hard!”

Washington University freshman Harry Campbell has had two tweets reach the

limelight. His first, from January 2021, parodied the agonizing moments in film when a title is literalized in the dialogue: Harry photoshopped an image of Walter White receiving the (fake) text “I know you’re Breaking Bad” and received over 214.3K likes and 19K retweets.

Twitter’s algorithm is notoriously unsupportive for small accounts looking to go viral, but Campbell has learned the recipe for exposure. He explained that viral Tweets rely on impressions or retweets, which vastly expand a Tweet’s audience, and engagements, such as likes and comments, because “even if everyone in the world sees your tweet, if they don’t think its funny,

no one’s going to click on it,” he said.

According to Campbell, all you need is one bigname account to retweet your content and then the content just has to prove itself engaging enough.

“I just happened to have the right combination of those two,” he said, adding that the best part was that “I got paid!” A small company reached out to Harry for collaboration, and by posting their ads beneath his tweet, Harry earned $60— which turned into a trip to Wendy’s—and a violation of Twitter’s Terms of Service, meaning he had to delete the ads shortly after his first payment.

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“I just like entertaining people”: One student, two viral tweets Amateur Twitter user and

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Clean Our Green: WU senior sets out to complete mammoth park clean-up project THOMAS HUMPHREY STAFF WRITER Over the last year, the safest place for gatherings has been the great outdoors. It’s an inconvenience to be sure, but perhaps also a blessing.

Students at Washington University, with the abundance of surrounding nature and proximity to Forest Park, are uniquely situated to take advantage of green urban spaces.

The evidence is not just anecdotal—scientifically conducted studies have shown the benefits of green space on physical and mental health .

But parks cannot take care of themselves. While the Wash. U. environment has a dedicated team behind it, most smaller parks in St. Louis do not.

Senior Lucas Dionisopoulos set out to fix this imbalance. A Finance and Computer Science major and former president of the Beekeeping club, he also is the founder of ‘Clean Our Green,’ a student-led project to clean up green spaces in St. Louis.

“It probably started when I was driving up to northern St. Louis, and saw all these parks with a ton of trash in them,” Dionisopoulos said. “Then I

thought, in 2020 there was this big divide between people who had access to green space and those who didn’t. Ladue and Clayton, they’re doing great with their parks, they have a ton of resources. If you go up to Normandy, Pine Lawn, Delwood—those are towns which don’t have a lot of resources.

Volunteering is super helpful for them and it makes a big impact.”

Dionisopoulos also sensed a frustration on campus from people who wanted to help but were unaware or unsatisfied with opportunities available to them. In this setting, Lucas sensed an opening. “There’s volunteers, there’s a problem, let’s see how we can do this together,” he said.

St. Louis is, unfortunately, uniquely desperate for help with park maintenance. This is due in part to the archaic practice of separating between St. Louis county and city–– a legacy that has come under fire in recent years.

Today, St. Louis remains fractured into 88 municipalities, which poses a challenge when establishing distinct departmental services and parks departments city-wide.

St. Louis is a big city made up of several smaller

COURTESY OF LUCAS DIONISOPOULOS

Student volunteers with the newly-founded Clean Our Green project have completed eight park cleanups so far, including one at Oak Knoll Park in Clayton.

municipalities, and those are full of little parks.

Volunteering efforts are essential to maintaining them, especially for those areas without the resources to do it themselves.

“Some of these towns really have like 300 people in them,” Dionisopoulos said. “They are in charge of putting up all these resources, but the overhead for starting those departments is pretty high. If you look at a place like Pine Lawn, Mo., they don’t have a parks department, and

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they have four different parks.”

A park cleanup can be big or small. Trash pickup is always a component, but mulching, invasive plant removal and grill maintenance are all needed.

Honeysuckle, a fast growing non-native shrub loved by bees but hated by park planners, poses a particular challenge for cleanup efforts––the only way to combat it is a chainsaw powered “honeysuckle chop.”

Clean Our Green has a stated goal of 40 park projects by the end of finals week, and 80 by the end of the summer. Their online tracker has already recorded eight park cleanups, just a few weeks after the project was published.

