October 27, 2022 Student Life newspaper, Washington University in St. Louis

University hosts the opening of the Holocaust exhibition Lest We Forget

MAGGIE BRETT

Returned from 3 ACL tears to be soccer’s leading scorer. (Sports, pg 7)

St. Louis school shooting leaves three dead

JAMES ELLINGHAUS JUNIOR NEWS EDITOR

Two people were killed in a shooting at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School (CVPA) in south St. Louis on Monday. The victims are 61-yearold health teacher Jean Kuczka and 15-year-old student Alexandria Bell. The gunman, 19-year-old Orlando Harris, was shot by St. Louis police and later died at a local hospital. Seven other indi viduals at CVPA were harmed but survived.

Chancellor Andrew Martin con veyed the news to the Washington University community in an email, offering his condolences and sup port to all those affected by the shooting.

“We know there are members of the university community with direct ties to the school who are impacted by this horrible event, and we stand at the ready to offer our full support to anyone who is personally affected,” Martin said. “There is no place for gun violence in our schools. My heart is with everyone who is suffering today.”

Martin’s email also contained links to the University’s mental health and trauma resources for all students and staff members to use.

spoke to her.

JIMMY HU CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The Sam Fox Art School and the Kemper Art Museum jointly hosted the opening of the Holo caust memorial exhibition “Lest We Forget” by Italian-German photographer Luigi Toscano, Oct. 20. Presenting photographic portraits of survivors, the open ing featured special remarks from the artist himself, the orga nizers and sponsors of the event, and one of the survivors por trayed in the collection.

Many who attended the event were Holocaust survi vors, a number of whom appear in Toscano’s works. Participants dressed solemnly to pay tribute to those whose lives were taken away. Classical music accompa nied the entering of the audience as they extended embraces and handshakes amongst themselves.

Erin McGlothlin, professor of German and Jewish studies, began the opening of the exhibit by discussing the numerous fac ulty members and students who are refugees and survivors of the Holocaust, as well as the Uni versity’s extensive research and representation of Holocaust his tory in academia.

“[The University] has a long and distinguished history of serving as an intellectual haven for refugees from Nazi Germany and for survivors of the Holo caust,” she said.

McGlothlin recognized the permanent trauma that Nazi Germany inflicted on the Jew ish population and civilization.

“They are the millions of unseen or no longer existent photographs of parents, grand parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, indeed, entire fami lies, all of whom perished in the Holocaust,” she said.

“These multitudinous vir tual images float invisibly in the air around the concrete pho tographs of the survivors as ambient reminders of the cata clysmic destruction of an entire culture and the great loss of mil lions of individual human lives,” McGlothlin said.

Luigi Toscano incorporates new photographs of survivors living in different cities into this Lest We Forget collection as he travels. 12 new photographs of survivors living in the Saint Louis metropolitan area joined the collection, which has been displayed in headquarters of the United Nations in New York and Genève, as well as many other cities across Europe and the United States.

The key organizer and spon sor of the event, Dee Dee Simon, co-founder of local nonprofit organization Conversation Builds Character that focuses on understanding history and human dynamics for a better future, mentioned her own expe rience of how this exhibition

In addition to extending grat itude to the survivors for being here, as they are “the unspoken words that speak the loudest,” she also applauded the legis lative efforts that mandate the education of Holocaust history to high school students in the state of Missouri, starting from the 2026–2027 school year.

Simon introduced Toscano as a “self-taught photographer and filmmaker,” whose passion for photography “was born out of the necessity to record and share his ideas.” Toscano’s portraits are often presented in public spaces accessible to everyone, so that “the portraits gain an uninhibited entry point into the everyday lives and consciousness of people passing by, indepen dent of origin, age or education.”

Luigi Toscano was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the high est tribute that can be paid to individuals for services to their nation.

In response to those who question the purpose of his proj ect, Toscano said, “My answer is that I would like to stand up against antisemitism, racism, and any kind of hate crime, and when I met the first survivor, he said to me, ‘Luigi, if we for get the past, we are doomed to repeat it.’”

