September 5, 2024 Student Life at WashU in St. Louis
An investment policy that “has not changed in generations”
In May of 2020, after years of student and faculty activism, Cornell University announced that it was divesting from the fossil fuel industry.
Months later, Harvard University followed suit, announcing it would let its investments in the industry expire. Soon, the University of Michigan, Dartmouth College, and a number of other colleges and universities also divested.
Some institutions, though, hold their breath, weathering a storm of calls for divestment. In WashU’s case, these calls have lasted for over a decade.
Green Action, an environmental advocacy group at WashU, has called for divestment from the fossil fuel industry since as early as 2012. They have held yearly rallies listing their demands, and even filed a legal complaint to Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey to pressure the school to divest.
Numerous faculty members have joined Green Action in the call for divestment, like Bret Gustafson, Professor of Sociocultural Anthropology, who also attends their rallies.
“Global warming and the central role that fossil fuels [play] therein is the most significant issue of this generation,” Gustafson said. “Right now, the message that the students are getting is that ‘We don’t care.’”
It is unclear just how effective activism regarding divestment has been at WashU.
In 2014, students staged a 16-day sit-in under Brookings Hall, urging former Peabody Energy CEO Gregory Boyce to resign from the Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees delegates control of University investments to the Washington University Investment Management Company (WUIMC), and some trustees also work for WUIMC
Several days after the sit-in, seven students were arrested while attempting to hand-deliver a letter to Boyce with the same demand for resignation. In November of 2016, Boyce resigned from the Board for “unknown reasons.” Peabody Energy, a coal-mining company, had declared bankruptcy several months prior.
Despite this apparent success, WashU has been reluctant to change its stance on its fossil fuel investments throughout the past decade.
Chancellor Andrew Martin said
that the University’s investment strategy has been consistent for “generations,” even throughout previous divestment campaigns at WashU. WashU, notably, had divestment campaigns against South African companies during Apartheid and defense companies during the Vietnam War.
“It is a policy that really goes back generations that we don’t do positive screens or negative screens in the endowment,” Martin said. “That’s obviously not something that every member of the community agrees with, but that’s the approach that we have always taken.”
Positive and negative screens refer to an investment strategy in which the investor chooses to distinguish between particular companies based on their ethical standing in relation to environmental, social, and governance factors.
Unlike WashU, other universities and colleges have divested from fossil fuels upon meeting student and faculty pushback.
According to Robert Howarth, a Professor of Ecology and Environmental Biology at Cornell
Notably, Cornell’s board is made up entirely of alumni, which is not the case for WashU. Howarth also mentioned that being a member of the Ivy League added some pressure to “be in the leadership position” on divestment compared to other Ivy League institutions.
At the University of Michigan, student pressure also eventually led to divestment.
Nicholas Jansen, who graduated from U-M in 2016 and was a member of their divestment campaign, said that a ramping up of student support for divestment helped push the issue over the line. He referenced disruptive actions that students took as key to their success.
“I believe student involvement is crucial,” Jansen said. “[Students] shut down some entryways to buildings [and] took over buildings for a little bit, which led to some arrests. Ultimately, I think that was partially or a large part of what tipped the scales.”
Mark Schlissel, U-M President at the time, said that divestment resulted from the understanding that fossil fuels were “bad longterm investments” due to their
student tactics and administrative responses during divestment campaigns. She completed a senior thesis on the topic in 2024, focusing on Harvard University’s successful divestment campaign and comparing it to efforts at WashU.
Huesa, like Jansen and Howarth, said that attacking the reputation of a University tends to be a critical factor in achieving divestment.
“At the end of the day, WashU cares about its reputation, its future enrollment,” Huesa said. “That’s what’s making them money.”
However, in a sentiment shared by Huesa, former Green Action executive member Aidan Lewis expressed disappointment that activists had not yet created enough reputational damage at WashU to push it over the line.
“The administration feels that they can just wait out the students because we come here for four-year cycles, and they’re very well aware of that,” said Lewis, who graduated in spring 2024. “It’s been, unfortunately, really successful.”
Gustafson noted that he thought actions by the student body needed to be larger to actually be effective at WashU.
“From the perspective of the Board and the administration, this is a settled issue for Washington University,” Martin said. “If students want to choose universities based on whether they have particular
or
in their endowments, there's lots of places one could look.”
University, student pressure on Cornell’s Board of Trustees was critical in their divestment from fossil fuels.
“It’s the pressure from the undergraduate students that the trustees are most concerned about,” Howarth said. “The students are the University to them.”
Howarth said that calling Cornell’s reputation into question was particularly important in swaying the Board, which he described as being made up of “rabid ‘go Big Red’ trustees.”
“[The Board’s] fiduciary responsibility is maintaining our reputation,” Howarth said. “The Board thinks that [Cornell’s] reputation comes from the students themselves.”
potential decreased usage in the future. Regent Mark Bernstein, however, credited student activists (U-M operates with a Board of Regents, a body similar to a Board of Trustees).
“Student activism was the driving force behind this action,” Bernstein said in 2021. “[They] have been thoughtful, wellinformed, absolutely relentless, and in the end, successful in moving this issue to the very top of [the Board of Regents’] agenda.”
Divestment campaigns have achieved their goals at other universities. So what’s stopping divestment at WashU?
One former WashU student, Isabel Huesa, took interest in
“Right now, [the administration is] saying, ‘Oh, 20 kids in the quad, we’ll manage that,’” Gustafson said. “Until there’s embarrassment or pressure that becomes unmanageable, [they] appear to be incapable of changing.”
Huesa also singled out WashU as having an administration that is less persuadable by student activism than administrations at schools that have divested.
“WashU, specifically, is in this case where the chancellor says that student advocacy is not what moves the needle, where ‘You guys can protest all you want, but it’s not what’s getting us to listen,’” Huesa said.
Professor Howarth also noted
the importance of having an administrator or board member convinced to push for divestment.
“What it really takes is getting a few members of the trustees to take it seriously and [to] want to do it,” Howarth said. “In retrospect, that’s clearly what happened here.”
Lewis said a figure like this is missing at WashU.
“I think that the work that we’ve done hasn’t been lacking or different from other universities,” Lewis said.
“It’s more that the opinions on the inside are different and a lot more against divestment, with WashU’s deepseated connections to fossil fuels historically.”
Perhaps most significant is that, according to Huesa, Chancellor Martin doesn’t believe that students understand the University’s stance and are not willing to negotiate on their aims. Huesa had interviewed Martin for her thesis.
“[Chancellor Martin] feels that students don’t have a full understanding of WashU’s stake in the issue, and that they have this kind of tunnel vision towards one solution,” Huesa said.
Because of that, according to Huesa, he is unwilling to budge.
“Ultimately, I don’t think the University administration is really considering a future of working with students in partnership, unless the Chancellor feels that [students] have demonstrated that they have an understanding of the context of how the University works,” Huesa said.
Martin said that the administration is willing to listen to students, and that he expects students to be adequately prepared and knowledgeable about their demands.
“The administration is always happy to engage with students on important issues,” Martin said. “I would say that those conversations are going to be much more substantive and meaningful if everyone comes to the table with their best thinking.”
Huesa argued that a strategy of working with the administration — as compared to collective action — might be the most effective way forward for WashU students.
ILLUSTRATION BY MANUEL LOPEZ
“Stan did Stan”: students remember Stan Braude
he was curious about the topics that he pursued, such as naked mole rats, for which he was a leading global scholar.
If you’ve ever read the poems posted around the ginkgos, appreciated the WashU arboretum, or attended a campus dog party, you have Stan Braude to thank.
The beloved professor passed away June 1, 2024 at the age of 62 after a short illness. Braude was a professor of practice in Biology and Environmental Studies in Arts & Sciences — he was a leading scholar in naked mole rat ecology and a caring husband and friend. Among his students, he is most remembered for his unwavering — and unique — kindness.
