February 20 2025, Student Life Newspaper, WashU in St. Louis
‘Leral’: A night spent honoring the vibrancy steeped into African culture
SOPHIE
SCHWARTZ
SCENE EDITOR
JUNIOR
The African Students Association’s (ASA) annual fashion show aims to bring a bold and beautiful display of African culture, dancing, and fashion to Graham Chapel this Saturday. This year’s show is titled “Leral” and intends to highlight African Iridescence: The Vibrancy Of Heritage.
The creative inspiration for the show is linked to its culturallyrooted title. “Leral” means “to make bright” in Wolof, a language spoken in West Africa. Creative Director and senior Mahdote Abebe is the visionary behind all the aesthetic elements, which she hopes will showcase luminosity and radiance.
“The whole idea behind the show is to capture all the colors of Africa, like in clothing, vibrant dances, music, and props,” Abebe said.
Fashion connoisseurs, dance enthusiasts, and music lovers can expect an action-packed night celebrating the diverse and rich heritage across the four main regions of the continent: East Africa, West Africa, North Africa and Southern Central Africa.
ASA’s president, senior Essete Workineh, discussed how the event is meant to showcase the unique traditions from each area and to encourage the audience to see Africa as more than just a singular entity.
“I definitely hope that people will take away that Africa is not monolithic, especially when it comes to fashion and beauty. There is so much significance in where things come from, traditionally, as well as the diversity that lies within each country,” she said.
Sophomore and East African Dancer Noura Idris Habona shined
a light on the journey shared between the audience members and performers.
“I want people to be more aware that Africa is a continent, not a country, and there’s so much to celebrate within. We’re all learning, us and the audience,” she said.
To zoom in even more on the individuals that live and thrive in the different regions, the East African section of the show will feature dances and music from various tribes highlighting some of their distinct traditions.
Habona mentioned that she does not only see great cultural significance in this demonstration, but is excited to show off the dances she and her group have been working hard on.
“We started practicing right before Winter Break and the whole show should be really fun. I am excited to see everyone be able to show off their culture and what it means to them,” Habona said.
Similarly, sophomore Mira Ugwuadu, choreographer, model, and dancer for the West African sections, is most eager for the afrobeats and groovy soundscapes that will be mixed in-house by student DJ Toluwani Oseni.
“I think my favorite part is that we’re using a lot of throwback party songs. A lot of them [are] African dance parties, it’s a lot of good music,” Ugwuadu said.
As a model, Ugwuadu will also be walking the stage. She expressed her overall admiration for the energy and high spirits of the group.
“Everything is awesome. The vibes, the people, [it’s all] cute and it’ll be really lively. Oh and the outfits are amazing,” she said.
As a whole, crafting a show of such magnitude is never an easy task. When she structured the show, Abebe was deliberate in choosing decorations that would match the vibrance and iridescence
of the fashion. Abebe described the behind-the-scenes work of assembling the product the audience will see on Saturday.
“I try to do everything on my iPad or a slideshow. I told everyone I wanted [the show] to follow a gradient color scheme. I took pictures of peoples’ clothing, organized it, and said ‘This is who will walk first going from light colors to dark,’” Abebe said.
“Leral” is more than just a fashion show, it is a celebration of African heritage, culture and creativity. Through vibrant dances, music, clothing, and props, ASA is bringing a layered cultural experience to Graham Chapel that highlights the importance of celebrating one’s roots and paying tribute to rich traditions.
“I just want the audience to be smiling, to learn a few things about the continent of Africa, and most importantly, have fun,” Ugwuadu said.
‘A spirit of collegiality’: Reverend Jonathan Weaver talks about activism
When Reverend Jonathan Weaver arrived at WashU as a firstyear in 1968, there were 27 Black students in his class. Just a few months after he moved in, Weaver helped organize a sit-in to protest an incident of police violence toward a Black student that led to meaningful changes on campus that are still in effect today, including the creation of the African and African American Studies Department.
On Friday, Weaver addressed an audience of students as the keynote speaker for the Association of Black Students’ (ABS) programming — a student organization he once served as the president of — for Black History Month.
He spoke about his experiences after graduating WashU, including his work as a reverend and the founder of the Pan African Collective, an organization that supports projects including access to healthcare and education in Africa. Throughout his speech, Weaver encouraged students to advocate for issues that matter to them and to collaborate with one another.
“Let your life be a life of purpose, [where] you’re making a change in the lives of others,” Weaver said.
Before he spoke, Weaver was introduced by senior and Vice President of ABS Paul Scott, who spoke about how Weaver was a trailblazer.
As a small group of graduate students listened in the audience, MD/PhD student Jamie Moffa explained how to convey the importance of their research to local and state legislators.
“Be brief, talk about your research in broad strokes, don’t use jargon, and talk about the human impact of your research,” Moffa said.
The students were gathered — both in McDonnell Hall and at WashU’s medical campus — as part of a nationwide day of action through the organization Labor for Higher Education to phone bank in opposition to recent proposed funding cuts to the National Institute of Health (NIH).
The graduate students who organized the event also encouraged attendees to sign a petition titled “Institutional Support for Research at WashU.” The petition calls on Martin and the WashU board of trustees to create an emergency fund in the 2025-26 budget to protect impacted researchers’ jobs in the event of significant federal funding cuts.
Researchers at WashU and across the country have opposed recent executive orders made by President Donald Trump’s administration that would, if put into effect, reduce the amount of research funding offered by the NIH to universities.
WashU received $731 million in NIH funding in 2024 — $683 million of which was directed towards the medical school — placing it as the second-most funded medical school in the country for the second year in a row.
Student Life’s analysis last week found that WashU would have lost $106 million in funding if Trump’s orders had been in effect during 2024.
PhD student Bobby Huggins, who helped organize the event alongside Moffa, also offered the group advice on how to frame the issue of research funding to conservative politicians, such as Missouri’s Republican senators Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt.
“They may not be sympathetic to our values, but we can still pressure them to fight back against executive overreach,” Huggins said.
After Weaver took the stage, receiving a standing ovation from the audience, he began by thanking people who shaped his life, including his parents.
“I’m filled with a lot of emotions with this experience tonight,” Weaver said. “I want to give honor today to my mother and my father.”
Both of Weaver’s parents are deceased; his father passed during his sophomore year of college and his mother died seven years ago. He reflected on the values they imparted on him, including the importance of a strong education.
His father attended a segregated high school in North Carolina, and when Weaver visited, he saw a photo of his father delivering a commencement speech where he
“He shows us that we must do what is right even when it is not easy,” Scott said. “All the LLCs that exist on campus … all of our ethnic studies programs –- these are the things that changed here on campus after the efforts of Reverend Weaver.”
spoke about the value of a meaningful education. His mother was the first Black teacher at Weaver’s high school, where she taught English to 10th and 11th graders.
“When I came here, these did not exist,” Weaver said, pulling his phone out of his jacket pocket.
“There was no internet, so I had to write home to my mother. I stopped writing to my mother after about three or four letters because she would send my letters back with grammatical corrections.”
Weaver mentioned these values again later when he talked about the Black manifesto — a document written by Black students as part of the 1968 Brookings sit-in that laid out a list of demands for better treatment of Black students.
“The Black Manifesto was shaped a little bit because of
Jonathan Weaver and the DNA given to me by [my mother] when it came to English,” Weaver said.
For Weaver, it was a “pivotal moment” to hear about how a Black graduate student named Elbert Walton had been arrested by campus police for failing to show his campus ID to them.
“I was so disturbed that after hearing about it, I called up my mother, and I said ‘Mama, there is a protest that’s taking place and it may be that the Black students decide to take over the administration building,’” Weaver said. “My mother said, ‘Boy, you stay away from that, I sent you there to get an education.’”