The cleanup plan involves not only a dedicated cleanup crew, but also counts on other groups at Wash. U. getting involved.

Any club on campus can easily sign up for a weekend cleanup. 50 projects have

already been sourced from 19 municipalities, waiting for volunteers to fill them.

Networking and connecting with the right people

in these areas also enables such a project to keep living even after the founders are gone.

Networking with small municipalities sometimes goes beyond park cleanup.

Dionisopoulos recently had the opportunity to participate as a volunteer in the Easter celebrations at Rock Hill. While trying to source park cleanups, he got recruited to walk as the Easter Bunny in their parade, riding on the local fire-truck.

Dionisopoulos welcomes anyone with a free weekend to connect with Clean Our Green through email or Facebook. The project will provide any equipment needed, and just one hour of picking up trash will help provide a clean green space for the community to enjoy. Any excuse to get outside is a good one, but going out to improve the outdoors is even better.

COURTESY OF LUCAS DIONISOPOULOS

Senior Lucas Dionisopoulos coordinated Wash. U. students to clean up Amherst Park on a recent sunny afternoon.

SOCIAL from page 3 A month later, Campbell wrote a Tweet poking fun at a ridiculously understated Yahoo News headline which conveyed that comedian Chris D’Elia recognized his sexual assault allegations “looked bad.” Through the same process as before, he received just over 100K likes.

“People like stuff that’s funny in real life more than they like made-up jokes,” Campbell said, so he’s learned he can entertain by simply bringing public attention to unbelievable pop-culture instances.

When asked if he had any goals with his Twitter, Campbell said that he doesn’t have any concrete aims.

“Twitter isn’t some means to an end,” he said, adding that he simply uses it to develop “jokes and bits” and to make connections, both personal and professional.

“I just like entertaining people,” said Campbell, “so I’m probably not going to stop doing that.”

Model, Instagram mogul and Wash. U. student keeps it real online St. Louis born and raised, junior Eva Adams was set to attend Washington University after graduating high school in 2015, but ended up deferring for a year in order to grow her modeling career. Time

spent shooting in New York, Los Angeles and Sydney led to an exponential growth of Instagram followers—she now has more than 20.4k.

“I think with the fashion industry, when you have that much exposure within such a short amount of time, [gaining an internet following] is inevitable,” Adams said.

Adams attributed her time spent in Los Angeles which she called “the hub for all things social media,” as having a great influence on her interest in posting fashion content. Followers were drawn to her growing status and fresh aesthetic, and “wanted to keep tabs,” she surmised.

Adams described her Instagram’s permanent posts and transient stories as two separate monsters, but noted that “they definitely overlap… I like to keep things as aesthetically [pleasing] and natural as possible” in both areas. Her delicately curated feed, composed of photoshoot outtakes and exotic sceneries, is juxtaposed by the thrilling mundanity of daily workouts, meals, and art projects captured through stories.

Cognizant of the threat social media has been known to pose on users’ mental health, Adams prioritizes transparency over perfection.

“I want… friends, peers and followers to feel really

good about themselves,” she said. “Whenever I post…

I just try to be myself, as opposed to what I want to present to the world.”

Adams emphasized that she doesn’t like to “fake it.”

She leaves trend forecasting to the professionals, and just posts what compels her, only aiming to “really feel confident about every post” and not lean on Instagram’s archive feature too much.

Adams has maintained her social media presence since deferring her first year, but envied her friends getting the “real college experience,” and quit travelling the world to begin at Wash. U. in 2016. “I found some of my best friends for life at Wash. U., and then I went back to New York, had another successful summer, and decided to spend another two years over there.”

Adams now finds herself back in St. Louis, completing her third academic year at the age of 24, double majoring in psychology and economics with a minor in design, which she jokingly calls “the weirdest trifecta.” Adams plans to graduate in December 2021, and would like a job that bridges her majors and minors. “Something fashion oriented, but not necessarily in front of the camera,” she said.