One of the survivors at the venue, Rachel Miller, gave an

account of her own story of per secution, loss, emigration, and hope.

“It is not easy to speak about your entire family being mur dered, and it still hurts and frightens me and makes me very emotional at times,” she said.

Miller endured separation from her entire family, who were mercilessly murdered by the regime, from her motherland, as an immigrant to the United States, and from her Jewish iden tity, as she had no choice but to rename herself “Christine” to avoid systemic persecution.

“It is never easy. I never want anyone to feel sorry for me. I want them to listen and learn from my testimony. I never for get and I keep speaking,” she said. “It is my hope that we will continue to tell the stories, and I will continue to speak as long as I knew.”

Chancellor Andrew Mar tin spoke of the “alarming rise of hate in our society today,” manifested by forums and polit ical movements worldwide that still espouse the “dangerous ste reotypes and falsehoods” with regards to the Jewish population.

“Hatred and bigotry can only thrive in the vacuum of ignorance,” he said. “And igno rance can only be countered by confronting, reckoning, and learning from the past.”

According to NBC affiliate KSDK’s sources, Harris graduated from CVPA in 2021 and had no prior criminal history. Before enter ing the school, the gunman left a note with a “list of school shoot ings across the country, the names of the shooters and death tolls from each of the incidents” in his car; the note also stated that Harris “wanted to be the next national school shooter.” The sources also said that Harris used an AR-15 weapon, pre-planned his move ments using a map of the school, and wore black attire and earplugs during the attack.

Law enforcement received notice of an active shooter at 9:11 a.m. CST and arrived at the scene four minutes later, said Metropolitan Police Department Commissioner Mike Sack to USA Today. According to Sack, the police entered the building imme diately, located the gunman, and shot him in less than 15 minutes after receiving the initial alert.

Those who experienced the attack expressed their fear and anger to reporters. Speaking to USA Today, CVPA junior Dylan Fritz recounted his experience and condemned gun violence in schools.

“I wanted to go to school today and learn. I was there to learn. I was not there to hide in a corner. Guns do not belong in schools,” Fritz said.

Guest speakers discuss the need to have truthful political discussions

Three Conservative pub lic thinkers spoke about the “Assault on Truth” in American politics and how to address it, Oct. 19.

The John C. Danforth Cen ter for Religion and Politics brought in Brookings Institu tion Senior Fellow, Jonathan Rauch; President of the Trin ity Forum, Cherie Harder; and

Senior Fellow at the Trinity Forum, Peter Wehner to speak during an informal lunch and a more formal evening conversa tion about the current state of political discourse.

The trio began their conversa tion in the evening by outlining the stakes of political attacks on the truth before discussing how Americans can prevent this assault and begin to build connections between those with differing political ideologies.

When asked what element of truth will be the most critical in the impending elections, Rauch responded “stop the steal.”

“A lot of this election is being waged by Republican candidates who are making a central issue of the lie that the election was stolen,” he said. “So that puts truth front and center.”

Wehner and Harder agreed with Rauch’s claim.

“There are a lot of

Republicans who know better and know that Stop The Steal is dishonest,” Wehner said.

He continued on to describe what he believes to be the toxic nature of the current Republican party. “If you speak against the assault [on truth directly], you end up like Liz Cheney. If you go along with it, you end up like Ron DeSantis or Marjorie Tay lor Greene,” Wehner said.

Harder said that truth is no longer universally recognized.

“We’re at a point where we don’t all agree on what’s true or false or even real or unreal, and that is kind of new territory,” she said.

The ramifications of this reality are immense, especially in a political environment, Rauch said. “Mass disinforma tion, once unleashed…is hard to contain.” According to Rauch, disinformation seems even more

COURTESY OF SCARLETT PATTON

The Lest we Forget exhibit is located in Tisch Park at the East End of campus.