As he also pointed out, certain research areas are more likely to be affected than others. According to The Washington Post, the National Science Foundation has flagged specific keywords in titles and descriptions of research projects as potentially violating executive orders sent out by Trump. These keywords include “women,” “trauma,” and “equity.”
Additionally, some programs that encourage people from underrepresented backgrounds to get involved in science may be impacted, such as WashU’s ENDURE research program.
Read the rest online!
West African section dancers practice for the African Student Association’s upcoming “Leral” which is set to take center stage in Graham Chapel this Saturday, Feb 20.
SAM POWERS | MANAGING PHOTO EDITOR
Reverend Jonathan Weaver encouraged students to find ways they can make a meaningful impact during his keynote speech.
Five WashU Law professors participated in a panel that explored the implications and potential constitutional violations of the Trump administration’s recent plethora of executive orders. The event, hosted by the law school, was titled “Beyond the Headlines: Executive Orders and Presidential Power” and was held on Feb. 19.
The panel, which was attended by around 100 law students, faculty, and community members, is the first in a Beyond Headlines series which platforms legal scholars and allows them to provide their analysis of current legal happenings. The event was also a part of WashU’s Civic Action Week, which highlights civic engagement opportunities throughout WashU.
The next event planned in the Beyond the Headlines slate is a conversation with former Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division of the United States, Jonathan Kanter, and will be held in the courtroom on Feb. 24 at 12 p.m.
Panelist Travis Crum, Professor of Law specializing in Constitutional Law and Birthright Citizenship, explained the impetus behind the panelist event.
“We’re holding the event
to address the litany of executive orders issued by President Trump in his first month in office,” Crum wrote in an email to Student Life. “Our students are obviously very interested in these legal developments, and our panel plans to explain what the executive orders purportedly accomplish, what the legal challenges to them are, and how courts are likely to rule.”
The moderator of the panel, Charles Nagel Professor of Public Interest Law & Policy Karen Tokarz said that the unprecedented number and breadth of the executive orders in the past month warrants closer examination.
“According to the Federal Register, as of today, Trump has issued over 65 executive orders in this first period, ranging from the creation of the Department of Government Efficiency, employment, transgender rights, USAID, citizenship, asylum, deportations, personal data release and DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion],” Tokarz said.
Katie Herbert Meyer, another panelist and a Professor of Practice and Director of the Immigration Law Clinic, hoped that the conversation would shed light on some of the lessercovered recent executive orders.
“My remarks will focus
on some of the recent actions … to change immigration policy, end refugee programs, and remove access to the asylum system for many otherwisequalified migrants,” Meyer wrote in an email comment.
“These changes number in the 100s already, and seem designed to provoke fear, uncertainty, and confusion.”
Meyer mentioned how she is concerned about the lack of coverage of the Trump administration’s deportation of migrants — who came to the United States seeking asylum — to Panama and Costa Rica for detainment.
“[The migrants] are being locked in hotels, and they have no access to lawyers. We lawyers do not know under what authority the U.S. claims to have sent them out of the U.S.,” she said. “We don’t know if it’s 212(f), we don’t know if it’s expedited removal, and they have no access to counsel, and now that they’re off U.S. soil, arguably, the U.S. has no responsibility over them and their treatment.”
Panelist Pauline Kim, the Daniel Noyes Kirby Professor of Law and expert in antidiscrimination law and DEI, added that the executive orders surrounding DEI are meant to sow fear.
“These executive orders are clearly intended to send
a message to private entities that they should bow to the Trump administration’s understanding of all DEI programs as being unlawful,” Kim said. “Many universities, private organizations, researchers, and companies are already sort of backing off of these programs, not because they’re unlawful, [but] because they’re afraid of being investigated.”
Crum spoke about the birthright citizenship executive order, revoking the automatic granting of citizenship to children of undocumented parents, and mentioned that he does not believe that the executive order will be upheld because of historical precedent. He
KEYNOTE
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After the phone call, Weaver said it was a time when he had to search his soul, and though he understood his mother’s perspective, he felt called to the protest.
“I made my way to Brookings and was there for those five days,” Weaver said. “That really created for me a need for us as Black people and Black students to have a sense of cooperation, a spirit of collegiality.”
Weaver went on to talk about other moments in his life that stood out to him, including work he has done with his church. He told a story about trying to get a loan from Bank of America to refurbish his church but subsequently had to jump through a number of hoops to obtain it.
“At that point, I got concerned — is it because we’re a Black church that we’re having this kind of attitude from the bank?”
Weaver wrote a letter to the president of the bank persuading them to give them the loan, and a few days later, heard that the loan had been approved without requiring further action. He then went on to form the Collective Empowerment Group, which
added that he thinks that current news coverage of the order doesn’t fully cover all of its potential implications.
“A lot of the news reporting about this executive order has focused on the so-called undocumented, but it would also apply to people here on student visas or tourist visas or on a visa waiver program,” Crum said.
Aside from the myriad of potential impacts generated by the executive orders, the panelists also discussed whether they constitute an overreach of presidential power.
Andrea Katz, an Associate Professor of Law specializing in Constitutional Law and Presidential Power, explained
helps churches across the country receive equitable banking services.
Since graduating, Weaver also formed the Pan African Collective, an organization where he has led dozens of medical mission trips and launched The Weaver School in Goma, a city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This program serves 1,300 students who are orphans, children of rape survivors, or children of refugees.
Weaver closed by recalling an honors convocation at WashU in 1972, when Reverend Jesse Jackson delivered a speech and specifically addressed Black students in the audience.
“He said, ‘Now, let me just say a word or two for the few Black students that I see,’” Weaver said. “He said, ‘I want to commend you for what you’ve done academically, congratulations to you.’
But he said, ‘I have one question for you, where are the students that were in your seventh grade class?’”
One week after the address, Weaver was talking to a high school friend in his hometown of Rockville, Maryland, when he learned that one of his classmates from seventh grade had committed suicide.
what a constitutional crisis means.
“A crisis is when the Constitution stops performing its function, which is to keep political disagreement taking place within the channels of politics and law,” Katz said. “By this test, this hasn’t happened yet, but I think we should be really concerned about all the rhetoric [contained in the executive orders].”
The student, named Ronald, had been told by a judge a year before that if he was arrested for drug possession again he would be sentenced to twenty years in prison.
“Ronald got arrested again, and I presume, even to this day, that Ronald just felt like, ‘Well, life really is over for me. I don’t want to look at the specter of 20 years in prison,’” Weaver said. “And so I’ve lived my life every day making sure that there were fewer and fewer Ronalds.”
He encouraged students in the audience to do the same — find people and issues where they can affect change in their everyday lives.
“My word to you, everybody in this room is, yes, do the very best that you can while you’re here at Washington University,” Weaver said. “But please understand this world is much larger than Washington University. Make an impact, even for the students around you, or maybe somebody back home. Pay it forward. There may be some folks that are in the underclass, or back in your neighborhood, maybe there’s a Ronald there, and you need to take the time to help make a difference in their lives.”
Panelists discuss the ramifications of Trump’s executive orders during the inaugural event of the Beyond the Headlines series.
ANNA CALVO | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
WUJUR: Fostering Engagement with Undergraduate Research
RYAN
According to a WashU Senior Survey, nearly 60% of students in the College of Arts & Sciences participate in undergraduate research. These students have two opportunities every year to present their work at the Undergraduate Research Symposium. Outside of these two events, however, it can be difficult for undergraduates to share their research and engage with the research of their peers.
To fix this, three Arts & Sciences student researchers founded The Washington University Journal for Undergraduate Research (WUJUR). The student-run organization aims to showcase undergraduate research from every academic discipline and create a more permanent platform to display the research. Their first-ever edition will be released by the end of this semester.