CADENZA

THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 2021

JJ COLEY & GRACIE HIME | SENIOR CADENZA EDITORS | CADENZA@STUDLIFE.COM

STUDENT LIFE 5

AST returns to Brookings stage with ‘Jerry Finnegan’s Sister’ GRACIE HIME SENIOR CADENZA EDITOR

For nearly three weeks, All Student Theatre (AST) has been camping on Brookings Quad in honor of their first production of the year, “Jerry Finnegan’s Sister.” After a term of hardly any live events, AST will conduct one of the largest events Washington University has seen in quite a while with their virtual performance.

Production manager Jack Maleczka reflected on how this year has gone for the team.

“For the two to three weeks that we are working on the set, we have someone on the quad 24/7. The first three days are dedicated to building. This is really hands on, and a lot of the team works on it even if they aren’t part of carpentry or stage design. The following days are for set touch up, painting and lighting.

And finally, our last week is tech week. This is the time where we put all of the moving components together. Rehearsal starts, we test the lighting and sound and eventually, we do full run-throughs.”

It has been an interesting experience for AST this semester, rehearsal has been over Zoom, technical planning is virtual and there are only two actors. This year’s production, “Jerry Finnegan’s

PHOTO COURTESY OF ALL STUDENT THEATRE

The tents in Brookings Quad where members of All Student Theatre have been set-sitting 24 hours a day. The show will begin streaming the weekend of April 23.

Sister,” is a story that follows two characters, Brian and Beth, through their childhood and young adult life. Beth is Brian’s best friend’s sister, yet Brian has a devastating crush on Beth despite her commitment to other relationships. As Leah Coleman, Beth’s actor, describes it, “It’s 15 years of life within one hour.” Surprisingly, the titular Jerry Finnegan never actually makes an appearance in the show.

Leah is a freshman who has done theater all her life, yet the AST

experience is completely new for her. “I literally think I had a breakdown when I heard how much time I had to be [on Brookings Quad].

After actually being here though, I started coming more and more.”

AST has been a really inviting part of Leah’s freshman experience, as she has been able to experience parts of theater beyond just acting, including the more technical aspects of the process.

There are 23 people of all years on board and production for AST, and

many members hold multifaceted roles. Leah explained that although she didn’t necessarily plan on helping with lights, microphone work and other technical jobs, Leah was impressed by how willing the rest of the crew was to teach and expand her theater knowledge.

Junior Dom Bottom, Brian’s actor, has been involved in AST for a few years now and continues to prove that performers can stem from diverse areas of study.

As a computer science major, Bottom impressively

juggles his passions while still presenting a strong commitment to AST. This year, Emma Thorp, the club’s president, doubled as the director. Thorp’s proposed play, “Jerry Finnegan’s Sister,” was the perfect production for this year considering that there are only two actors, making it easier to follow COVID19 guidelines. In addition, this lighthearted comedy provides an easy transition back into watching theater. I feel that many people can benefit from the leisure of watching

a comedy, as it gives us a glimpse into a more hopeful future where live theater can return.

Links to the live streams will be made available on the All Student Theater WUGO page, and free virtual tickets can also be requested through forms on the AST social media pages. Streaming begins the weekend of April 23, and the specific times are still to be determined. Viewers are also able to email allstudenttheater@gmail.com for more information.

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6 STUDENT LIFE

CADENZA

THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 2021

JJ COLEY & GRACIE HIME | SENIOR CADENZA EDITORS | CADENZA@STUDLIFE.COM

The Performing Arts Department brings theatre to the screen with Homecoming Voices JJ COLEY SENIOR CADENZA EDITOR

With live theatre not feasible amidst the ongoing pandemic, the Homecoming Voices series finds Washington University’s Performing Arts Department taking another approach: a series of recorded plays available on demand to the public from April through May. All four of the plays were written by Wash. U. alumni, all asked to write a 15-25 minute play with casts of 2-4 actors. The first two plays, “Solastalgia” and “The Nicest White People That America Has Ever Produced,” premiered on April 9.

“Solastalgia” is written by alumna (‘03) Marisa Wegrzyn and directed by Wash. U. Drama professor Andrea Urice. Starring seniors Sarah Beshke and Catherine Herlihy as Alex and Chris, respectively, the play follows three roommates stuck in their apartment during the pandemic; tensions begin to rise as everyone loses their job, and no one is happy.