The CVPA and larger St. Louis communities are still grieving the loss of Jean Kuczka and Alexandria Bell. A candlelight vigil to honor the victims was held at Tower Grove Park on Monday night.

In a quote to the St. Louis Dispatch, Kuczka’s daugh ter, Abigail Kuczka, praised her mother for the love she showed her students.

“My mom loved kids,” she said. “She loved her stu dents. I know her students looked at her like she was their mom.”

Dejah Robinson, a close friend of Alexandria Bell, recalled how joyful and

funny her friend was to KSDK per CNN.

“She was always funny and always kept the smile on her face and kept everybody laughing,” Robinson said.

Bell’s father, Andre Bell, told KSDK that Alexandria was just a month away from turning 16 years old.

“My daughter was plan ning on coming out here to California and celebrating her birthday with me on November 18…but now we have to plan her funeral,” he said.

As people around St. Louis, including those at Washington University, con tinue to process this tragedy,

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impossible to restrict now that “a political party has become dependent on it.”

Harder said that mis information is the most damaging when it helps to sow doubt in our elec tion system. “When you’re sowing confusion about the outcome of our elec tion…other [political] skirmishes are essentially rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic,” he said.

The speakers also com mented on the impact of Donald Trump’s presi dency on truth. When asked about the potential ramifications of a Trump victory in 2024, Rauch and Wehner predicted grave consequences for the country that would permanently alter the U.S. political sphere.

“The rule of law would be severely com promised,” Rauch said. “Prosecutions would be weaponized against polit ical enemies, [and] hacks would be put in politi cal jobs up and down the government…in order to insulate corruption.”

Wehner followed up with Rauch that, “he is looking at life through rose-colored glasses; it would be a lot worse than what he described.” Wehner stated that Trump is “sociopathic” and “would be on a vengeance tour” if he became presi dent again.

“One of the most important things to under stand about the last half dozen years is that there’s no place Trump won’t go, and there’s no place the Republican party won’t follow him if he goes there,” Wehner said.

After the speakers spoke to how hopeless many people currently feel about the current state of politics, they spoke to how certain religious

ideologies can aid the search for truth.

“Love [thy] neighbor is part of what is supposed to motivate and inform our sense of what is right,” Harder said. “Wanting the good of the other…is a faith-based mandate to care for those around us.”

Rauch underscored the importance of religious institutions in America.

“It turns out that if American religious insti tutions are not doing [their] job of providing a greater vision, a thicker sense of community, a sense of purpose in life, and undergirding civic values, the substitutes are worse,” he said. The main substitute he referenced was social media, some thing all three speakers pointed to as a frail source for facts and truth.

The speakers also dis cussed areligous ways to strengthen the sense of truth in our nation.

Wehner spoke about how to have conversa tions, even when they do not have a sense of shared truth. Wehner happens to be a massive fan of C.S. Lewis so used Lewis’ idea of “first friends and sec ond friends,” mentioned in Lewis’ autobiography, to articulate his thoughts.

“The first friend [is] the alter ego; you start a sentence, your friend can complete it. [Imag ine] raindrops coming together on the pane of a window,” he said. “Sec ond friend…[is] the person that you read all the same books and the other per son draws all the wrong conclusions.”

Wehner explained how Lewis would sometimes argue with his second friends all night long.

“[They would] almost imperceptib[ly] begin to shake each other’s views,” he said. The key was that “when Lewis and [his

the demand for gun con trol reform grows stronger. At the Tower Grove Park vigil, CVPA senior Bryanna Love called on governments to act before more people suffer from gun violence, according to the St. Louis Dispatch.

“How many more people have to die?” Love said. “How many people have to be traumatized like this before the federal govern ment, the state government does something? This is going to affect me and everybody who was in that building for the rest of our lives.”

Pro-Choice Panel advocates for engagement in promoting reproductive freedom

JIMMY HU CONTRIBUTING WRITER

second friends] debated, [they] never debated for victory [they] debated for truth,” Wehner said.