WUJUR’s efforts to humanize research comes at a critical moment, when the looming threat of federal funding cuts puts research programs across the university at risk of shutting down. Senior Daniel Chen, Co-Founder
and Co-Executive Director of WUJUR, explained that despite the uncertainty of these cuts, WUJUR serves as a reminder that researchers are still striving to create inclusive communities.
“Whether it is about making research accessible, breaking down barriers to entry, or humanizing the people behind the research, all of those are things we can do uniquely as a new journal,” Chen said.
The idea for WUJUR, now a SU-recognized club, has always been to cover research across all academic disciplines, from STEM to the humanities. Junior Cedric Bruges, Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director alongside Chen, emphasized that WUJUR is open to all kinds of research.
“We accept work from every field of study,” said Bruges. “And we try to accept a wide range of submissions — anything from poster to paper length, because we want to encourage as many undergraduate researchers to share their work as possible.”
In this way, WUJUR will be an accessible journal for undergraduates who may not have full-length papers, making WUJUR unique, even compared to undergraduate journals at other
“Fight for Washington” lyric sheet
Fight Fight for Washington Forever wave our banner true Let us all together raise a mighty cheer For Alma Mater Dear We fight for old Wash U-Hey! Fight on to Victory
We stand beside thee ever true Hur-rah, loyal Fans are we Go, Fight, Win, for old Wash U!
institutions. While they have taken inspiration from more established journals at universities like Harvard and Duke, WUJUR’s leadership emphasizes that this journal will be distinct in both style and content.
“When you look at journals from other institutions, they often look like walls of text,” said Chen. “One way that we can make it more readable for the audience — as well as rewarding for those who publish — is through features.”
As Chen explained, the features would highlight the students behind the research. “It would be a brief story about how this person got involved in research, what research means to them, and some of their favorite or least favorite moments.”
It may sound a bit strange to highlight the students’ least favorite moments but, according to Bruges, an important part of WUJUR’s mission is to demystify what the struggles of research look like, specifically for undergraduates.
“It will demonstrate to students that there are setbacks and challenges along the way,” Bruges said. “But you can find other people who have gone through these struggles, and see
that ultimately, the work is worth it. These students are contributing to knowledge in the world, and humanizing it in that way is really helpful.”
Senior Jeremy Cho, also one of the club’s three cofounders and the Treasurer, expressed his goal to inspire readers to take on their own research. “After
we’ve published, we want to have these more hidden works motivate future students to pursue research across disciplines,” said Cho. “We make sure that it is not just focused on science fields, but that it will branch out to the greater WashU community.”
Cho’s sentiment was shared by all three
co-founders of WUJUR: “We want to provide an opportunity for students who are interested in research, to serve as a stepping stone into their future,” said Burges. “It will allow students to share their work, get accustomed with professional standards, and help inspire others.”
‘Fight Fight for Washington’: The origins of the WashU fight song
If the words “fight song” spark memories of the 2015 hit song by Rachel Platten and not the WashU spirit song, this is the place for you. According to the WashU Division of Student Affairs, the fight song or “spirit song” is “Fight for Washington,” a tune written by a class of 1993 alumni Chris Tess. Tess wrote the song for a competition hosted by the music department that sought to update the University’s songbook. The song debuted in 1994 at the Spring Wind Ensemble concert. The lyrics and melody are typical of a fight song. There is a call to action, a reference to a banner, and militaristic imagery that
invokes the urge to defend one’s institution. The lyrics, however, are entirely too vague and could practically be applied to every other school with Washington in the name (it’s in St. Louis, dammit!). There is no mention of our school colors or lovable mascot, Bear. Fight songs originate from a tradition of football chants. From the sidelines, hundreds of fans raised their voices in unison to remind players just what they were competing for. Fight songs are diverse in authorship, from famous pop songs to student composers. They are tied to college football culture and make their mark through generations of fans who pass on these lyrics through an oral tradition. Without roaring crowds at
every home game and the notable absence of fanfare for the WashU Bears, a certain ingredient is missing.
Perhaps this is why so few WashU students are familiar with their own song.
Although WashU highlights the 1993 version on its Student Affairs webpage, it is not the only fight song. A 2020 video of the WashU football team shows the players singing a fight song to a clapping rhythm. The lyrics are similar to those in the version above, but the melody and tone are very different. There is also a karaoke video from two years ago set to a marching band that has completely different lyrics than the ‘93 version.
According to the WashU Library archive, WashU has a long history of student-made school songs,
ranging from parodies of famous tunes to the current Alma Mater (which is based on a traditional German song called “How Can I Leave Thee?”). Naturally, the accuracy of defining the “correct” school song is feeble, at best.
Fight songs are a vehicle of school pride during athletic events, but at WashU there aren’t any massive tailgates or highly anticipated rival games, so the lyrics of the school fight song remain a mystery to most students. Maybe “Fight for Washington” will find its place amongst a crowd of red and green surrounding Francis Olympic Field. Maybe a little bit of school pride is just what the doctor ordered.
Avi
NICOLE BACKAL STAFF WRITER
ANAELDA RAMOS | ILLUSTRATION EDITOR
The first thing you reach for when you wake up, the last thing you put down before bed: Smartphone usage is nearly ubiquitous among adults. 97% of Americans ages 18-49 own a smartphone. Even our grandparents (who might need a lesson or two from us on how to use “that darn thing”) have one: 76% of US adults older than 65 have smartphones. More often than not, Americans across all ages have smartphones.
As scary as these numbers are, we know it goes deeper than just owning a phone. Call it what it is: smartphones are addicting. Every day, around 132 million Americans spend 5-6 hours on their smartphones. That’s close to the length of an elementary school day. The Harvard Business Review points to increased depression, worsened focus, and neglected relationships as just a handful of side effects of smartphone addictions. At WashU, students and professors alike feel these symptoms. To take matters into their own hands, some WashU students have taken the smartphone out of their literal hands and replaced it with something else. Remember that archaic phone we saw in early 2000s movies? Think “The Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift,” “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants,” or “The Devil Wears Prada.” Pick your poison out of any early 2000s movie, and it’s likely your favorite character was rocking a flip phone. Many WashU community members have been taking notes. While scrolling on his iPhone in line at a Chipotle, then sophomore Reed Caney
didn’t realize it was his turn to order. As trivial as it may seem, it was a wake up call for Caney to lessen his iPhone usage. A year later, during the fall of his junior year, Caney spotted a Black Tracfone Nokia 2760 in Walmart, and his plan took shape. He could downgrade his iPhone to a flip phone and upgrade his initial plan of “No Social Media November” to a “No iPhone November” challenge. One Walmart purchase and a $15 phone plan later, and he was locked in for the month.
“I was definitely more involved in conversations,” current senior Caney said. “Your phone is always buzzing in your pocket … If I get a text, I’m naturally going to sneak a look at it. Much less people had my flip phone number, and half the time it didn’t ring or buzz when it was supposed to.”
Sophomore Sochie Odunlami found herself in a parallel situation to Caney. Disheartened by how often she felt distracted and had trouble remembering what she did in a day, she bought a Nokia 2780 flip phone at a Best Buy last summer.
“I was disappointed with myself productivity-wise,” Odunlami said. “I had this many hours in a day, and I can’t even remember what I did for those hours. If you’re sleeping for eight hours and doing school work for eight hours, there’s still another eight hours in the day. What did I do for that entire time?”
While she was hesitant to stop using Snapchat (there goes her “goodnight streaks”), she noticed some immediate benefits. She was able to connect with her roommates, who she didn’t know well before moving in, and was generally more social.
Back to Caney: within only one month, he also began to notice he was more present, spent more time reading for fun, and even developed a slight affinity towards his little flip phone. He thought it was funny that he used “c” and “u” as abbreviations, and every once in a while he would play the snake game, one of the Nokia phone’s only apps.