Gabby Abato and Will VanDyke, both seniors in Arts & Sciences, first met Stan as a professor and mentor in the four-year Pathfinder Fellowship for Environmental Leadership. The first time they met Stan, he was giving students muffins he’d made with acorn flour. In one of her first encounters with Stan — which would become semesterly visits full of his homemade snacks — Abato remembers asking him why
“I’m the only one crazy enough to go into the field with them,” he answered her.
Stan’s students say they respected his scientific accomplishments, which include participating in research in locations like Argentina, Uganda, and Missouri, on topics such as human biology, conservation, and more. What they respected even more was how he instilled in his students the idea that they had something to offer to the world, too.
VanDyke said he started his first year in the Pathfinder program feeling worried that becoming a scientist wasn’t a smart career path. That is, until he met Stan.
“I knew that I was a curious person,” VanDyke said. “He showed me that being a scientist means being someone that, for their professional life, pursues their curiosity.”
Jordyn Ederer, another student in the Pathfinder program, was one of Stan’s four-year advisees. In her sophomore year, Ederer was asked by Stan to assist him with a Pathfinder program for the first-year cohort
because of her team-building skills.
“He saw something in me that I didn’t really think I had,” Ederer said. “I thought: Why me? It was special to have someone I admired so much believe in me.”
Those who knew Stan knew that he was never quite what you’d expect in a professor.
Abato remembers seeing Stan on campus at the beginning of her sophomore year. He was walking into McDonnell Hall with a rug, a lamp, and a chair. Stan told her that he found the building bleak, so he’d sometimes bring in extra decorations to create warmer study spaces that would feel more comfortable to students.
“No one told me I couldn’t do it, and it makes things better,” Abato remembers Stan telling her.
“Stan set the precedent of: If you can do something to help, just do it,” Abato said. “Stan did Stan.”
Abato remembers the last time she saw Braude in the spring semester of her junior year. It was a Friday morning, and he was running to get to a faculty meeting when he bumped into her and her friend, who did not know Stan.
“He stopped and said,
‘Here you go,’” Abato recalls.
“‘A banana for you, and one for your friend.’ He didn’t think students got enough fruit. Some people might have found that odd, but he was always giving us things.”
Near the end of the 202324 academic year, Abato went to one of her semesterly visits to Stan’s office, where he handed her more fruit, blueberry tea, a book he’d recommended to her, and a letter.
Abato said Stan was concerned about mental deterioration since members of his family had experienced dementia. Although he personally was not experiencing it, he handed
out letters that explained how people should treat him if he began to lose his mental capacities.
“I opened the letter after he passed away,” Abato said. “He told himself to go on one big adventure again before he couldn’t. He said to do field research in Africa again, or volunteer in a war zone again, or go on a big hike. He was on a big research trip when he got sick. I’m glad that at the end, he was pursuing the things he wanted to do.”
Julianna Morera, a junior in Arts & Sciences, met Stan in his class Biology of Dog Breeds. She says that Stan quickly became a mentor
for her, giving her her first set of camping gear to give her the chance to explore the outdoors.
Morera remembers reaching out to Stan when she was going through a difficult time. Stan gave her the following instructions: “Email me every day and answer these four questions: What was something beautiful you encountered today? What is one thing you learned? What is one kindness you were given and one that you gave? You’ll look back and see that you had a beautiful life, full of kindness and learning.”
Remembering rising senior Maya Anopolsky
by friends who described her presence as comforting and endlessly entertaining.
Maya Anopolsky, a rising senior at Washington University, passed away on May 28 after having an allergic reaction that paramedics were unable to control through medication. She was 21 years old.
She is remembered by her parents, Jennifer and Sanford Anopolsky, and her two younger brothers, Robert and Max, as well as countless friends from WashU, high school, summer camp, and more.
As Maya’s friends described her, one phrase came up again and again: she was the glue of so many relationships. She brought people into her life, and she brought them together.
“She brought me in when I needed it the most,” senior Aerin Greif said. “She always had her arms wide open for new friends and made sure to make people feel like they were loved.”
Originally born in Los Angeles, Maya lived in Bethesda, Maryland for much of her life, where she attended Holton-Arms School.
When Maya was deciding where to apply to colleges during the pandemic, she wasn’t able to tour schools normally, she ultimately decided to apply early-decision in part because her parents had such a great experience as undergraduate students at WashU decades prior.
“She was like, this sounds really good, and since you and Dad loved it, I’m sure I’ll love it too,” Jennifer Anopolsky, Maya’s mom, said.
Three years later, Maya had built a life at WashU where she was challenged and engaged, surrounded
“She had such a funloving personality,” senior Noah Kates, who met Maya their first year at WashU, said. “She was very down to do kind of anything.”
During her time at WashU, Maya made the most of the little moments with friends— cooking with her roommates, taking long walks through Forest Park, taking study breaks to get snow cones, and yelling through the sunroof of her friend’s car as they drove up and down the street.
Senior Liv Przydzial met Maya during their first year at WashU and became inseparable, living together for the next two years.
“We did so many big things together, but honestly the things that stick out most were when we were together doing our day-to day-stuff,” Przydzial said. “Her energy, and the people she attracted, I’ve never seen anyone so magnetic.”
She also found chances for adventures at every turn, from a day trip to the beach in Illinois to traveling to Madrid and Dublin over Spring Break to visit friends abroad.
“We had a great time in Dublin, and she was right there leading our pub crawl, blending in with everyone, and making friends along the way,” Kates said. “She always made friends.”
For senior Camilla Giorcelli, Maya was one of the first friends she made at WashU, as they were suitemates their first year.
“My first impression was, ‘wow, this girl loves pink.’ She had decorated her entire room completely pink,” Giorcelli said.
As they grew closer, she got to know more about other aspects of Maya’s personality, including how bubbly and unapologetically true to herself she was.
“She loved her friends so much,” Giorcelli said. “She was an extremely loyal friend and that’s something that’s kind of rare to come across, the level of effort she put into all of her friendships.”
Jennifer Anopolsky said that in the months since she passed, the family learned how Maya was known as someone who brought people together. Her friends described her as a natural connector, making them feel valued and important.
“Our family couldn’t agree more,” Jennifer Anopolsky said.
In addition to her close connection to her parents, her mom described her relationship with her younger brothers, who looked up to her as a role model.
“When one of her brothers went off to college she really looked out for him and gave him advice on being a freshman in college,” she said. “She was always really proud.”
Maya was majoring in Psychology and minoring in Marketing, with plans to spend her summer working in advertising in New York City, where she was going to live with a close friend from high school.
“I feel like she was on the verge of some great experiences and I’m sad that it was cut short,” Jennifer Anopolsky said.
Outside of classes, Maya was involved on many corners of campus, working as a research assistant in a psychology lab, Vice President of Events for the Washington University Marketing
Association (WUMA), an innovation intern at the Skandalaris Center for Interdisciplinary Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and the Director of Social Media for her sorority Alpha Phi over the course of three years.
Maya’s friends and family described her unwavering dedication to accomplish her academic goals — how when she set her sights on something, she worked until she got it.
Greif talked about the day that Maya came home having decided that she wanted to single-handedly organize a forum to talk about the impact of artificial intelligence on marketing through WUMA.
“She reached out to a bunch of professionals and professors and organized this whole speaker panel, and I was so proud of her,” Greif said. “She was just so brilliant and so hard working. ” Przydzial remembers the days leading up to the panel as full of hard work — but Maya managed to make it fun.
“We actually had an
inflatable mattress in Bauer [Hall] and we would take turns taking naps,” Przydzial said. “It was literally plugged into the floor. She was so spontaneous and so adventurous but at the same time she was locked in.”