Wehner believes that we can depolarize our society by having con versations to “engage in a [way] so you can bet ter see the truth,” not just to “ beat [opponents] for victory.”

Harder provided a sug gestion for overcoming political hurdles related to truth: book clubs.

“Start reading groups,” she said. “[A book club is] a group of people united in paying close attention to a text in the spirit of hospi tality and community. It is something small that just about anybody can do.”

Harder said that read ing long-form literature “requires empathy and imagination as opposed to just going straight to reasoning and analy sis,” which he said is not usually found in social media posts and article headlines. According to Harder, book clubs can help their participants to build a willingness for different opinions and understand how to argue solely based on a shared truth.

Before the event came to an end, Rauch responded to an audience member’s question about how each individual can better the role of truth.

“I think that you [should] want to defend the open society where hard conversations can happen and where we have to encounter people we fundamentally dis agree with,” Rauch said.

“Even [if we] think [they] are bigoted because first, they may have something to teach us [and] second, we may succeed in teach ing them.”

In the wake of the Supreme Court’s alarming decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, a panel of specialists and social workers from activist organizations, including Pro-Choice Missouri and Medical Students For Choice (MSFC), explored the implications of Missouri’s ban on abor tion rights for state residents on Oct. 24. Panelists also advocated for young people to join the movement and be a part of the statewide effort to protect reproduc tive rights.

The panel session was run by two of the University’s student-run organiza tions, College Democrats and Planned Parenthood Generation Action (PPGA), with support from the University’s Social Policy Institute. The organiza tions have historically been advocating for abortion and reproductive health educa tional programs, including abortion training and family planning.

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Missouri legislatures have taken quick actions, as early as June, to eliminate the right to abortion.

Olivia Danner, the President of PPGA, said that even when Roe was law, abortion services in Missouri were hardly accessible, as the state’s only abortion clinic was in Saint Louis.

Missouri statutes now stipulate that abortion is to be performed only when the person’s life is in immediate danger.

“That’s very subjective,” Danner said. “Doctors are having trouble figuring out when the right time is to intervene.”

The impacts of the Dobbs ruling have already led peo ple to cross state lines to get abortions.

“Every state that bans [abortion] pushes people who need care into another state,” Executive Director of MSFC Pamela Merritt said.

“Every single state that gets a ban becomes more and more of a roadblock in the flow.”

A student in the audience asked about the future of the privacy rights of patients in the post-Roe era. The panelists predicted that the prospects will be bleak, as the Supreme Court has not taken a strong stance on the issue.

“Every single state that is likely to ban abortion could potentially re-litigate and set their own legal framework for all of the privacy rights,” Merritt said.

According to Maggie Olivia, Policy Manager of Pro-Choice Missouri, cri sis pregnancy centers that claim to provide services under terms of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) collect patient data, such as their menstrual cycles.

“The Director of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services kept a spreadsheet of Planned Parenthood patients’ menstrual cycles, and he admitted this under oath,” Olivia said. “Nobody did anything about it because this is Missouri, and there’s no accountability here.”

As head of MSFC, Merritt also dissected the problem through her lens of expertise.

“My biggest concern is that, without clinics, doc tors can’t study — doctors who can’t study are going to where they can. Ultimately, it won’t take very long — we’re looking at three to five years — before we start see ing the regionalization of certain OB-GYN [obstetrics and gynecology] care,” she said.

The panelists suggested that there is still hope for

reproductive healthcare, despite the obstacles. They offered words of encour agement to the audience, looking to inspire changefocused action.

Merritt asked prospective medical students to “not let universities pass easily” on their stance pertaining to this issue.

“If they’re located in a banned state, ask them whether or not they can send you a public statement from the administration, articulat ing the medical support for abortion training and family planning, training, and edu cation,” she said. “If they don’t have a press release, if it’s not on their website, ask them why — and make a decision that’s right for you in your career.”

Olivia spoke about the confusion that was spread statewide after the overturn of Roe.