Of course, there were some things Caney missed. He listened to the radio instead of Spotify (and subsequently learned a lot about local companies through rampant ads). He relied on his car’s navigation system instead of his old iPhone’s convenient maps. But he wasn’t completely 100% Team Flip: he used his computer to text friends, send Venmo requests, read the news, and play music. For these reasons, and the general convenience, he went back to his iPhone.
“For a month, it’s a novel, fun thing to do where you can reap the benefits of it,” Caney said. “But it just becomes kind of cumbersome. It’s good for a one month detox.”
This fall, he repeated the challenge. After his annual month off, he’s made more permanent changes. He doesn’t have social media apps on his phone, and his screen time is closer to only two hours.
Again, Odunlami’s path mirrors Caney’s. She picked her iPhone back up over winter break. Her mom wanted to track her when she was in Nigeria and she missed listening to music over Apple CarPlay while driving. At school, it was difficult to complete logistical tasks like returning an Amazon package or ordering on Grubhub. She also missed taking
photos to look back on, and having functional group chats. However, her iPhone usage has also been lessened. She only has one page of apps, and has gotten rid of all social media apps and games on her phone.
While Odunlami and Caney dipped their toes in the flip phone world (a “flipuationship,” if you will), others are fully submerged in the smartphone rebuke, such as Director of Public Scholarship Christopher Schaberg and senior Aidin Yazdi.
After despising how much time he spent on YouTube, Yazdi started scouring Reddit forums, eager to find the smartphone replacement. He liked that his previous smartphone provided a million offerings (text, call, email, Slack), but he didn’t want to do them all the time. Reddit pointed him in the direction of
the Cat S22 Flip, a $70 phone with a small screen.
“I was really adamant that I wanted a flip phone that can do everything,” Yazdi said. “I want to theoretically check emails or look things up, I just want it to suck at everything, so I’m not tempted to do it.”
Now, he’s hooked. Yazdi said he’ll continue using his flip phone indefinitely because it makes him feel better about himself, and he’s no longer replacing free time with screen time.
Around two years ago, Schaberg made a similar switch to the Light Phone II, a palm-sized phone with the mere capabilities of texting and calling. He documented his experience with the Light Phone II, and rid himself of the “horror[s] of the Apple store.”
Pretty quickly, he noticed some positive changes: he
fell back in love with reading before bed, was more present with his kids, and embraced old challenges, like exploring St. Louis with only a paper map. Given his job as both a director and a dad, he still uses his computer to answer Microsoft Teams messages, complete all his banking, and shoot emails. Occasionally, he finds himself texting on his Light Phone II throughout the day. But it’s awkward to maneuver, forcing him to send short messages, often laden with typos. He prefers it this way.
“I just realized that having that stuff coming through my phone at all hours was really taking a toll on my brain,” Schaberg said. “This thing is really clunky to type on. I’m just sending one word texts because it’s annoying. That annoyance is what’s freeing.”
Comedian Sammy Obeid talks politics and the Middle East
Stand-up comedian and writer Sammy Obeid performed a comedy show following his Ceasefire Tour at WashU to a full audience at Graham Chapel on Feb. 12. Obeid, a Lebanese Palestinian Syrian Italian American, went to Berkeley and majored in Mathematics. He draws much of his content from his diverse background and most recently went on an international comedy tour titled “Ceasefire Tour.” He also became famous after setting a world record of consecutive comedy performances with his 1,001 “Arabian Nights of Comedy” and his debut comedy album, “Get Funny or Die Trying”. The WashU event was coordinated by the Middle
Eastern and North African Association (MENAA) and the Asian Multicultural Council (AMC). Obeid talked about a range of topics like math, politics, and his own personal experiences. He believes that comedy is a way to discuss deep issues in a palpable way with the American public.
“My dad grew up in the Middle East, and my mom grew up in the middle east of Texas,” Obeid said. “So my blood is pure oil.”
Obeid also spoke about the presidential administration change with Trump taking office.
“One of my friends was scared of Trump being president, but I was like ‘Hey dude, just chill out. Put on an American flag and you’ll be fine,’” Obeid said. “If you ever walked by somebody’s house
and see an American flag, you’d be like, ‘Oh, that person really loves his country.’ Now I see that and I’m like, ‘Oh, that person definitely has a gun.’”
Obeid touched on some of the politics in the Middle East including Palestine, Syria, and Israel.
“I did two shows in one night, and I got off the stage after the first show and I got on X and I saw that the Assad regime in Syria had fallen, and I’m like ‘Yeah,’ that’s good news,” Obeid said. “And then I get on stage and do the second show and I get off stage and I go on X, and Israel is already occupying Syria. I was like, ‘That was fast.’”
Senior Basma Daham, who is Syrian-PalestinianAmerican and Co-President of MENAA, said that WashU has invited speakers and entertainers from diverse
backgrounds, but she felt like MENAA’s identities weren’t well-represented in that lineup. So, she said that her club and AMC wanted to promote Palestinian representation in an inclusive, lighthearted event for everyone.
“I can speak for many of us that were in Graham Chapel that night when I say that hearing a Palestinian speaking unapologetically about Palestine, wearing a keffiyeh in front of more than 300 attendees, and blasting Arabic music was a surreal and powerful moment,” Daham said.
Obeid continued his show talking about some of the backlash he has received for his stances on conflicts and politics in the Middle East.
“People were upset that I tweeted that Israel was occupying Syria, because Israel is only occupying a part of
Syria,” Obeid said. “But if you occupy a part of something, you’re occupying the thing. If you don’t get the whole thing right away, it’s not any worse.”
Obeid mentioned he also faced criticism for his stance on Dubai and the UAE.
“Dubai is complicit, not only in Gaza, but also within their role in the genocide of Sudan,” Obeid said. “I mentioned this in my set and people were like, ‘Why are you calling them out and not America?’ I’m like, ‘Have you seen the rest of my set? It’s 99% about America.’”
Obeid also spoke about how America is becoming an oligarchy, and that it’s supposed to be the democracy’s people that keep billionaires in check — but that doesn’t seem to be the case in America.
“It seems like billionaires are threatened by only Luigi
[Mangione] and really small submarines,” Obeid said. Anthony Vidal, a sophomore, attended the event and has been a fan of Obeid long before he came to WashU. “I really like the comedy he does and I was surprised he was coming since he’s such a big comedian,” Vidal said. “I came with some of my friends and I’m just here to have a fun time.”
Sophomore Noura Idris Habona, a member of MENAA, knew the comedian beforehand and was excited and surprised when she heard that WashU would host him.
“It’s really important to have diverse representation within entertainment, especially comedy,” Habona said. “I think laughter brings the community together, and I think it brings a connection between people.”
HADIA KHATRI MANAGING DEI EDITOR
KATIE HANSON STAFF WRITER
ANNA DORSEY | STAFF ILLUSTRATOR
FORUM
On behalf of Uncle Joe’s, a word on peer counseling at WashU
Editor’s note: This article contains discussion of mental illness.
The phone rang at three o’clock in the morning. It was the night before the last day of high school. By some stroke of luck, I was awake.
“Justin?” he asked, voice shaking.
“What’s wrong, James?”
For the privacy of this student, he is being referred to by an alternate name.
“Don’t panic… I’m sorry for calling so late… I already talked to my dad… but I just needed to… well I woke up with my car in a ditch.”
For the next hour or so, I tried to understand. More importantly, I tried to support my friend, not with answers to his questions or solutions to his problems, but a willingness to sit with him in his pain and uncertainty. Although I didn’t know it, I was playing the role of a Joe.
James explained that he passed out driving down the highway at 60 mph because of a breath-holding compulsion related to obsessive-compulsive disorder. That night, he lost consciousness and woke up inside his wrecked car, miraculously unharmed.