Alex and Chris have been living together since freshman year of college when they “imprinted on each other like ducklings,” as Chris puts it. A new

sloppy roommate named Terry—who never appears on screen, although audiences constantly hear about him from Alex and Chris—changes their dynamic for the worse, and their living situation becomes untenable.

Herlihy is stunning as Chris, and she does a wonderful job embodying her character’s hardened, bitter personality. Chris is incredibly opinionated, and she’s not ashamed of her actions, even after throwing a bowl at Terry. On the whole, Herlihy’s unabashed portrayal of Chris was truly refreshing to watch.

Similarly, Beshke does a subtly wonderful job as Alex. Simply put, Alex is too nice. She’s afraid of confrontation, which proves to be a problem when her two roommates despise each other. Audiences can feel the anxiety ensconced in Alex’s persona, which is a testament to Beshke’s strength as an actress. Even as Alex learns to set boundaries over the course of the play, her passiveness, although endearing, remains.

Perhaps the most resonant moment in the show, and the reason for its title, was when Chris explains “There’s a word for the thing we’re feeling. Solastalgia:

COURTESY OF THE PERFORMING ARTS DEPARTMENT

Sophomore Alexander Hewlett (left) and junior Jenise Shepherd in the play “The Nicest White People That America Has Ever Produced,” written by Chauncy Thomas ‘06 and directed by Jacqueline Thompson.

existential distress caused by environmental change.

Homesickness in the comfort of your own home.”

Normally I don’t enjoy consuming media about the pandemic or climate change, because I’m already living it, but the acknowledgement of solastalgia felt incredibly relevant in the show; there are so many surreal and horrific things happening at once in the world right now that even our most basic coping mechanisms are beginning to fail, and I appreciate being able to watch a play that understands that. ***

COURTESY OF THE PERFORMING ARTS DEPARTMENT

Senior Catherine Herlihy (left) and senior Sarah Beshke in the play “Solastalgia,” written by Marisa Wegrzyn ‘03 and directed by Andrea Urice.

“The Nicest White People That America Has Ever Produced” was written by alumni (‘06) Chauncy Thomas and directed by St. Louis-based director Jacqueline Thomas. I’d like to admit that, going into this production, my hopes were incredibly low. I didn’t have great details about what the show was about, but the title alone was enough

to turn me off; as a Black woman, nothing excites me about a show interrogating the “niceness” of white people, especially after a year where my people, and many other marginalized people, have been subject to intense violence at the hands of white people.

After watching the play, I was glad I went in with low expectations, because the show’s writing was mediocre at best. The play follows junior Jenise Shepherd and sophomore Alex Hewlett as screenwriter Black and director White, respectively. Black wants White to direct her show so that it will be more palatable to white audiences, but when she explains this to White, a terse debate ensues about the double standards for white creators compared to Black creators.

At one point, Shepherd’s character mentions that the (mainly white) people in charge of selecting which films are nominated for Oscar awards often prefer “diet racism,” because they don’t want to come face to

face with the ways in which they themselves perpetuate a culture of anti-Blackness.

Black people experience the world through the lens of Blackness and white people experience the world through the lens of whiteness, so writing a script with Black audiences in mind is different than writing a script with white audiences in mind.

This sentiment is very true, and it was clear to me that “The Nicest White People That America Has Ever Produced” was written for a white audience; while the discussion between Black and White involved numerous valid points, nothing was introduced that I hadn’t already heard of or thought of before. I see how a white person may have gained new knowledge from the production and do recommend white people stream it, but for me as a Black person, the premise just felt tired and unnecessary.

As much as I disliked the show itself, Shepherd and Hewlett’s phenomenal

performances were its saving grace. Whenever both actors spoke I felt the passion and strength of their convictions, and they did a great job showcasing the tensions that rise during conversations about race between people of different races. Regardless of what I felt about the script, the show was engaging because their enrapturing energy kept me interested in their performances.

The show ends with Shepherd’s character storming off-stage, and throughout the production I could clearly see Shepherd’s frustration continually building until it reached a boiling point. While I disagreed with many of the points made by Hewlett’s character, his portrayal of White’s beliefs was very convincing.