“A hospital chain... cease[d] providing emer gency contraceptive care for a matter of hours to rural Missourians, so please check your sources before sharing information that is rapidly changing so that we’re not accidentally hindering access [to services],” Olivia said.

She also encouraged stu dents to talk bravely and firmly about abortion.

“Use the word ‘abor tion’ when abortion is what you’re talking about. Abortion is not bad or scary,” she said. “The more times that we can get folks to think about abortion in medically accurate terms, with respect and dignity, the further we can perpetuate that.”

The stake of the future lies in the hands of our generation, Merritt said. “Ultimately, the power lies in how outraged and dis gusted and unapologetic you are in response to this.”

Is “Midnights” by Taylor Swift “‘MID’-nights”?

On Friday, Oct. 21, everywhere I went on Wash ington University’s campus I encountered signs of the release of Taylor Swift’s tenth studio album: “Midnights.” Some students loved it and listened to it on repeat, gushing publicly about her genius, others did not. I am a self-declared Swiftie (ENORMOUS Taylor Swift fan) and to be honest, I was underwhelmed.

In the album announce ment, Taylor Swift wrote on Instagram, “We lie awake in love and in fear, in tur moil and in tears,” setting up “Midnights” as an emo tionally charged album. She proclaimed it to be, “the sto ries of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life.” I was expecting an emo tional roller coaster, a deep dive into the personal, with the storytelling and nuanced lyricism she showcased on “Folklore” and “Evermore,” her last batch of new music.

Instead, “Midnights” felt more vague. It was a return to the pop-heavy albums like “Lover,” “Reputation,” and some remnants of “1989.” It was as if the pandemic fever dream of “Folklore” and “Evermore” never happened.

The album started off with the song “Lavender Haze,” which felt like the deliciously moody pop of “Reputation.” It began with a warped version of Taylor’s voice saying “meet me at midnight,” which felt a little cringey, since the phrase was so heavily used in promo tional material. Although

the momentum built over the track, it never culminated into a satisfying conclusion to quench the anticipation of the underlying beats. Even so, I know many of my fel low students loved this song.

“Lavender Haze” raised a theme of feminism within the album. Taylor sang, “The only kinda girl they see/ Is a one-night or a wife.” I really enjoy when she leans into political messaging, so I loved that this theme contin ued on tracks like “Midnight Rain” with the lyrics, “He wanted a bride/ I was mak ing my own name.” The song also included the maybe tooon-the-nose refrain, “He was sunshine/ I was midnight rain.” However, I absolutely loved the production and it was one of my favorite songs on first listen.

At 3 a.m. on Friday, Tay lor Swift released what she dubbed a “special very cha otic surprise.” It was an extended version of the album, titled “Midnights (3am Edition),” with seven additional tracks.

I loved the extra songs because they were more nuanced than the initial release. I think they deserved a spot on the album more than some of the orignal thirteen.

The track “Bejeweled” was one I felt could be replaced. The lyrics, “And I miss you/ But I miss spar kling…” felt juvenile. In my opinion, “Paris,” on the 3am edition would have been a better choice for the album proper.

The seven additional songs are not only cathar tic, but they also give further

insight into Swift’s songwrit ing process.

Another one of my favor ites was “Maroon.” Swift plays with her voice by sing ing the last chorus in a new, gravely tone which matches the darker sensuality of the song. She further expanded on the metaphor of compar ing love to different colors that she returns to through out her discography.

In “Snow on the Beach,” the collaboration with Lana del Rey, the two sing ers’ voices blended together seamlessly on the chorus, but the anticipated verse from Lana never came. One of my suitemates is a big Lana del Rey fan, and we agreed that we felt cheated out of a col laboration. Although, I have often caught myself hum ming the catchy lyrics, “Like snow on the beach/ Weird but fucking beautiful.”