As he waited for his dad to pick him up from the side of the road, we talked over the phone about our time in high school, about his childhood, about the recent passing of his mother, and about his lifelong struggle to find peace in a chaotic world. In many respects, James’ story is not much different than anyone else’s.
He struggles with loneliness, insecurity, and communicating his authentic self in terms that others can understand. He is also an incredibly caring, introspective, and funny guy. We would have deep conversations as often as we would talk about cartoons or the high school sports scene.
That night, our conversation teemed with vulnerability. Dropping artifice and pretense, we could not ignore our fears. Nor could we overlook the beauty of that moment. Terrified by the suffering in the world, I was also compelled to acknowledge it.
It’s easy to forget that those around us are just as complex, contradictory, and nuanced as we are. It’s even easier to assume that strangers have less depth than those we know. When I came to WashU, I wanted to resist this way of thinking.
Anxiously arriving at
PUZZLE PUZZLE Mania
my dorm in Koenig House, I was pleasantly surprised to see a little advertisement for a peer counseling organization called Uncle Joe’s. It seemed like the exact opportunity I was looking for. I could imagine myself sitting in the office, talking to clients in a formal capacity, yet empathizing with them as I had done with many others throughout my life.
In the spring I began training. And I am so glad that I did. I have learned to counsel those in crisis without reducing them to a single tragedy, concern, or complex in their life. I have practiced and deepened my understanding of empathy, patience, and compassion. Most importantly, I have contributed to an organization that allows students to discuss intimate issues with a complete stranger. Of course, that stranger was chosen through a selective process and has over 100 hours of rigorous training. Nevertheless, it takes profound insight from both parties to realize that the people who sit next to us in class, lift weights alongside us in Summers, and stand in line behind us at the DUC are people who hurt as we hurt and who can understand us as we would like to be understood.
Of course, we all know
this. But truly prioritizing the emotional well-being of oneself and others requires more than just knowledge — it demands an active commitment to that belief. Taking a moment out of your day to support Uncle Joe’s block funding request will secure the stability of our organization and maintain free, confidential peer support available at WashU.
All of us, like James, benefit from having someone to talk to. We are fantastic chemists, brilliant writers, and successful athletes. Although sometimes we forget to feel — to embrace the terror and the beauty. Uncle Joe’s, a place of compassion and
understanding, helps us remember.
It’s something small.
But often, signing your name, asking a meaningful question, or picking up the phone is more than enough.
For more information: Block funding is a way for Student Union to provide financial support for organizations on campus. However, a certain number of student signatures are required to approve these funds. By logging into WUGO, clicking forms, and scrolling to find Uncle Joe’s, you can assist us in our effort to provide compassionate counseling to students on
campus. Students can go in person to Uncle Joe’s for peer support from 10 pm to 1 am every night during the academic semester, or they can call by phone at 314-9355099 from 7 am to 1 am.
SPONSORED BY:
JUSTIN KRELITZ CLASS OF 2027
GABRIELLA CULLEN | STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Uncle Joe’s office located in the South 40.
Throughout my life, I have always been told to be careful. To be wary of the world because it isn’t too kind to “people like you” — i.e. young Black girls turned Black teenage lesbians turned Black trans men.
I still remember how brightly the sun shone into my sister’s navy blue Nissan Altima when she told me that one of her high school classmates, Mel Roberts, had been murdered.
“Mel had always been kinda different,” my sister recounted, “and it wasn’t until he got out into the world that he was able to be himself. He was a real, real cool dude. Smart as hell, too.”
He was shot multiple times. My sister said in his chest, but the news said in his upper body. Mel drove himself to Merit Health Hospital in Jackson, MS — our hometown — and collapsed upon arrival. He was only 25. I was 17.
“I’m not saying you gotta stop being who you are or dim your light or anything,” My sister told me. “I’m just saying I need you to be careful. We can’t lose you, D.”
Three years and some change later, I still find myself sitting in the passenger seat of that car,
wondering how the sun could shine so brightly while the world seems so dim for people like Mel. People like me.
In the years after Mel’s death, I made sure to be careful. Though I continued to wear my — as my sister named it — carpenter-wear, I was much more lenient with how people addressed me. I didn’t tell people my pronouns if they didn’t ask. Whatever people assumed I was, was what I was. If people assumed I was a lesbian, I was that. If people assumed I was nonbinary, I was that. If people didn’t even care to ask, hell, that was perfect. I rarely clarified. Because that’s what I was supposed to do. Despite my friends’ encouragement for using the men’s restrooms, I continued to use the women’s. Even when people re-checked the door sign when they walked in on me washing my hands. Or when I saw the janitors scan my body to make sure that I truly was in the right place. Or when mothers pulled their daughters closer to them when I stepped out of the stall. Because that’s what I was supposed to do.
I identified (and still do) as queer instead of straight because “you’re not fully a boy, though, right?” I deepened my voice and hunched my shoulders around men
to mimic the threat of masculinity. I softened my eyes and loosened my stance around women to evoke a less-threatening form of it. I stayed quiet in conversations about sex. Or romance. Or marriage. Or family-making. I stomached the dubious nature of being trans, of being seen as not-really woman but not-yet man. I accepted it all. Because that’s what I was supposed to do.
And nothing — not the misgendering or the side-eyes or the hecklings — stopped.
I realized, after all of the years of trying to be “careful,” that the only way for me to truly avoid danger is to not be trans at all. It is, of course, not an option to be a trans person, but I am presented with an unfortunate option of how to exist. And considering the 517 anti-trans bills under consideration in 2025 alone, six of which have already passed, simply hiding my trans identity is an option that seems more logical as the days go on. In this time — at all times, if we’re being completely honest — trans people need allies. Not just “allies” who hold their trans-inclusive ideology within themselves, but those who are willing to be vocal about their support, and there are multiple ways to do so:
2/19 WINNERS
1) Actively call out the transphobia in your life.
Of course, you should be safe/smart with these callouts (avoid DM wars). But the reality is that most of us don’t even address the smaller instances of transphobia in our lives, such as misgendering or questions about genitalia, whether they be asked in “good faith” or not. We need to become more comfortable with respectfully correcting others just as we need to be ready to protect trans people when the time calls for it.
2) Take away “I believe” language. Subjective language takes away the conviction of the message. Stand on what you say. Speak with authority. “Trans women are women.” “Trans people should be able to play in sports alongside cis people.” “So and so uses such and such pronouns” instead of “prefers”. If you truly believe what you say, then there is no reason to dampen its impact.
3) Include trans people. This connects to the calling-out-transphobia piece, but it is more directed toward ways to include trans people in our day-to-day lives. For example, question if groups truly need to be divided by gender. If they do, allow trans people to go into the group that best aligns with their identity. Don’t limit experiences to the man/woman binary. Don’t equate penises to manhood or vaginas to womanhood in conversation. It will take a minute to unlearn, but be aware of who you’re including and excluding with your speech and actions.
4) If you work with children, teach them inclusivity. Working with young children myself, my coworkers have done an amazing job of correcting students when they use the incorrect pronouns or ask the ol’ reliable question of, “Are you a boy or a girl?” It is much easier than expected to tell children about trans people. Even if they don’t fully understand — which they most likely won’t — it’s better to nudge them toward a more tolerant mindset than to let instances of transphobia go unaddressed.
5) Be a safe space for trans people in your life. It should go without saying, but there’s no need to flaunt your knowledge of gender theory or flex all of the queer lingo you know or express an unprecedented amount of pity toward the transgender condition. The people who have validated me the most in my identity are those who give me space to express myself in the way that I see fit. They let me rant, vent, and eventually crack jokes about my struggles of navigating the world. They don’t ask questions about identity or new aspects of my presentation. They continue to call me “boy” even when I speak about my period or titties or vagina. Because that’s what they’re supposed to do.