While not my cup of tea script-wise, “The Nicest White People That America Has Ever Produced” is a reminder that sometimes, what makes a production wonderful isn’t the show itself but the actors who are performing it.

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FORUM

THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 2021

REILLY BRADY & JAMILA DAWKINS | SENIOR FORUM EDITORS | FORUM@STUDLIFE.COM

STUDENT LIFE 7

STAFF EDITORIAL

Wellness is more than a day off

T

he passage of this semester’s final wellness day has left many students feeling Washington University’s lack of holistic mental health care more acutely than ever.

During a year when students face exacerbated stress, uncertainty and loneliness, the University should be putting additional resources and attention toward student well-being rather than cutting down the number of break days in the semester. While many important considerations informed the spring calendar, the administration should never have settled for a plan that fails to support students. Student well-being should always be a priority.

As the pandemic (hopefully) winds to a close, we

need more than a return to normal—we need improvement. The inadequacies of Wash. U.’s mental health services existed long before COVID-19. Three scattered days of break are no replacement for a full week off, but neither is the traditional spring calendar enough to help students through the challenges they are facing.

In previous years, professors often piled on work ahead of Spring Break or assigned exams for the week following, detracting from the break’s purpose and value.

And even if this wasn’t the case, time off is no substitute for actual mental health resources.

In 2018, 87% of Wash.

U. students reported feeling overwhelmed, demonstrating a broadly unhealthy

school culture. But in addition to the general stresses of college, 38% of students said that they felt so depressed it was difficult to function, and 9.9% had seriously considered suicide. These numbers should be viewed as a crisis in immediate need of attention rather than being shrugged off as an unfortunate side effect of higher education. While Wash. U.’s ratio of providers to students is within the upper range of peer institutions, this ratio— one provider for every 1,060 students—has clearly proven to be inadequate; rather than accepting this status quo, the University should strive to provide the best services they possibly can. Students seeking counseling through Habif are only able to be seen 1–3 times per month.

This is not enough; with depression and anxiety disorders, a lower frequency of therapy sessions is linked to less improvement and a higher risk of relapse.

Research also emphasizes the critical importance of starting treatment quickly, yet students often have to wait for weeks before they can make an appointment, as illustrated by many of the stories shared through the Instagram account @stillwaiting_washu.

The University relies heavily on student-run crisis resources like Uncle Joe’s in order to meet student needs, but while valuable, these resources are no replacement for professional help.

Mental health is an equity issue.

Underrepresented minority students and

Pell-eligible students report feeling overwhelmed at significantly higher rates than their more privileged peers.

In noting the frequency with which students are referred to off-campus resources, the University’s Mental Health Services website acknowledges that “students do not all have the same level of financial resources,” but it fails to take action to support those students. While Student Union recently worked to create a mental health fund, this again stems from student initiative instead of the University taking responsibility for the students it claims to care for. Any true commitment to supporting marginalized students should include expanded mental health services, with special attention

given to the accessibility of those services.

Wellness goes beyond spending a day in the sun.

It means professors and academic advisors recognizing and accommodating mental illnesses with the same care that they would with physical illnesses. It means readily available help on a regular, long-term basis for students who are struggling. It means setting a standard for student care that isn’t satisfied with simply being at or above the status quo. It means cultivating a school culture that prioritizes mental health on an everyday, individual level. As the University considers its shift towards a post-pandemic world, it needs to figure out how to truly prioritize student wellness.

Op-ed: Proposed grading changes will do more harm than good FRANK LIN CLASS OF 2022

T

he famous Greek philosopher Plutarch once said, “An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.” Socioeconomic disparity runs rampant in America, and as Wash. U. students, we should have a desire to undo structural inequalities that plague our nation and form a more equitable future.

I have become aware of a recent push among some of the student body to abolish closed-book exams and disallow reporting failing grades on transcripts. Supporters of these policies plan “to lobby individual departments to... [abolish closed book exams]” and use certain student leadership positions to push a “No More Fs on Transcript” policy. Although it feels terrible to memorize the countless reactions for Organic Chemistry

finals or to receive an ‘F’ in a class, I urge my peers to strongly consider how implementing these policies at Wash. U. would do more harm than good. At a larger scale, these policies threaten to deconstruct opportunities for upward mobility by giving wealthier students an egregiously unfair advantage over financially disadvantaged students nationwide. On a smaller note, they also are impractical because they harm the educational quality of students who will one day fulfill socially crucial professions.