Outside of extracurriculars, Maya found the little details that made WashU home. She knew all the names of the dogs that frequented campus — who reminded her of her labradoodle Biscuit — and could name all the different flowers she spotted walking around.
For the countless people who Maya impacted at WashU and beyond, it’s so many of these little things — flowers, cookies from Colleen’s, karaoke with friends — that remind them of her joy and excitement for life.
“It’s a place she loved, a place where she had many hopes and dreams about where it was going to take her,” Jennifer Anopolsky said. “It can’t fund her hopes and dreams, but it can fund the hopes and dreams of other young people just like her.” Her family has also created a website with tributes from many of Maya’s loved ones, fundraising updates, and a photo gallery. For Przydzial, summarizing Maya’s impact on all of the people who cared about her is something that goes beyond words.
“She wasn’t just adventurous and fun and awesome and smart, she was also real and down to earth, one of the most genuine people I think I’ll ever meet in my life,” she said. “I don’t know what else there is to say — it’s more a feeling, and everyone who loved her feels it.”
In Maya’s memory, her family has worked to establish the The Maya Rae Anopolsky Memorial Fund, which will offer an annual gift that will put funds towards helping future WashU students. To date, the fund has raised nearly $90,000 of its $250,000 goal. Her family is honored by the many donations already made, and hopes others will consider supporting this worthy cause.
PHOTO COURTESY OF TOM MALKOWICZ
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ANOPOLSKY FAMILY
Q&A with WashU’s Chief Investment Officer Scott Wilson
RAND JUNIOR SPORTS EDITOR
Washington University’s $12.5 billion endowment currently sits as the 11th-largest in the nation, according to U.S. News & World Report. The endowment and Managed Endowment Pool (MEP) — which includes most of WashU’s endowed funds and other long-term operating assets — is managed by the Washington University Investment Management Company (WUIMC), led by Chief Investment Officer
Scott L. Wilson.
Despite posting a 2.3% loss in the fiscal year 2023, the endowment has posted returns of 9.4% over the last 10 years — beating the Cambridge Associates’ median return for U.S. college and university endowments by 2.2% over the same time period. In 2023, the endowment had its largest payout, directing $570 million to WashU’s annual operating budget, which is used to fund aspects of the University, including facility maintenance and employee pay.
Wilson managed the endowment at Grinnell College before joining WUIMC in 2017. Prior to managing higher-education endowments, Wilson was Head of Rates Option Trading for Barclays Capital Japan and served in various roles at Bank of America.
Student Life sat down with Wilson to discuss WUIMC’s work, their investment strategies, and the role his office plays at WashU. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Student Life (SL): Could you briefly describe what WUIMC does and what its role is at WashU?
Scott Wilson (SW): The Investment Management Company is responsible for investing the assets within the endowment. We’re overseen by the WUIMC Board of Directors that approve our strategy, manage our risk tolerances, approve our budget, and set our asset allocation, which are the types of securities, geographies, and asset classes that we invest in. [The WUIMC Board of Directors includes] five independent directors, the chancellor of the University, and the chair of the Washington University Board.
SL: When it comes to individual gifts, last year 63% of them were “donor-restricted.” What does that mean?
SW: It means you can only use the proceeds for the payout from those gifts
to support the specific cause that the donor intended.
SL: Last year, WUIMC paid out $570 million. How do you make the determination of how much will be paid into the operating budget, and do you have any say over where those funds are allocated?
SW: [The Board looks] looks at the last five years’ average market value of the endowment and then typically pays out between 4% and 5% of that average value. Again, all of those restricted endowments have to be used to fund the specific purpose that was endowed, so [they] legally can’t be used for general operating-budget purposes. So if that specific purpose is a research program for the medical school, or needbased financial aid for a student from Missouri, you can only use those funds to support whatever the donor intended.
SL: Despite posting a loss last year, the endowment has outperformed the national median for higher-education endowments. What do you attribute to that success over the last 10-20 years?
SW: Well, I’ve only been here for seven years, and truth be told, when I started, our 10-year performance was really bad. We had underperformed the average endowment, and certainly had underperformed the average endowment within our peer group, [which consists of the top 20 privateuniversity endowments]. Essentially, in 2017 we completely turned over almost the entire portfolio. We went from average [and] below-average external partners to what I would say are a really high-quality set of financial partners who find interesting and unique investments that we can strategically back with additional capital.
SL: The annual report mentions the endowment and the Managed Endowment Pool (MEP). Can you explain what these two things are and how they are different from the annual operating budget of the University?
SW: The payout from the endowment and the MEP go into the operating budget, but that’s outside of our sphere of influence. The WUIMC Board approves a payout every year. [The endowment] is made up of thousands of individual gift agreements that are codified in an actual legal document called a gift agreement, where a donor has given money for some cause
that they want to support in perpetuity — for the entire life of the institution. When we collate all those and collect them, we call that the endowment. Now there is also what we call quasi-endowment, which is essentially reserves or excess operating cash, savings, or Board-designated funds that they’ve moved to be managed alongside the endowment. From our standpoint, it’s a single unitized pool of capital, but technically they are different pools of money.
SL: You mentioned in last year’s annual report that you encourage your team to pursue themes and concepts that are idiosyncratic compared to the rest of the market. How do you go about finding idiosyncratic themes and deciding whether to invest in them?
SW: Yeah, so when we say idiosyncratic, what we mean is it’s uncorrelated to other investments we have in the portfolio. If you looked in the portfolio and looked at our biggest positions, you’d find a U.S. aerospace and telecommunications company, a large biotech company, [a] Southeast Asian gaming and e-commerce company. We look at those, and although they’re all equity investments, 20 years from now those investments should have very independent outcomes. They should be very uncorrelated. Generally, we find our investments through our external investment partners. The bulk of the endowment is outsourced to partners on the ground investing in various types of geographies and different types of securities, and we spend a lot of our time actually on the ground with them, trying to understand what’s in their portfolio. And we call those co-investments, so we have a decent chunk of the endowment that’s in these types of co-investments with our various partners across the globe.
SL: Some students have called for WashU to divest from certain positions, including Boeing. How does your office approach individual investments, including the investment in Boeing?
SW: We haven’t had an investment in Boeing since I’ve been at WashU, and we’ve certainly never had one that we directly control. I’m not sure where that came from. Absolutely, we would invest in Boeing if we thought it was a good investment, but those decisions are typically initiated by our external investment partners. The
divestment decision isn’t made at our level. That’s a decision that comes through the WUIMC Board and the chancellor of the University and the full Board of the University. So from our standpoint, we don’t positively or negatively screen for ESG [environmental, societal, and governance] reasons, but we do factor in all sorts of ESG factors in our investment decisions. So I would say it’s more of a lens through which we view the world — we don’t consider companies that have very poor ESG practices to be good and long-term investments, because that’s not sustainable in the world that we live in.
Student Life reached out to Wilson for clarification that WUIMC has not indirectly invested in Boeing through ETFs, mutual funds, or any other externally managed funds. Wilson responded that, “to the best of my knowledge, we don’t currently have any Boeing. We do not have complete transparency for every fund we are invested in, but it’s generally good.”
SL: Did posting a loss last year cause any concern, or is that just more generally tied to how the market performed last year?
SW: No. We know we have to take capital-market risk and expect to have good and bad years. If you assume we have a payout of 5%, inflation is 3% to 4% and then we need real growth on top of that. That gives us a target return of 9% to 10% or more over the course of a business cycle, which is generally the boom-bust cycle of the broader economy. So the only way to generate that type of return is to be in long-duration risk assets (equity-like assets). The nature of financial markets is [that] you’re going to have these periods of pessimism and euphoria, and so you expect markets to go up and down, and not every market goes up and down in tandem. That is why we have a very diversified portfolio. But in general, we take broad capital-market risk and expect to have some years where returns are negative. So, when markets are down — and last year, it was mostly privateequity markets that were down — then we expect a negative year. There was an asset bubble in private markets in 2021 where the tech sector priced up-north of 100% and we had a 65% return, and then the last two years, we have seen those markets come back to Earth and better reflect economic reality. So in some sense, 2021 was the party, and over the next few years the punch bowl was taken away.