“You’re on Your Own Kid” and “Anti-Hero” were the two most self-conscious and vulnerable songs on the album. “Anti-Hero” was witty, playful, with seven ties undertones, and jumped between serious and unseri ous with the cheerful, “It’s me, Hi!/ I’m the problem, it’s me.” “You’re on Your Own Kid” reflected on var ious mental health issues. Swift sang about body image, “I gave my blood, sweat, and tears for this/ I hosted parties and starved my body,” and the isolation of her budding stardom, “The jokes weren’t funny, I took the money/ My friends from home don’t know what to say.” It is truly the emotional hard-hitter of the album.

“Karma” and “Vigilante

Finding Belonging in College

CHLOE CARLISH CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Belongingness: that relentlessly sought-after and seemingly-elusive con tentment in one’s self and surroundings. Once coined by the late young author Marina Meegan as the “opposite of loneliness,” we can understand belonging as being in the right place at the right time; having the right people at your side.

As a first-year student seeking a better understand ing of the road to belonging, I turned to Director Katherine Pei, of Student Transitions and Family Programs for answers about friendship and belonging.

Pei said that if a student has made a friend on cam pus by the first six weeks of classes, they’re much more likely to re-enroll as sopho mores. And once enrolled as sophomores, students are almost guaranteed to graduate. This question of friendship is a stronger

indicator of graduation than the grades a student receives, or their involvement in aca demic courses otherwise.

“So that’s why a sense of belonging is important. It’s important for the soul and to be happy, but it also pragmatically is important because we’re here to help students to graduate. And you don’t graduate if you don’t have a friend,” Pei said.

In her description of the Washington University Stu dent Associate (WUSA) program as a peer men torship model, Pei also explained that first-year stu dents benefit from building connections with upperdivision students. WUSAs are older students who stay with a group of first-years throughout the year to act as a resource and go-to per son for questions. “The best way for students to gain a sense of belonging and con nectedness to campus is peer educators,” Pei said. “If you have a peer educator and you make a connection to them,

you’ll have a higher GPA. You’re retained at a higher rate.”

The type of friendship Pei described is nondescript. Those relationships we forge while waiting in line at BD or attending a Pitbull con cert together may feel light and exciting but also frus tratingly superficial eight weeks into the semester. The new faces, while familiar, don’t compare to our friends and family from back home. In short, budding college friendships might not res onate deeply at this point. Yet, it would be impossible to expect them to.

Genuinely meaning ful relationships, those that cross the boundaries of proximity and time, are born only out of shared expe rience. However, don’t be so quick to write off those light, exciting, and new friendships — to share expe riences with one another. In the midst of midterms and

Shit” were the newest exam ples of the revenge fantasy tracks which Taylor Swift and her fans, including me, love. The production on “Vigilante Shit” was swag gery. The lyrics included cheeky gems like, “Draw the cat eye sharp enough to kill a man,” and “Picture me thick as thieves with your ex-wife.”

“Karma” felt like Taylor Swift was poking fun at fans’ theories of her rumored socalled lost album, “Karma”. The song has already sparked a Tik-Tok trend with various WashU students participat ing on the account @pey. louise. In both songs, Taylor Swift shows her impeccable sense of humor.

The song “Sweet Noth ing” was what I really wanted from “Midnights.” The tune was soft and lively and the lyrics described the mun dane bliss of a relationship and finding solace with your partner. It felt like a peace ful lullaby yet that sense of peace was contrasted with

an anxiety found in the lyr ics: “To you, I can admit that I’m just too soft for all of it.” It was perfectly bittersweet, a good track to cry to and extremely cathartic.

Overall, I was a big fan of the more folk-like style Taylor Swift adapted for her sister albums of 2020, “Folk lore” and “Everemore.” For my personal taste, that was

a hard act to follow with “Midnights.”

But you miss the dead Taylor, don’t worry. She can come to the phone. If you are a big “Reputation” or “Lover” fan, this album is definitely for you. And if “Midnights” isn’t your jam, a new re-recording is surely on the way.