Final note:
While this list is not comprehensive by any means, it is meant to be a jumping-off point for people out there who are unsure of ways to be more vocal in their everyday lives. The more intensive forms of allyship — such as joining a nonprofit or understanding the roles in which misogyny and racism play in the perception of trans people — should be something that we as a society strive for. And even if that sounds too optimistic, hopefully you as a reader will feel inclined to take a few small steps. That’s what you’re supposed to do.
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How to take your trans-allyship beyond ideology Prioritizing
We are in the midst of a Missouri winter, which means less daylight, colder temperatures, and gray skies most days. In these conditions, feelings of depression and lack of motivation for social, school, and even self-care activities can worsen. All of this, too, is not without the stress of midterms, getting back into the routine of school, and figuring out or applying for what to do during the summer.
With students balancing all of their responsibilities, academic or otherwise, sacrificing basic needs can allow for more to get done. Students may forget to eat, stay up until 3 a.m., let their room fall into a disarray, or even not make time to pick up medications or schedule mental health appointments, all in the name of productivity.
These challenges do not come out of the blue; in part, they are a culmination of small compromises that can become a default of pushing physical and mental boundaries in order to stay afloat in a competitive environment.
It is clear the de-prioritization of well-being is a contributing factor to the persistence of mental
health challenges among students.
Though it may be easy to sideline your mental health, success cannot come without prioritizing yourself and your needs. To be able to continue working toward your goals, it is important to take care of the body and the mind that carries you through it. Although prioritizing oneself can be easier said than done when deadlines and life in general are starting to overwhelm you, these changes can be small. It can be as simple as going to bed instead of staying up late writing an essay due the next day. In the end, poor sleep would lower the quality of not just the essay but also performance in other domains.
Not only is it important to set boundaries for your basic needs, it is even more crucial that you adhere to them over time. These habits are made to give attention to your well-being — not what you produce. By being firm about your stopping point, you are advocating for yourself when there are factors like coursework encouraging you to make compromises.
Another aspect of self-advocacy is
1st Place:
Chappell Roan teases her new single, “Pink Pollock Club.” Kelsey Page, WashU Faculty/Staff
2nd Place: The Filet Ballet Tyler Phelps, WashU Faculty/Staff
3rd Place: Fish heads just wanna have fun Darren Jacobs, WashU Parent
STAFF EDITORIAL
communicating with your professor. This doesn’t mean trauma dumping on Outlook; your privacy matters, and one’s level of comfort in sharing this information depends on the individual. However, when professors are aware of ongoing circumstances, it creates a space for them to offer resources, extensions, or long-term help. If creating an email or a plan sounds overwhelming in itself, WashU Cares offers resources about writing to professors and support for creating action plans for students.
At WashU, ambition can be a given. However, taking on too much can lead to burnout. The phrase “something’s got to give” can be used to describe that breaking point. In overwhelming times, it is a reminder that it’s okay to let go of things to make room for yourself. Taking time to inventory your commitments and goals can offer insight on what you actually need to do versus what you feel like you need to do. Asking yourself “What is this adding to my life?” or “Is this taking time away from things I care about, like friends or selfcare?” can help you ground
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yourself.
Many students who attend WashU already come from rigorous academic backgrounds and feel pressure from seeing others excel, their family’s expectations, or even their own ambitions. However, these motivators should not overshadow you and your well-being.
As a community, it feels normal to rank mental health low on the long list of priorities we carry around. That doesn’t have to be the norm. Breaking this cycle can lead to less burnout and improved mental health among students. It is important that we as a community encourage each other to challenge these sacrifices and habits. Poor mental health and mental illness are not news. Many students have either been personally affected or known someone who has been affected. The Student Life community is just as guilty of persistent de-prioritization of mental health and mental illness. We all need to take a moment to remind students that above all the directions you feel pulled in by school, family, and life, there is you. Your life matters more than your grades and goals.
Staff editorials reflect the opinion of the majority of our editorial board members. The editorial board operates independently of our newsroom and includes members of the senior staff.
Sydney Tran, Head of Design
Jordan Spector, Managing Forum Editor
Nina Giraldo, Editor-in-Chief
Avi Holzman, Editor-in-Chief
Lewis Rand, Managing Sports Editor
River Alsalihi, Junior Forum Editor
Elias Kokinos, Senior Sports Editor
Kate Theerman Rodriguez, Junior Forum Editor
Alice Gottesman, Managing Scene Editor
Elizabeth Grieve, Senior Scene Editor
Sam Powers, Managing Photo Editor
David Ciorba, Senior Forum Editor
Eliza Stulman, Junior Sports Editor
AnaElda Ramos, Illustration Editor
DAVID CIORBA | SENIOR FORUM EDITOR
ERICA SHI | STAFF ILLUSTRATOR
SPORTS
How an extra year of eligibility changed WashU athletics and Division III
In 2020 and 2021, many NCAA athletes’ seasons were disrupted, if not completely canceled, due to the COVID19 Pandemic. In response, the NCAA announced that all student-athletes would receive an extra year of eligibility. Five years later, the last class of student-athletes with this extra “Covid year” are graduating from their respective institutions, including many Division III schools like WashU.
The past five years have seen WashU win three national championships including two in the past year in women’s indoor track and women’s soccer. Of WashU’s 17 varsity teams, over half have a fifth-year or graduate studentathlete. Some, like basketball player Jessica Brooks and soccer player Owen Culver chose to spend one last year at their alma mater while pursuing a graduate degree. Other athletes, like former WashU swimmer Bert Wang, use their fifth year of eligibility to transfer from another institution to WashU to pursue an advanced degree while playing the sport they love.
For athletes who have already received their undergraduate degrees from WashU, the decision to use their extra year of eligibility came down to their desire to have one more year playing the sport they love while continuing their education.
Despite the rule being announced in 2020, neither Brooks nor Culver made the decision to take advantage of this unprecedented opportunity until their senior year.
During her senior season, Brooks joked that every game, team meal, and road trip would be her last. But following a loss in the NCAA Tournament, Brooks wanted more.
“Then we lost the first game and tournament last year, the first round, first game, and immediately after that game, I was like, ‘oh, there’s no way.
Graduate student Owen Culver protects the ball during a game against NYU last October.
I’m just going to give up the extra year that I have,, this is just too much fun,’” Brooks said. “I love these people too much. I love the sport way too much to just go work.
Brooks did not make this decision alone. After talking with her youth basketball coach the two realized the unique opportunity having an extra year to play college ball offered.
“I had a conversation with my old select club, [Ameteur Athletic Union] coach, and he was like, you have 40 years, 50 years to work, you only have one more year playing the sport that you’ve sacrificed so much for,” she said. “And I think that kind of just puts it into perspective for me.”
Similarly, Culver chose to stay at WashU for an extra year to pursue a masters in biomedical engineering and spend an extra year with the team that he describes as his closest friends.
“[Soccer] was a massive part of my undergrad experience and my roommates all throughout college and even now are friends I made from the team, and definitely, my closest friends throughout college, were a lot of guys on
the team, so [soccer] had a big impact on my like college experience as a whole,” Culver said.
Athletic director Anthony Azama credits the large number of athletes who have returned for a fifth year to the culture of WashU athletics.
“I think that speaks to the culture, and I think that is probably one of the more important things that we try to prioritize during the pandemic,” Azama said. “We are in the ‘building face to face’ type of environment, because relationships are our currency.”