We knew that was coming.
Because they are private investments locked up in private partnerships, there is very little ability to sell or even hedge those assets.
SL: WUIMC has three benchmarks for success: annual payout, inflation, and real growth. How do you prioritize those benchmarks for any given fiscal year?
SW: We don’t really focus on individual benchmarks, and certainly not over a short time frame like one fiscal year. Very broadly, we think about risk in two high-level buckets. We have short-term liquidity risk, which is our ability to make payments to the University so they can fund their operating budget on a yearly basis. Then we have what we would call “long-term growth risk”: our ability to grow the value of the endowment by at least the payout plus inflation, which preserves the purchasing power of the endowment. Otherwise, our real purchasing power is systematically declining over time. Our mandate is to increase the purchasing power for future generations of faculty, students, and staff.
SL: WashU, unlike other investors in funds, is in it for the long run. How does that influence WUIMC’s risk tolerances when it comes to investing?
SW: It affects the type of investments we look for because, ideally, we find really great investments that we can hold for the next 20 years [that] will provide a really good return over that 20-year period, even if we know it’s not going to be completely linear. And so we look for partners who we think have a similarly long time-horizon. In terms of type of risk, it means we
can suffer a lot of short-term volatility for an investment that we think will perform really well over very long periods of time. We can also tolerate a lot more illiquidity risk. So we’re happy to be in public equity or private equity, or in investments that we don’t think will really pay off [until] 10 or 20 years [later]. That could be a long-duration real-estate investment or a construction project that won’t be completed for 5-10 years, knowing that the payout at the end of that 10-year period will be worth us waiting for the investment to mature.
SL: Students have expressed the belief that the endowment isn’t necessarily always transparent. What resources would you point students to to better understand how WashU is investing its money?
SW: The best resource is just the Annual Report. Most of our investments are outsourced to these third parties. Most of the time, we’re actually restricted in that we can’t disclose either the underlying holdings of those firms or even who those firms are. Likewise, they can’t disclose that we’re investors. We typically highlight a few of the individual investments in our Annual Report, but you can get a very high-level and thorough overview of what we’re doing [with] the endowment through the Annual Report
Avi
Aliana
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Cathay Poulsen Managing Chief of Copy
LEWIS
Scott L. Wilson has managed WashU’s over $10 billion endowment since 2017.
“We brought a real human brain to the Activities Fair,” sophomore Olivia Benitez said, gesturing behind her. In front of the typical tri-fold poster sat a white bucket smelling strongly of formaldehyde. With a stack of disposable gloves next to it, Benitez, Co-President of Synapse, asked curious visitors if they wanted to touch the brain.
Every year, in the sweltering heat of August, Mudd Field acts as the host for over 450 student groups on campus. First-years flock to the event after their Friday classes. Upperclassmen saunter around to say hi to their friends who are tabling.
Club representatives vie for the attention of passersby. Students of all years get lost in the chaos that is the fall Activities Fair.
At the Activities Fair, club representatives tend to use all kinds of tactics to try to grab the attention of browsing students. Whether that be free gadgets, a bowl of candy, or yelling at those walking by, these liaisons stop at nothing to get their QR codes scanned. Regardless of the strategy, it seems that a simple poster doesn’t cut it anymore.
A common attentiongrabbing tactic is the use of objects representing the student organizations on campus. All sorts of groups bring items to represent their activity, as a hook to draw in prospective new members. If a club is boasting about touching a blob of neurons, you would want to check out their booth, right? Rather than wandering around in the chaos, for the 2024 activities fair, we let the weird, eye-catching, and unconventional objects brought by club representatives serve as a guide.
A Race Car at WashU Racing
The trek to the engineering-focused clubs required excruciating sun exposure while crossing Mudd Field, but drew viewers regardless. WashU Racing stood out,
SCENE
Props to the Activities Fair: S
with a massive race car sitting in front of their table.
Vice President of the club, Siya Verma, explained that although it seemed huge, the car in front of us was only “a third of the size of an actual Formula 1 car.”
“Every year we design, build, and race a Formulastyle race car,” said Verma, a senior majoring in Genomics and Computational Biology. The interdisciplinary club runs their race car on a motorcycle engine and has had great success in races against other schools.
The Giant Chess Board at Chess Club
On the opposite side of the field stood a staple in the realm of Activities Fair props and objects: the giant chess board laid out on the grass. Students passing by stopped to look at the display and play with the massive chess pieces. Senior and Co-President of Chess Club Shreya Mangalam, who was running the display, shared that she has been playing chess competitively for her whole life. In college, she has found a home on WashU’s team.
“We’re one of the strongest teams in the nation,” Mangalam said, a claim made more impressive after she cited St. Louis as the Chess Capital of the U.S.
Despite the high skill level of the team, the goal of the display was to encourage students who might be interested to play a casual game of chess outside.
The Swords and Armor of Kendo Club
Sam Chen, dressed in black body armor, was a few booths down. A senior and a member of Kendo Club, Chen walked through the equipment needed for this martial art. He explained that “Kendo can be a very competitive sport, so you may want to make sure you’re very well protected,” referencing the armor he was wearing.
The objects themselves reinforced his point, as he showed off two different kinds of swords, one made of bamboo and one made of
tories behind the objects clubs brought to Mudd Field
wood. Chen himself joined the club his sophomore year after visiting their Activities Fair booth and is happy that the club is so connected with the local community. Just last weekend the club performed in the Japanese Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden.
A Five-Person Tent at Outing Club
Further down the endless row of tables stood a potential refuge from the intense sunshine on the field: a tent.
“We thought it could be good because it’s so hot out that maybe people needed to hang out there for the shade,” said Sara Goldstein, the president of Outing Club. “Also, it’s a great conversation piece.”
Indeed it was, as students who came by were eager to hear about Goldstein’s philosophy of “getting people outside for free.” Outing Club boasts 700 members, and according to Goldstein, coordinates outings that involve all sorts of outdoor activities.
“You name it, it’s outside, we do it,” she said. And all for free, since Outing Club’s funding covers all equipment costs.
A Volleyball Net at Men’s Club Volleyball
From the shade of the tent, a net and jumping players could be spotted above the sea of students on the field. The intense game of volleyball had been set up by Men’s Club Volleyball.
“A trifold can only say so much,” explained senior team member Bennett Yee. “We had a net available, and we thought, ‘why not?’”
Yee reflected on the laid-back culture in club volleyball, emphasizing how it is accessible to all skill levels. He said that “we have some guys that played in NCAA level and then we have guys that just started playing in college. We’re looking to have a good time and have some fun.”
A Frisbee Jump at Ultimate Frisbee
Wading into the sports section, the number of objects and equipment
increased, ready to draw in curious students. A strange, metal post loomed above them all. The Ultimate Frisbee teams, proud owners of the pole, explained that this post was a frisbee jump, for training team members to jump and catch a frisbee in a game.
Senior Sasha Rifkin, the Recruitment Chair for WashU Women’s Ultimate Frisbee, indicated that this quintessential college sport comes with a tight-knit community.
“All my best friends are from frisbee,” Rifkin said. She added a piece of advice to Activity Fair goers: “Finding a community is really important when you’re a freshman, and this is a good way to do it.”