From an equity standpoint, closed note exams are commonplace in nearly every state school and community college nationwide, and failing grades are given to students who produce unsatisfactory work.

How can Wash. U., a school with a median family income of $272,000 (which, by the way, is much higher than all the state school and community college median household

incomes both in Missouri and nationwide), decide that the same standards don’t apply?

As someone who attended a high school with 67% percent of students on Free or Reduced Lunch, I have friends who regularly work 40-hour weeks on top of a full course load at their state school just to pay their own tuition. If Wash. U. were to enact the proposed suggestions and ban closed-note exams and failing grades, there would be almost no way for my lower-SES friends back at home to have an equal footing with their, on average, wealthier Wash. U. counterparts.

Trying to solve this equity issue by making a push to abolish closed note exams and failing grades in colleges nationwide will invariably fail, and for good reason.

Just think: Although these policies may make our lives easier in the short run, would they really help our long-term future? Imagine the state of a

medical system where doctors don’t know the names of diseases; or just think about how biochemical research could stall if no biochemists could remember their amino acids.

Closed-note exams allow for the memorization of crucial details like these, and failing grades ensure that people who cannot manage to know these crucial facts reconsider their career choices.

Proponents of these policies might argue that they help SES-disadvantaged students at Wash. U., but from my experience at Wash. U., they probably hurt them more.

A more privileged student has vastly more resources when completing an opennote exam; they can more easily afford paid resources such as Coursehero and Chegg; they can pay TAs to be unofficial tutors and they can reference backfiles from their fraternities. For an SES-disadvantaged student, all these resources are more

difficult or even impossible to use.

As for those who support the policy of abolishing failing grades, they might argue that Wash. U. experiences grade deflation, where grades overall are lower than one might expect of a standard distribution. They argue that with a higher level of difficulty, Wash. U. needs to institute certain college-wide GPA-boosting measures to help students of lower SES. The very premise that Wash.

U. deflates grades, however, is not based in fact. In 2007, Wash. U.’s average undergraduate GPA was 3.41.

Over a course of eight years, it rose to 3.53 in 2015. This upwards trend suggests that rather than deflation, Wash.

U. has at least some degree of grade inflation. I fail to see how removing F’s would significantly benefit disadvantaged students in particular.

Removing F’s would only heighten the preexisting

phenomenon of Wash. U. grade inflation, which, as said before, disadvantages students at other schools with lower average SES levels.

I believe that now is the time for students, student leaders and faculty to make a stand. We learn about social reproduction, structural inequalities and social theories in school so that we can stop policies that perpetuate injustice and harm our society. Therefore, we must stop these policies at every single level, not only because they will degrade the quality of our future professionals, but also because they will contribute to an unfair system where wealthy students are given the easy way out while disadvantaged students must endure insurmountable odds just to match up. I urge you, as a student body, to consider these issues and decide based on what is best for your fellow students and peers from other schools––not just yourself.

WU needs to make the COVID-19 vaccine mandatory KYA VAUGHN STAFF WRITER

A

couple of weeks ago, Chancellor Martin and Provost Beverly Wendland announced the beginnings of the details of the fall plan for the 2021-2022 academic year. This plan outlined some of the basics of what the fall semester would look like, namely how housing and in-person instruction would look. However, the announcement also mentioned the University’s current ideas around the newly available vaccine, stating that “It is possible that we [the University] will require the vaccine for students, faculty or staff, depending on vaccine

availability.”

I don’t intend to disparage the University for not mandating vaccinations out of the gate. There are many reasons as to why this option is still in question, one large reason being—as the University mentioned—the availability of the vaccine.

However, assuming that vaccines will become more accessible as projected, the University should enact a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy for members of the Wash. U. community.