Culver and Brooks also found themselves in unique roles as they entered their fifth years on the team – both had new coaches. Former WashU men’s soccer head coach Joe Clarke retired after 27 years and was replaced by the former assistant coach of the University of Wisconsin,Andrew Bordelon. Women’s basketball head coach Randi Henderson left WashU to become an assistant coach at her alma mater, the University of Iowa, and was replaced by former St. Louis University and Wisconsin head coach Lisa Stone.
Both athletes played roles in helping the coaches transition into their teams.
“It’s been super positive for a lot of our team, ” Brooks said about Stone’s transition. “I’m super grateful that I got to play for Coach Stone. She’s been doing this for so long, and has a lot of wisdom and insight to share with us, which I think off the basketball court, is also really valuable, just because it is another leader that I get to learn from and kind of pick her brain on different leadership things, career opportunities, that sort of thing, which has been really fun, but I think the transition was pretty seamless.”
Playing on a varsity team as a graduate student creates unique challenges. While it offered unique ways to lead on the field or on the court, it also opened up new learning experiences for Brooks and Culver. For Brooks, who is pursuing a MBA in the Olin Business School, the change is primarily classes held later in the day. Culver, who is a masters student, has to balance commitments in his lab on the medical campus and his commitments three miles away on Francis Field.
“[I learned] time management skills like communicating with coach and my boss where I would have to have conversations I would prefer not to have,” Culver said about the adjustment.
“Sometimes, I couldn’t make a lab meeting, I couldn’t make a meeting with my team because of something, so I think learning how to have conversations like that was something I didn’t really expected to have but is definitely an experience that I grew from.”
Azama similarly believes that having a fifth year of eligibility offers student athletes experiences that will translate to both their everyday and professional lives and “the workplace.”
“You’re going to fail in athletics, you’re going to fail in front of friends, parents, professors, and what you’re going to learn is how to respond to failure, which I think we do better than anybody on the campus,” Azama said.
Following this year, D-III will return to student-athletes having just four years of eligibility. And while this might seem like a return to pre-Covid normalcy, Azama believes
that Division III athletics will see long term changes and an increased parity amongst schools due to test-optimal admissions and the transfer portal reducing potential barriers for student athletes to compete at the collegiate level.
“The one thing that I’ve heard from [the] coaches is nothing will be the same,” he said.“The landscape has just changed so much, avenues have opened up so maybe university administration have gotten, have enjoyed winning to a degree that I think Division III will probably not be what it was then, and that might not be a bad thing to have more parity.”
According to Azama, WashU’s focus has always been on finding talented athletes at the high school level and developing their skills during their four years in St. Louis. However, he does believe that these rule changes will allow WashU to create a “hybrid” model adding graduate students to rosters when possible.
For Brooks, whose team is currently in their final stretch of conference play, this season will be her last. As she reflected upon her final year competing for the Bears she hopes to enjoy every moment with her team and use her experience to inspire others to pursue their teams dreams
“I’ve been very emotional this season, because it is my last year,” she said. “But I looked at all these little girls and I was like, I’m playing for them. I’m playing for the little baby Jess who picked up a basketball and cried with my dad when he told me I couldn’t reach the rim or whatever it was… I talk to my older teammates, and they’re like, ‘Yeah, you know, I don’t miss a 6 a.m. lift, but I miss, you know, a locker room chat with you guys, or ice bath bonding moment, whatever it is.’ So just, you know, thinking about all the little things that I’ve done that have led me up to this point and trying to enjoy every moment.”
them to really think about what a perfect race or stroke looks like.”
WashU’s swim and dive teams competed for conference honors at the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championships on Feb. 12-15. After four days of intense competition at Emory University’s Woodruff P.E. Center, the No. 14 men’s team finished in fifth, and the No. 15 women’s team finished in fourth place. With five top-three finishes, highlighted by a victory from fifth-year Kyle Wolford, the Bears now turn their sights towards the national championships.
The four day long meet was broken up into morning qualifying session and A, B, and C Finals during the evening sessions.
Head Coach Brad Shively highlighted what the team focused on before the meet.
“We worked on a lot of details moving into Championship week,” he wrote in a statement to Student Life. “A big part of Championship week is being in a championship mindset, so exercises that allowed
Junior Ali Roche added to what preparation for the meet looked like.
“[Shively] definitely emphasized that he was there for whatever we needed help with. He wrote the main practice on the board, but he said ‘Adjust it however you need,’” she said. “We definitely focused on relay starts a lot towards the end, because we knew that relays were going to be super important.”
In the men’s side of the competition, the first and quietest day had two 800 yard freestyle relay teams picking up points for the Bears. The team consisting of seniors Danny Sibley and Pace Edwards and juniors Ethan Feng and Matthew Walker finished fifth in the A-final, and the other quartet — seniors Ryan Hillery and Jeffrey Forbes and juniors Orluke Borjigin and Matt Giardinelli — came in third in the B-final. These two teams joined for 80 points, with an additional 22 from first-year diver Sam Calderwood, good for sixth
place on the day.
The second day saw more Bears swimmers breaking into podium positions. In particular, the 500 yard freestyle was a successful event. Forbes claimed third place in the A-final, and Hillery was victorious in the B-final, combining for 47 points. Wolford notched third place in the C-final of the 50 yard freestyle, and the team improved to fifth place, where they would remain for the rest of the competition.
On the third day, the Bears swept the 400 yard individual medley (IM) B-final. Sophomore Marco Minai, first-year Ben Scott, and Hillery finished in first, second, and third place,
respectively.
The final day of swimming featured the Bears’ sole first-place finish in an A-final, from both teams. Wolford, in the same event he set a Millstone Pool record a month ago, etched out a two-second lead over the competition and won with a time of 1:44.67.
“Kyle was really strong all weekend. He not only provided strength in his individual events, but had some big relay swims for us as well,” Shively wrote. “He’s grown a lot over the last few years and it was fun watching him compete. ” Speaking about his win, Wolford mentioned his thought process coming up
short in the 100 yard backstroke the day before, and how he came back to be victorious in the 200 backstroke.
“I royally screwed up my first turn at night in the hundred back, and ended up finishing sixth. You know, it was just a terrible race for me,” he said. “And the next day was the 200 back, which I think is probably my better event … And that whole race, I was just thinking, I’m not going to let that happen again … I took it out fast, which I don’t normally do, and then just kind of held on for dear life. And thankfully, that ended up working out for me.”
The men’s meet was rounded off by another
strong performance in the 400 yard freestyle relay, with Sibley, Wolford, senior Justin Rockaway, and fifth-year Austin Bick placing second in the A-final.
Ultimately, the men’s team failed to improve on their fifth-place finish from last year’s championships. However, Wolford is looking forward to improving at nationals.
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ELLA GIERE | PHOTO EDITOR
No. 18 men’s basketball amasses two road wins against Case Western and Carnegie Mellon
ELIZA STULMAN JUNIOR SPORTS EDITOR
The No. 18 WashU men’s basketball took to the road to end their three-game losing streak, defeating both Case Western Reserve University 86-68 and Carnegie Mellon University 78-54 on Feb. 14 and 16. The Bears are now 17-6 overall and 7-4 in University Athletic Association (UAA) play.
After remaining 0-0 for the first three minutes of the game against Case Western, senior Drake Kindsvater put WashU on the scoreboard with a foul shot. A few minutes later, the Spartans hit a 3-pointer. WashU tried to respond, but none of their shots seemed to be landing until sophomore Ryan Cohen scored a 3-pointer over five minutes into the game to make the scoreboard show 4-3. First-year Connor May,
who would go on to lead the team in baskets with a careerbest of 22 points, made the next nine points for the Bears. But as WashU continued to sink more shots, Case Western remained close in the game.
At halftime, the Bears led 32-31. Despite only making three out of 16 3-pointers, the Bears were able to stay in the game due to their 23 rebounds to the Spartans’ 14.