A Sculling Oar and a Boat for WashU Rowing
Perhaps the largest item in the sports section was the massive silver boat, propped up on a stand, representing the WashU Rowing team. Nearby stood Ryan O’Connor, a varsity rower, holding the boat’s corresponding oar. He explained that despite its size, the almost 24 foot long boat only seats one rower and is the smallest boat the team races, both in terms of length and rower capacity.
O’Connor is a sophomore, and therefore one of the younger club representatives at the Activities Fair. He said that many rowers were once swimmers and described a sort of swimming-to-rowing pipeline throughout the transition to college. Despite this, he was eager to emphasize that “you need no experience” to join the team, and that “it’s so fun. We’re always looking for novice rowers.”
Clifford the Puppy for Campus Y
Closer to the shadier section of the fair, a crowd of students had formed around the Campus Y booth. These students were petting a puppy in front of the table. Though cute, the puppy named Clifford did not immediately make sense in connection to the organization. Anneliese Siedman,
the Membership Director and Clifford’s handler for the day, explained that one of Campus Y’s most popular programs is Working so Animals Get Support, or WAGS, which draws hundreds of volunteers.
“There was nothing to get the message across better than a dog,” she said, referencing the nine-monthold puppy sitting next to her, greeting potential recruits. Siedman, a junior, got involved with Campus Y through another one of their popular events, Safe Trick or Treat, where local children enjoy Halloweenthemed activities on the South 40. While these two programs are the most popular, Siedman emphasized that Campus Y has a total of 22 programs available to students.
Drums at Samulnori
Looping down the other side of the field led to most of the performancebased groups, including Samulnori. The booth was easily drawing people in with impromptu drum performances of Samulnori, the genre of Korean percussion music they perform.
One of the drums, the Buk, was played by Yoon Shin, a junior and a member of Samulnori. He shared that he started playing this drum, meant to “mimic thunder,” when he joined the group and has been playing now for two semesters. The group performs annually at the Lunar New Year Festival, and in off campus performances.
Lion Head at LNYF Lion Dance
Right next door, Birdie Lee was holding a bright yellow, glittery lion head, representing the Lunar New Year Festival (LNYF) Lion Dance. According to her, the lion heads her group uses are “all hand made, they’re made of papier-mâché, there’s all sorts of sequins and little plastic bits and pieces.” Lee actually used the lion head she was holding in last year’s
LNYF, and is now a Senior and a Choreographer for the 10 person group. Like Samulnori, the Lion Dance group performs both in LNYF and off campus for various events.
A Model Plane at Design/Build/Fly
Back at the engineering clubs, several large planes and plane parts had made their way onto the grass. This booth belonged to Design/Build/Fly (DBF), a club that produces a model plane for an annual competition. Last year, the WashU DBF team placed well with the plane that Sarah Donner was holding. Donner is one of the Aerodynamics Team Leads. She described her team’s role, saying, “We do the calculations for the plane, we calculate lift and drag, and we make sure that the size of the wing will be enough to hold the weight of the plane for that year.” Like other engineeringbased clubs, she emphasized that there are many different majors on the DBF team, and that students don’t need any prior experience in the field to join.
Despite the diversity of objects (and groups), almost every representative had similar things to say about their respective clubs: anyone can join, and the people they’ve met through their organization are the best part. The objects that clubs bring to the Activities Fair may be odd at times, but serve the important purpose of advertising the communities that WashU has to offer. Perhaps they may even get students to check out clubs they would have never thought to look at. By all accounts, advertising clubs with props and objects is effective, even if it’s a brain in a bucket.
ELIZABETH GRIEVE STAFF WRITER
From right to left, top to bottom: Senior Siya Verma sits smiling in the WashU Racing car. Senior Thomas Schuster and junior Nate D’Alesio clash at the Men’s Club Volleyball net. Design/Build/Fly’s model plane is hoisted proudly by junior Sarah Donner. Senior Emily So performs for Korean percussion music club Samulnori. Sophomore Liora Raimondi and seniors Lilly Vereen and Sara Goldstein pose with the Outing Club’s five-person tent. Sophomore Ryan O’Connor shows prospective members proper rowing form.
PHOTOS BY SAM POWERS | STUDENT LIFE
Coming soon to Forest Park: Evolution Festival
ETHAN PENN STAFF WRITER
WashU’s backyard is hosting a music festival. No, WILD has not come eight months early. Rather, on Sept. 28 and 29, Evolution Festival will be hosting its second annual festival in Forest Park. Last year, the festival hosted over 25,000 concert-goers.
Evolution Festival is a highly curated collection of heavy-hitting musical acts. Headlining the festival is The Killers — you almost certainly know their hit song “Mr. Brightside.” They just came off of their headlining gig at Lollapalooza. Beck, who has been a hit artist for over 30 years, combining genres in songs like “Loser,” makes up the other half of headliners. The supporting acts are just as recognizable, with rock legends like Billy Idol, Jane’s Addiction, and Nile Rodgers (who you definitely know from his hit song with Pharrell and from Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky”). Rounding out the lineup are country gem Elle King, known for her hit “Ex’s and Oh’s,” and generational voice and activist, Killer Mike.
Hosted in Langenberg Field in Forest Park — near the tennis courts and the Missouri Natural History Museum — Evolution Festival is by far the closest music festival to campus. Outside WILD and shows at the Pageant, Blueberry Hill, and Delmar Hall, it is also the closest elite artists like the ones listed above will come to the WashU area. For those wondering
how to get to the festival, from the South 40 and the Village, the venue is about a 40-minute walk away. It is easy to do on foot or by scooter — or, if you’re really not in the mood to walk, a quick Uber can get you there. Alternative ways to get to the festival include taking the train to and from University City Big Bend station (or Skinker depending on where you live) to the Forest ParkDeBaliviere station, which is a five-minute walk to the Festival. Students can also take the Campus Circulator to the east end of campus and then walk about 20 minutes to the festival. For the busy student: You can work in the morning, leave your bags on campus (in a building where you have after-hours swipe access) and walk to the festival, then grab your bags on the way home.
Tickets for the festival can be found here, and start at $225 for the weekend and $136 for a single day. You can save money by buying tickets in groups of four. A four-pack of tickets costs $213 per ticket for the weekend and $107 for a single day.
A pop-girl summer
OLIVIA LEE JUNIOR SCENE EDITOR
Summer: a time of freedom from the neverending pile of schoolwork, of scorching St. Louis heat and humidity, and of mosquito bites, beach days, sunburns, and ice cream. But summer wouldn’t be summer without a playlist. And this summer’s charttoppers have, undeniably, been dominated by a new generation of pop girls.
This summer began with a bang: on April 11, Sabrina Carpenter dropped her newest single, “Espresso.” With a catchy hook, an off-the-cuff delivery, and Carpenter’s unserious lyrics, “Espresso” was the perfect launch to both the summer and Carpenter’s recent virality. Her sixth album, “Short ‘n Sweet,” debuted on Aug. 23, appropriately bookending the summer. Though the album is, as the name suggests, short, it is a no-skip powerhouse. The two standouts are “Bed Chem” and “Juno.” With a funky guitar line and groovy production, “Bed Chem” features some of Carpenter’s signature sexy — and oftentimes out-ofpocket — lyrics. “Where art thou? Why not uponeth me?” she quips. Lyrics such as these continue in “Juno,” a reference to the 2007 movie of the same name which centers around a teenage pregnancy. Carpenter declares, “One of me is cute, but two though? / Give it to me, baby / You make me wanna make you fall in love.”