There are many people who oppose the idea of mandatory vaccinations enforced by a school, this belief largely stemming from safety concerns. However, specifically in regards to COVID- 19, the vaccines

are legitimate vaccinations that have shown promising potential in reducing the hospitalization and grave outcomes that have been associated with the virus.

Furthermore, mandatory vaccinations are not a novel concept. Although there are some exemptions, the majority of states have mandatory vaccine policies for students who attend public and private schools. For Wash.

U. specifically, in order to attend the University, students are required to receive two vaccines each for measles, mumps and rubella; the meningococcal vaccine; a tuberculosis test and, for the current academic year, an influenza vaccination as well. This demonstrates that mandatory vaccinations

Editor-in-Chief: Matthew Friedman Managing Editors: Em McPhie, Jayla Butler, Isabella Neubauer

to require a vaccination.

In a lot of ways, college students have shown that they will continue to act in ways that are not in accordance with CDC guidelines, potentially leading to preventable problems in the near future—problems that would be greatly reduced if not eradicated by the requirement of a COVID19 vaccine on college campuses.

The University should honor health and religious exemptions for students, faculty and staff where such exemptions should be necessary. But collectively, we’ve endured a lot in the past year. We’ve watched as almost 3 million lives have been lost globally to the pandemic. We’ve spent a

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OUR VOICE: EDITORIAL BOARD Staff editorials reflect the consensus of our editorial board. The editorial board operates independently of our newsroom and includes members of the senior staff and forum section editors.

have long been enforced and followed. Why should we make the COVID-19 vaccination appear to be any different?

If Wash. U. were to adopt a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy, we certainly wouldn’t be the first university to do so, but rather, we’d be carrying on the positive trend.

Duke University, Rutgers University, the University of Notre Dame and many other universities nationwide are requiring students to have proof of vaccination upon returning to campus.

Given the density of population and activity on college campuses, coupled with the fluctuating nature of the virus spread, it’s fully justifiable for universities

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We welcome letters to the editor and op-ed submissions from our readers. Submissions may be sent to letters@studlife. com and must include the writer’s name, class and phone number for verification. Letters should be no longer than 350 words in length, and readers may

year apart from one another in an effort to protect ourselves and those we love.

We’ve all been craving a normalcy that has felt so far out of reach, and the availability of a vaccine makes this dream seem a little less like a fantasy and more of a reality. Mandatory vaccinations are commonplace in our academic society, and furthermore, the existence of a vaccine allows us the potential to start rebuilding some of the time we’ve lost.

The COVID-19 vaccination should not be viewed under any different lens than the vaccinations currently required for university entry, and the University should push for writing the mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy into existence, too.

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8 STUDENT LIFE

SPORTS

GRADY NANCE & CLARA RICHARDS | SENIOR SPORTS EDITORS | SPORTS@STUDLIFE.COM

THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 2021

Baseball ranked top in nation after doubleheader split with Webster for season’s first loss CLARA RICHARDS SENIOR SPORTS EDITOR The Washington sdjhjfs University baseball team trailed, 2-1, as they entered the ninth inning in the first game of a doubleheader Sunday against Webster University. It had been a hard-fought game, with seven hits total for the Bears, and tumultuous, too: A brutal full-speed collision between Wash. U. outfielders Troy Bauer and Henry Singer in the fifth inning allowed Webster to score their two runs on an insidethe-park home run that could have been a simple flyout. With only a run to show after eight innings, the Bears had three outs to reverse fate and keep their undefeated season alive.

Short minutes later, two swings of the bat had changed it all. Freshman Clayton Miller doubled to lead off the inning, bringing junior shortstop Caleb Durbin to the plate. Webster ace Matt Mulhearn, who had quieted the Wash. U. bats all day, delivered his first pitch to Durbin, a hanging off-speed pitch. Durbin smoked it. The ball flew over the stadium’s back wall for an emphatic home run, and while Miller hurried around to home, Durbin took his time, high-fiving head coach Pat Bloom at third base before stomping

on home plate to officially give the Bears the lead.

With one swing, Durbin had redeemed everything that had gone wrong for the Bears in the game—a triumphant moment, and a testament to baseball’s stunning, and oftentimes fickle, beauty. The Bears finished the game 3-2, those two runs sealing the deal. “As an upperclassman, you want to be in those moments,” said Durbin. “You never try to hit a home run, but going into the box, I felt like I was gonna get the job done.”