“What we talked about in the locker room was definitely just getting stops,” May said. “We felt confident in what we were doing offensively, we were moving the ball, sharing it with one another, but I think it really needed to be on the defensive end, and that’s just us playing together. That’s us trusting one another, being there for each other, and we just wanted to lock in defensively and play as one in the second half, and that’s what we did.”
While the first basket of the second half was made by Case Western, WashU responded with a 7-0 run. Showcasing an increase in quantity and quality of defensive stops, the Bears were up 49-38, taking their biggest lead of the game yet, just over seven minutes into the half. Seven minutes after that, the Bears were leading 67-47.
“In the first half, with our lack of stops, it was harder to manufacture stuff on offense,” May said. “But in the second half, once we started getting stops [and] rebounding defensively, that’s when we really started to push our lead, and that’s how we were able to build on it.”
In the last five minutes of the game, Case Western turned up the pressure, but not enough to stop WashU. With a total of 47 rebounds, 27 second-chance points, and nine points off of turnovers,
“We get 25 opportunities, 25 finite opportunities, and we’re going to focus on that,” Juckem said.
the Bears were able to manufacture success and terminate their three-game losing streak with a 86-68 victory on the road against the Spartans.
In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the game against Carnegie Mellon also remained close for the majority of the first half. The Bears led 11-9 eight minutes into the game, but then the Tartans went on a 9-0 run, taking the lead.
Layups by Kindsvater and junior Calvin Kapral decreased the Tartans’ lead to 18-15 and the Bears would not be down by more than five for the rest of the half. At halftime, the Bears led 27-25.
“Both games did have a similar rhythm to them in the fact that the first halves were lower scoring,” head coach Pat Juckem said. “The one thing I’d say in both games is that when we met at halftime, we really liked the quality of our shots we were getting. If you’re getting really good shots and [have] good shooters shooting open shots, that’s all you can ask for. And I think our guys, our coaching staff and our players were confident that if we continue[d] to create those quality shots … the odds
[were] that [we were] going to make enough of them.”
In the second half, the Bears successfully took a strong and stable lead, never allowing the Tartans to be ahead. Less than seven minutes into the half, WashU was up 45-36, matching the biggest lead Carnegie Mellon took in the first half.
The Bears’ lead soon turned to double digits.
The Bears’ success after halftime was largely fueled by a 20% increase in their field goal percentage from the first half, as well as making twice as many 2- and 3-point shots as the Tartans in the second half.
WashU went on to defeat Carnegie Mellon 78-54, with 51 rebounds to the Tartans’ 23 and 29 second-chance shots to the Tartans’ four.
“Our guys were very active defensively,” Juckem said. “We were getting a lot of deflections. We kind of brought that back as a renewed focus. In both games, we manufactured good shots right away in the second half, made a couple of them, you know, able to start to separate a little bit, continue to continue to defend and rebound.”
Next week in St. Louis, the Bears will face University of Rochester on Feb. 21 for the Black History Month game and No. 5 Emory University on Feb. 23 for Senior Day, honoring Kindsvater, Hayden Doyle and Kyle Beedon, who’s been injured this season.
“Sunday is our senior day. We’ll honor our three seniors, Hayden Doyle, Drake Kindsvater and Kyle Beedon … Those are guys that have obviously been really, really impactful to our program.” Juckem said.
These games will not only be the last home match-ups of the regular season for men’s basketball, but also critical games to determine WashU’s placement in the NCAA Division III tournament bracket, which will be released on March 3.
“We get 25 opportunities, 25 finite opportunities, and we’re going to focus on that,” Juckem said. “We’re not going to look ahead. And our guys know, if we take care of our business, that opportunity should present itself, but we’ve got a huge game coming up on Friday. So that’s where our focus needs to be.”
Women’s basketball narrowly defeats Case Western, falls to Carnegie Mellon
ASHLEY BUCKINGHAM
HANNAH MUCH STAFF WRITERS
Coming off of a threegame losing streak, the WashU women’s basketball team went 1-1 on the road, battling in close games against Case Western Reserve University and Carnegie Mellon University on Feb. 14 and 16. The Bears narrowly beat the Case Western Spartans 62-61 but fell to the Carnegie Mellon Tartans 76-70, leaving the team 5-6 in conference play.
With a close game on Friday night that resulted in 14 lead changes, the Bears were led by their dominance on the boards, out rebounding Case Western 53-31. Despite shots not falling for the WashU Bears, an impressive 27 offensive rebounds allowed them to pull away
from the Spartans, leading 25-8 in second-chance points.
Graduate student guard Jessica Brooks highlighted the team’s toughness heading into the second half.
“At halftime, Coach [Lisa] Stone came in and told us offensive rebounds are what is keeping us in this game because we’re not hitting shots,” Brooks said. “So, we just had the mentality that the possession is not over after the first shot and that the second chance points are a really good way for us to get back into it and stay in the game.”
Aside from their strength on the boards, WashU adopted their game plan to force the Spartans into the lane, hoping to take away the 3-point line after the Spartans hit 13 3-pointers against the Bears when they met earlier in the season, a 67-54 loss for the Bears.
“Since then, we’ve focused on defense and making it really tough for shooters,” Brooks said. “We adjusted our game plan almost entirely to force Case to drive the ball … and our goal was for them to have six made threes.”
The Bears accomplished this goal, holding Case Western to just five 3-pointers throughout the game.
WashU was led by Brooks, who earned her seasonbest in scoring and her 10th double-double of the season, putting up 26 points and 14 rebounds. Sophomore center Lexy Harris also recorded her eighth double-double, with 10 points and 12 rebounds. In addition, Brooks spotlighted the efforts of junior forward Jordan Rich, who contributed eight points and six rebounds coming off the bench.
The Bears began the last away game of their road trip
against the Carnegie Mellon Tartans with a quick start. In the first minute and a half, Brooks hit back-to-back 3-pointers. As the Tartans began to find their rhythm, the Bears were able to go on an 11-0 run. The first quarter ended with the Bears ahead 19-8. The Tartans began chipping away at the Bears’ lead in the second quarter. The Bears could not score for four minutes, causing the Tartans to take a 24-23 lead. A jumper by junior forward Nailah McBeth, two made free throws from first-year guard Ava Blagojevich, and one free throw by sophomore guard Catherine Goodwin allowed the Bears to end the quarter up by one, with a score of 30-29 going into halftime.
It took two and a half minutes for the Bears to score their first points of the second
half falling behind Carnegie Mellon until Brooks hit a 3-pointer to tie the game back up. The Tartans began to build up a lead slowly. The third quarter ended with the Bears down by seven points.
The final quarter began with the Tartans continuing to grow their lead. In response, the Bears went on an impressive 8-0 run, which concluded with a 3-pointer from sophomore guard Alyssa Hughes.
A jumper by Harris further cut the Tartans’ lead, making the score 71-68. With just nine seconds left, the Bears were down 74-68. Both teams went to the free throw line until the game ended with the Bears losing 76-70 to the Tartans.
Brooks finished the game with 21 points and nine rebounds, leading the team in both categories. Harris also had an impressive game, putting up 12 points, 6 rebounds,
and two blocks. Other notable scorers were Hughes, who scored 12 points, and sophomore guard Sidney Rogers, who scored 11 points. The team also impressively made 50% of their 3-pointers, going 9-18 from behind the arc.
As the Bears wrap up regular-season play, Coach Stone has developed a new phrase, “competitive sustainability,” to prepare the team’s mindset heading into the postseason.
“We’re focusing on trying to sustain our competitive edge and all the things we do really well for a full 40-minute game,” Brooks said.
Looking ahead, the Bears will play their final home games of the season, taking on the University of Rochester on Feb. 21 for the annual Black History Month game and Emory University on Feb. 23 in celebration of Senior Day.