Next came Billie Eilish’s third album, “Hit Me Hard and Soft.” The
PUZZLE PUZZLE Mania
long-anticipated album is experimental, moody, and genre-bending. It features Eilish’s trademark softyet-powerful vocals and her brother Finneas’ mindboggling production. The song that captured the cultural consciousness is the track “LUNCH.” Through her explicitlyqueer anthem, Eilish remarks that she wants to “eat that girl for lunch,” and her vocals are backed by sexy, smooth, and upbeat drum, guitar, and bass lines. Another viral song from the album is “BIRDS OF A FEATHER.” In the first lines of this love song, Eilish croons, “I want you to stay / ‘Till I’m in the grave.” Despite the somewhat dark lyrics, Finneas’ bright production prevents the song from
becoming too melancholic. Instead, he creates a more longing and wistful sound through marching drums and synth-bell ostinatos.
Of course we can’t forget “brat girl summer,” an idea produced by Charli XCX’s sixth album, “Brat.” Charli’s album cover consisting of simple black typography (spelling out the word “brat”) pasted onto a chartreuse background has become iconic. The idea of “brat” has also gone viral. In a TikTok, Charli explained what exactly “brat” is: “You’re just, like, that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things sometimes. Who feels herself but maybe also has a breakdown … but it’s brat. You’re brat. That’s brat.”
The dance-pop album is full of clubbing hits, from the always-catchy “360” to the more introspective “Apple.”
Though Chappell Roan’s debut album, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” was released in fall of 2023, it had its moment this summer. From stunning vocals to epic drag performances, Roan is making tsunamis in the music (and cultural) sphere. The album itself is mostly full of upbeat pop hits. “Femininomenon” opens with a gorgeous string section that transitions into a danceable beat, where Roan announces, “Ladies, you know what I mean / And you know what you need and so does he / But does it happen? (No) / But does it happen?
Stop running WashU like a corporation
When I was younger, my parents gave me a very idealistic view of education.
Public schools are an incredible cornerstone of our society, and our government has a responsibility to provide education to everyone they represent. My understanding of education was, of course, somewhat simplified as a middle-schooler. However, the recognition of education as a social good is certainly not a new one. In college, administrators talk about their educational work as a necessary pillar of our society — and they are correct! Education is absolutely a social good, but it is rarely treated as such by those at the highest levels of academic administration and decision-making.
The absurd increases in college tuition
over the past 50 years are the most apparent disconnect between the “socially necessary model” of higher education and our current one. At WashU specifically, tuition has increased every single year since at least 2014. Except for the years 2021 and 2022, each of these increases outpaced inflation by an average of about 1.7 percentage points. This pattern is by no means new; a 2023 Forbes article explains the following:
“In 1980, the price to attend a four-year college full-time was $10,231 annually—including tuition, fees, room and board, and adjusted for inflation— according to the National Center for Education Statistics. By 2019-20, the total price increased to $28,775. That’s a 180% increase.” For most college students, this probably isn’t a shocking statistic. Even when accounting for inflation, students today are paying drastically more than older generations. The root of this unbelievable tuition inflation lies in the fact that university administrators and wealthy investors have
been taking advantage of the U.S. government’s attempts to make college more affordable since the 1960s. In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Higher Education Act, which massively expanded students’ access to federally backed student loans. For universities, these new federal loans meant that tuition increases would no longer be followed by a decrease in enrollment. Students would keep taking out more loans to keep pace with tuition, and schools could count on the government to shoulder the burden of any unpaid loans.
Now that the government would be using a loan program instead of directly regulating the cost of tuition, universities could develop a market for higher education that took advantage of the government’s responsibility to fund education. Universities could instead work as an extension of the private sector, with the confidence that the government would continue sending them a steady stream of customers (students) despite tuition increases.
It is important here to establish the deep connections between highereducation institutions — public, private for-profit, and private “non-profit” universities (like WashU) — and wealthy corporations, investors, and others whose jobs are entirely built on the search for higher profits. These relationships are most clear when looking at WashU’s endowment, which
Normalize trashy content
not-quite-but-nearly-as-bad-as
“What kind of books do you read?” Not again. WashU students, as the intellectuals they are, ask questions like this in get-to-know-you conversations like clockwork. I should probably expect it, as “reading” is in my directory of normal, even charming, hobbies. This is a predictable and valid follow-up question, yet I never feel quite prepared. I could list some books I’ve read for class and enjoyed like “Song of Solomon” by Toni Morrison or “SlaughterhouseFive” by Kurt Vonnegut: intellectual and somewhat truthful. My more socially acceptable favorite books: usually literary fiction, maybe “Writers & Lovers” by Lily King or “Conversations with Friends” by Sally Rooney (is Sally Rooney literary enough?). But this still doesn’t feel like the whole truth. God forbid they ask for my Goodreads.
I’ve had this thought process many, many times. It’s a first-date question
“Do you play any sports?” Yet it’s also an important one. All of the books I read are a part of my identity; they constitute a big part of my free time and have shaped my worldview. My identity encompasses all of the media I consume, down to the unscholarly novels (e.g. “Daisy Jones and the Six” by Taylor Jenkins Reid; “You, Again” by Kate Goldbeck; “Everything I Know About Love” by Dolly Alderton), daily vlogs, podcasts about celebrity drama, and reality dating shows.
Especially at WashU, where I’m surrounded by very intelligent peers, I often feel like I can’t share these non-scholarly parts of myself. They feel embarrassing and unimpressive, feeding my imposter syndrome. As a woman, I also feel like I’m playing into gender stereotypes — that we live for gossip and spend all of our time reading romances by the pool. I don’t want the poli-sci bros in my class to feel like they have a leg up on me because I didn’t watch endless video essays or read Marx over the summer (by the way, having “The
was valued at $11.5 billion in June of 2023. 58.3% of that endowment is allocated towards “private capital.”
All of this does not mean quality education has faded entirely from the list of the administration’s priorities. Many administrators likely still believe in education. Even if they didn’t, the professors, lecturers, and other faculty would continue educating the student body. I am deeply in support of the expansion of university resources and the long-term sustainability of higher education. I am not convinced, however, that tying up billions of dollars in private capital is the best way to fulfill WashU’s obligations as an educational institution.
None of these points are entirely specific to WashU, or even to U.S. universities as a whole. The prioritization of profits for the abstract entity of “the company” over the wellbeing of people — including the workers providing that profit in the first place — deserves intense criticism wherever it happens. And WashU’s ability to maintain the facade of caring about the St. Louis community is what disappoints me most.
Programs like No Loan, the Rural Scholars Academy, and other initiatives aimed at financial accessibility are fantastic. Marrying the university’s well-being to the profit margins of fossil fuel companies, weapons manufacturers, and plenty of other corporations that remain undisclosed is actively harmful to those populations that WashU claims to support.
Communist Manifesto” on your nightstand doesn’t make you a god).
This summer, “Love Island USA” Season 6 took the world by storm. The reality dating show where people find love in a tropical villa (where they are stuck and filmed 24/7) went viral, becoming the most popular reality TV show series on all streaming platforms. The show is being talked about everywhere: across social media platforms, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Forbes. Finally, I can share my longheld love for Love Island without shame.
The “trashy” content I enjoy comes alongside the “untrashy” things I consume — the scholarly articles or books I read, “Up First” by NPR, my extracurriculars, the unseemly number of op-eds I read in a week. But none of these things are more important, interesting, or “impressive” than the other. All the books I read and TV I watch come with different benefits.
As a WashU student likely flooded with work, you deserve a show that takes no brain energy to understand. You probably spend a lot of your time reading academic articles or doing whatever STEM kids do.
Read the rest online!
The University continues to not pay property taxes, which has an increased impact through its recent purchase of Fontbonne’s campus and various other properties on the Loop. Local activists have spoken out about how they wish WashU’s student body was more politically active on local issues, and the effects of gentrification around campus have been a relevant research topic for years. All of this makes the administration’s “In St. Louis, for St. Louis” mantra come off as a sick joke that entirely misunderstands the real impact of WashU’s presence.