The weekend was one of education for the Bears, as they first swept Westminster College in a Friday doubleheader before Durbin’s late home run saved them in the first game against Webster Sunday. They lost the undefeated season with a 7-1 loss in the late game Sunday, but attained the top spot in the national rankings Tuesday morning, as voters rewarded their incredibly consistent play throughout the entire season. The Bears, who are now 17-1, had been ranked second for the previous three weeks, but the previously No. 1 team, Trinity University, lost to 9-20 Schreiner University. This is the first time the Bears have held the national lead since the abbreviated 2020 season.

With six games initially

scheduled for the weekend, Friday’s doubleheader against Westminster was a chance to see some unfamiliar faces on the mound—the more experienced pitchers were saving their arms for Webster. Junior pitcher Matt Bauer, for example, came into game two on Friday and gave the Bears five strong innings of work in his first outing of the season. Bloom said that he was glad that he was able to give players more experience on the mound. “We were able to test some different options, positionally, because you’re going to need to have that versatility and depth on both sides, offensively and defensively as you get into the postseason,” he said.

The Bears won the first game 10-4 and the second game 11-3, with junior Tim Van Kirk and senior Henry Singer scoring four runs apiece. With strong pitching, fielding and hitting, the team justified their then-No. 2 seed by flawlessly executing plays and not leaving many opportunities open for the Blue Jays.

Saturday dawned, and with high winds and rain blowing through St. Louis, the scheduled Saturday doubleheader against Webster had already been canceled late on Friday night. Bloom said the initial plan of six games in one weekend was

just an unlucky scheduling conundrum. Given pandemic travel restrictions and other scheduling restrictions, the Bears were “just trying to take whatever teams were willing to play on whatever days they were willing to play,” Bloom said.

Before this year, Bloom had never coached a team to a victory against Webster, so entering Sunday, the players knew that it would be a hard-fought battle to maximize every opportunity to score. The pitching alone pitted ace against ace, with Webster’s Mulhearn ranking second in the Division III for strikeouts and Wash.

U.’s Ryan Loutos fifth.

“It was a dogfight,” said Durbin. “They had their number one guy versus our number one guy—I just had a feeling it was gonna be a pitching battle all day.”

From Bloom’s perspective, one of the goals offensively was to force their pitcher into making tough pitches, sacrificing an early-inning out for contact at the end of the game.

“You just have to make sacrifices with what you’re trying to do at the plate in order to hopefully benefit the team in later innings,” Bloom said.

Ultimately, Bloom’s strategy paid off in the first game, with Durbin’s home run bringing in the gamewinning two runs. But after

CURRAN NEENAN | STUDENT LIFE

Senior pitcher Ryan Loutos meets with head coach Pat Bloom during the Bears’ first game against Webster University Sunday.

that first win, the offense was unable to match early runs scored by the Gorloks in the second game. “When you have an emotional win like that, it’s tough to regather and come back the next game,” Durbin said.

The team struggled to consistently match the strength of Webster’s hitting, only able to score one run with junior Bo Anderson’s home run in the second inning. Bloom said the Bears’ pitching needed to be more consistent to hold their own in the second game. “You cannot give up to that type of good team when they have a top arm on the mound,” he said.

“We needed to pitch it better.” He also attributed the lefty-on-lefty matchups as a hazard for the Bears, with Webster’s left handed hitters stacked together in the middle of their order. The game

ended with a final score of 7-1 for the Gorloks.

So while the loss does sting—a 17-game win streak snapped by a crosstown rival—it is a chance for the Bears to learn from their mistakes. “I’d rather lose now and learn from it than lose in the postseason and learn from it and be out—so it’s not the end of the world,” Durbin said.

Loss is a part of the game: The past three teams who have won Division III NCAA titles have averaged 14 losses in their seasons, and each one seemed instrumental to their improvement. Bloom is confident that the team will learn from their mistakes.

“Winning can mask certain things,” he said. “When you have a loss, those lessons sometimes hit home a little harder, and they last a little longer.”

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