One of Chancellor Martin’s main talking points on the endowment is that it exists “to generate as much return as possible.”
This implies that although WashU, on paper, values sustainability, the University will continue to invest in fossil fuels as long as they are more profitable than renewable energy. However, there is little evidence that WashU’s investments in fossil fuels are actually more fiscally responsible, even in the short term. A February 2023 McKinsey report found that companies who speak extensively about their environmental and social considerations experience more growth than those who do not. While the report was only looking at the claims companies made and not measuring the actual environmental and social effects of their actions, it is much easier to claim environmental sustainability
when you are actively making decisions that contribute to that sustainability. In other news, earlier this year, Chancellor Martin refused to meaningfully engage with student groups’ calls for divestment from fossil fuels, simply stating, “We’ve made the decision that the purpose of the endowment is to generate as much return as possible. We do so in a socially responsible way.” I guess the jury is still out on whether continued investment in fossil fuels is ever socially responsible.
If WashU wants to continue functioning as a conduit for billions of dollars in private investment, they should at least be honest about their financial structures and stop taking advantage of their “non-profit” distinction to simply get out of paying taxes. Alternatively, if WashU administrators are truly interested in being a not-forprofit, socially responsible, St. Louis-based hub for the public good of education, they should stop acting as a profit-seeking corporation. Instead, the University should use its billions to lower — or at least stop raising — tuition; increase faculty pay; hire more full-time faculty members; and pursue projects that don’t have the increased marketability of the University as a main goal. Until that happens, “In St. Louis, for St. Louis” will remain a largely hollow promise held up by only a few noble scholarship programs.
SYLVIE RICHARDS MANAGING FORUM EDITOR
SPORTS
Men’s soccer thrashes Millikin and Rhodes in opening weekend sweep
Last season, the Washington University men’s soccer team struggled to start the year. In their fifth game of the 2023 season, the Bears lost 2-1 to Millikin University, a team they had never conceded a goal to before.
In 2024, the Bears have a new coach, new tactics, and one objective: to make it back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2021. They came out of the gate flying, sweeping a weekend doubleheader to start the season 2-0.
On Friday, Aug. 30, the Bears got their revenge on Millikin, blanking them 5-0. To close the weekend, WashU shut out Rhodes College 2-0 on Sunday, Sept. 1. Within the first six minutes of Friday’s contest against Millikin, the Bears had already found the back of the net twice. Just a minute and nine seconds into the game, sophomore Ethan Wirtschafter swung a through ball into the box, which landed at the right foot of junior Zach Susee, who fired it into the goal. Five minutes later, Wirtschafter scored a diving header off a cross from Susee.
WashU held their 2-0 lead until the second half, when the Bears scored three goals off a newfound strength — the set piece. Last year,
No.
offensive set pieces were one of the team’s biggest weaknesses, rarely converting any of the corner kicks they were awarded. One might think that new head coach Andrew Bordelon worked on corners with his team throughout the spring season.
“To be honest, we haven’t worked on set pieces at all in practice,” Bordelon said with a chuckle. “It’s another credit to these guys. They see the goal and they want to score.”
Sophomore defender Quentin Gomez, the reigning University Athletic Association (UAA) Rookie of the Year, scored two headers, with respective assists from Susee and sophomore Nik Avillo. Sophomore Noah Cooney scored a loose ball off a separate corner between Gomez’s two goals, giving WashU the 5-0 advantage.
Gomez credits the newfound strength on set pieces to the Bears’ height advantage on the pitch.
“We’ve got four guys over six-foot-three, which obviously helps,” he said. “Even if we don’t practice it, that alone gives us an advantage on set pieces.”
On Sunday against Rhodes, the Bears dominated play again. WashU held the advantage in shots on-goal 9-1, and forced a staggering 17 corners. Twenty-four minutes into the match, Gomez fired home a deflected ball off of a corner. Twenty minutes later, Rhodes failed to
fully clear another corner, and the ball was corralled by senior Eugene Heger. Heger crossed it into the box, finding Gomez for his fourth goal in two games. Gomez was named the UAA Men’s Soccer Athlete of the Week for his offensive contributions over the weekend.
“Getting the chance to score four goals in two games as a center-back is just incredible,” Gomez said. “Last year, we didn’t have this good of a start. I’m just grateful for this opportunity.”
Not only did the Bears not concede a single goal during the weekend series, but they also completely dominated play defensively. Underclassmen defenders Gomez, Avillo, sophomore Carter Sasser, and first-year Quentin Wallace played all 90 minutes of Sunday’s match, preventing Rhodes from creating any high-danger scoring chances. With the weekend’s two shutouts, junior goalkeeper Adam Mallalieu doubled his clean sheet total through his collegiate career. In 2023, the Bears’ defense often struggled to contain their opponents’ offenses. But so far this year, the WashU defense may be their biggest strength.
“[The defense] has made my life pretty easy,” Mallalieu said. “They’ve been playing really well.”
Bordelon’s coaching philosophy is considerably more aggressive and press-heavy than former head coach Joe
Clarke’s playstyle, a change that has proved beneficial for the Bears. WashU has gone undefeated in their two preseason games against Missouri University of Science & Technology and Fontbonne University and in these two early regular-season matches.
The Bears scored a combined 22 goals in those four games. Bordelon credits his team for
embracing a new way to play so early in the season.
“Since March, the team has worked really hard and has bought [in] new ideas,” Bordelon said. “I think we saw a lot of that come together [this weekend].”
Men’s soccer will travel to the Chicago area this weekend, facing Aurora University on Friday, Sept. 6 and North Park University on Sunday, Sept. 8. If the Bears can build off their momentum from this weekend, the sky’s the limit for men’s soccer.
“Things are looking good, especially from the defensive side,” Gomez said. “If we keep scoring more than two goals a game, it’s going to be good for us.”
2 women’s soccer defeats Trine and Centre to start season
Last year, the No. 2 Washington University women’s soccer team went 15 straight games without giving up a goal. The 2024 season got off to a different start, with the Bears finding themselves in an unfamiliar position, trailing both opponents — Trine University and Centre College — during the opening weekend of the regular season.
However, in both matches, the Bears showed their resilience, bouncing back to defeat Trine 8-1 — the team’s largest margin of victory in a season opener since 2013 — and besting Centre 2-1, opening their season with two decisive wins on Aug. 30 and Sept. 1. “I think the players have shown great resolve in both games,” head coach Jim Conlon said after Sunday’s 2-1 victory. “They didn’t panic when we got down a goal. They stuck to their principles, which allowed us to come back and win both of them.” The Bears’ offensive charge over the weekend was led by junior Grace Ehlert, who recorded three goals: two against Trine and the go-ahead goal against Centre. Fellow junior Ella Koleno and first-year Olivia Clemons, who made her collegiate debut, each tallied two goals against the Thunder. Sophomore Madi Foley also tallied two goals over the weekend — rounding out Friday’s 8-1 victory and leveling the score 1-1 against Centre — and senior Meryl
McKenna added one.
Ehlert, who was named the University Athletic Association (UAA) Athlete of the Week, said that winning Friday’s game by a wide margin provided the team with a confidence boost going into the season.
“It was definitely good for everyone’s confidence,” she said on Friday. “We had a lot of new people, [and] a lot of people score[d] a lot of different goals today … we have a lot of threats all over the field, so [that] just really [helped] with [our confidence]. And seeing the ball go in the back of the goal a lot of times is great.”
Friday’s game provided an opportunity for first-years to gain valuable on-field experience, and sent the message for new players, including Clemons and first-year goalkeeper Suzie Green, to “play to [their] capabilities,” according to
Foley also recorded a strong performance, scoring two goals in two games, including the equalizer against the Colonels. For Foley, whose 2023 season was cut short by an injury, this weekend’s performances were especially meaningful.
“This year, I just wanted to be able to really emphasize taking advantage of every second I have on the field,” she said. “I think just making sure that, whenever
I’m out there, I’m able to make an impact in any way possible has just been a bit of a mentality switch for me after coming off of my first major injury of my career.”
Sunday’s game also marked Senior Day, where all 10 seniors and graduate students were recognized and started against the Colonels. The seniors, who were recruited during the height of COVID, have left a lasting impact on the team, according to Conlon.
“I think this senior class has tremendous leadership, and I believe that they’re kind of setting a great foundation for this program,” he said. “They’ve allowed us to embrace new people into the family that aren’t just incoming freshmen. So I think their leadership, coupled with their talent, is going to leave a fantastic legacy.
The seniors, according to Foley, were a source of motivation for the team throughout the match.
“I think [that], especially yesterday, we obviously wanted a win for our seniors, but I think that [with] the competitive nature of this team, we’re able to fight back from adversity and have each other’s backs and have the trust and belief in each other that we’re going to get the job done,” she said. Coming out of their first weekend of regular-season play 2-0, WashU will continue its slate of nonconference games at home against North Central College on Sept. 6, before kicking off a road campaign at Westminster College (MO) and DePauw University on Sept. 10 and 13. As they approach UAA play, the WashU squad has one goal: to get better every game.
“I think that we’re ready to just keep competing, keep bettering ourselves, and just kind of continuing to find our rhythm, find our stride … we’re not taking any one game for granted, because every single one of these games is going to have an impact on us.” Foley said.
Conlon.
Midfielder Colin Link dribbles past a defender in a game last season.
ISABELLA DIAZ-MIRA | STUDENT LIFE
First-year Olivia Clemons scored two goals in her college debut against Trine.
BRI NITSBERG | STUDENT LIFE
Lisa Stone has been a basketball head coach for 36 years. When her 10-year run coaching Saint Louis University (SLU) ended in 2022, she wasn’t sure where her career would take her next.
Two years later, she got a call from Nancy Fahey, the Hall of Fame coach who led Washington University’s women’s basketball program to five national championships. When Fahey told Stone about the opening of WashU’s head coaching spot, Stone was instantly intrigued.
“She asked and I said, ‘Heck yeah, that’s a great opportunity,’” Stone recalled.
Over the years, Stone and Fahey had become close friends. The pair grew up five miles from each other in Wisconsin. When Fahey was in her senior year on the women’s basketball team at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, she faced off against Stone, then a first-year point guard at Big Ten rival University of Iowa. Since then, Stone and Fahey have dueled many times as coaches, including in Stone’s last game at the Division III level. In that game in 2000, Fahey and WashU beat Stone’s University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire squad in the NCAA tournament en route to one of Fahey’s five national championships with the Bears.
Over the last four decades, Fahey and her successor Randi Henderson have built WashU’s program into one of Division III’s best. The opportunity to take the reins as WashU’s fourthever head coach was one that Stone couldn’t pass up.
“To be able to lead a program like this is the perfect match for me right now in my career,” she said. “I can’t wait, I can’t wait to put my basketball shoes on and run on that
court…It didn’t take me long to make a decision.”
WashU’s newest basketball coach brings a lot of energy wherever she goes.
Though Stone has been a coach for 36 years, she says the level of enthusiasm she brings to a program hasn’t diminished.
“I’m still the same person I was when I started out at Cornell [College]. I mean, I’ve coached 36 years, but I’m still the same coach, same energy. I’m flying in there.”
Before she was a coach, Stone was a standout on the court. She played four years as a star point guard at Iowa, which built many of the foundations she still uses today. While in college, Stone was coached by Vivian Stringer, the fifth winningest coach in women’s college basketball history and a member of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.
“I was her captain and point guard, and a lot of responsibility falls on the point guard, because it’s like the mini coach on the court,” Stone said.
While pursuing a master’s in Athletic Administration at Iowa, Stone began her coaching career at Cornell College, a small Division III school 20 miles down the road. At the time, she was the youngest college basketball head coach in the country and did much more than just coach basketball.
“Somebody took a chance on a young kid, you know, and I coached basketball and softball, and I had to teach anatomy, physiology and biomechanics,” she recounted.
In 1988, Stone left Cornell to become the head coach at Wisconsin–Eau Claire. Though Stone only coached basketball there, she still kept herself busy.
“I did the budget, and I even taped ankles at [the] Division III level. You don’t want me doing that,” she joked.
At Eau Claire, Stone inherited a program that had previously had only one winning season. In
“To be able to lead a program like this is the perfect match for me right now in my career,” she said. “I can’t wait, I can’t wait to put my basketball shoes on and run on that court…It didn’t take me long to make a decision.”
her 12 seasons with the Blugolds, Stone led the team to a 277-59 record, 11 NCAA Division III tournament berths, and six conference titles. In 1996–97, she was named the Division III National Coach of the Year after her team made a run to the National Championship game.
In 2000, Stone made the jump to the Division I level, leading Drake University to a 64-27 record in three seasons. Stone guided Drake to the NCAA Sweet 16 in 2002. In 2003, she returned to her home state, this time to coach the Wisconsin Badgers.
“I’m from there, I’m the local girl, and my whole
family’s there…It meant a lot. I was coming home,” she said.
Stone’s family has always meant a lot to her. Stone, who has two kids with her husband of 36 years, applies what she describes as a family-style approach to coaching basketball.
“There’s a lot of people that talk [about] family, but I am family because of the many hats I wear.
A mother, wife, teacher, coach,” she said. “I want my team to play like that defensively…I’m a defensive coach. You have to be a family. You have to have a servanthood mentality, that if you get beat on defense — you’re going to get beat on defense — that
someone’s always there to help you.”
Stone utilized that mentality to turn Wisconsin’s program around.
The Badgers had gone 7-21 the previous season, but by 2006-2007, Stone led the Badgers to a 23-13 record and the championship game of the Women’s National Invitational Tournament (WNIT).
In 2009-10, she led the Badgers to the NCAA tournament and then won Big Ten Coach of the Year the following year.
However, Stone’s teams often found themselves in the WNIT instead of the March Madness tournament and struggled to reach the lofty expectations of the Big Ten program. Stone was fired in March 2011.
While at Wisconsin, Stone worked closely with Bo Ryan, the Hall of Famer who coached the men’s program from 2001-2015. In a statement published in WashU’s press release, Ryan gave special praise to his former colleague.
“If my daughter played basketball, I would want Lisa to be her coach,” he said.
In May 2012, Stone was hired at SLU, taking over a program that had suffered nine straight losing seasons. Once again, she turned the team around.
In the 2015-16 season, the Billikens went 26-8 and won the university’s first Atlantic 10 Conference regular season title. Though Stone had many successful seasons at
SLU, her contract was not renewed following a 9-18 record in 2021-2022.
When Stone heard from Fahey about WashU’s opening, she said she knew it was the right fit for her, and not just because it meant she wouldn’t have to leave the city of St. Louis. Unlike many of her previous stops, Stone inherits a program coming off of a 17-9 record and a trip to the NCAA tournament in 2024. At WashU, Stone is looking to take the Bears to the next level, and she has her eyes on eventually hanging up a national championship banner in the rafters alongside Fahey’s five.
“You want to get 1% better every day…we want to improve on and off the court in our process and how we do things, we must improve every day. The goal is to win the conference, and winning the conference, then put you in the NCAA tournament,” she said. “Going deeper than the year before is always a goal, with the ultimate goal of winning a national championship.”
Stone has only been at WashU for a couple of days, but she’s already injecting her energy into a basketball program once again.
“I love the fact I’m still coaching. I’ve got a lot of energy, a lot of passion, and I really want to pour everything I have into these young women.”