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Into the Woods: A Reckoning With Moral Ambiguity

CHLOE CARLISH CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Inspired by the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, Washington University’s Per forming Arts Department of the musical “Into the Woods” is a winding narrative of desire and discontentment. It’s a nar rative of the wishes we dare to dream, and the consequences of their coming true.

The narrator (Dylan McK enna) details a storybook world connected through the plight of a childless baker (Alexander Hewlett) and his wife (Isabel Koleno) in their quest to undo the curse of a witch (Amanda Sherman). Along their way, they stum ble upon Cinderella (Nina Silverstein), Little Red Rid inghood (Brenna Jones), Jack — yes, of the beanstalk — (Eli

Bradley), as well as a cast of other characters on their jour ney through the woods.

With a set as lively and intricately executed as the show itself, one is transported to a world of possibility and mystique as the curtain is drawn open and reality fades away. Trees are the main focus of the woods: thick branches that enable characters to lose themselves and be found anew.

They provide a layer of mystery as well, allowing vari ous characters to prance about the wood and stumble upon the drama of another’s life as they eavesdrop from the per vasive veil of darkness.

“Into the Woods” forces the audience to peer into our own humanity. We may all enter the woods well-mean ingly, but what transpires there

is often vague and indiscern ible. To kiss the handsome prince while your husband tries in vain to capture a giant? Who are we to advise the poor Baker’s Wife — with out a name of her own, or to blame the Witch as she tor ments Rapunzel by cutting off the lengths of her golden hair? She was driven mad herself by the fair maiden’s naiveté, after all; her willingness to invite the wickedness of the world into her castle.

In the second act, the audi ence is asked where morality begins and ends: who is worthy of goodness and for giveness? We’re reminded that it’s human nature to make mistakes, and that oth ers, in all their imperfection, may as well.

This dilemma is returned to the audience, as it is the

characters in the tale, in a later verse of Act 2’s “No One is Alone,” “Witches can be right, Giants can be good/ You decide what’s right/ You decide what’s good.” “Into the Woods” is a story that demands we travel into ourselves.

Enhanced by lively chore ography and astute comedic timing, the show reminds the audience that the complexity of life can be met with humor; that joy and suffering can and should exist alongside one another.

Despite having nearly lost her Grandmother’s (Saman tha Campisi) life and that of her own to the wolf (Mar tin Ibarra), and having lost her Mother in the chaos that ensued, Little Red Riding Hood remains vulnerable and witty until the curtains come to a close. She’s the voice of reason when Cinderella turns to her animal friends in a

the looming threat of win ter weather, you can rely on brand-new friends for a smile and shared vanilla latte, as they are every bit a piece of the belongingness puzzle. In reflecting upon his four years at WashU, senior Mustafa Mohammed-Amin urges first years to “just cherish the moments with people. Make as many moments as possible.”

It’s clear those deeper connections will inevitably form later — into second semester and beyond as we enter upper-division courses and immerse ourselves in student groups. Thus, give yourself the space to explore your true interests; whether that be churning butter or writing articles for the stu dent newspaper. Allow yourself to try new things and fail sometimes. As you begin uncovering who you are and what you’re inter ested in pursuing, you will inevitably be led to people and spaces that more closely match your genuine self.

It may well be that “your people” are sitting in the booth beside you at BD right

moment of crisis, attempting to kill the giant who rendered Little Red orphaned. Instead of simple despair, the girl que ries the princess incredulously, “You can talk to birds?” The audience is grateful to share in a laugh here.

Rapunzel’s Prince (Andre Harte) and Cinderella’s Prince (Martin Ibarra) also bring comic relief each time they set the stage. The brothers bask in their suffering together, during Act 1’s “Agony,” sharing in their plight of chasing women just out of their grasp.

They question their self-worth in response, and without a tone of selfmockery, wonder: “Am I not sensitive, clever, wellmannered, considerate, passionate, charming, as kind as I’m handsome and heir to a throne?” The two eventu ally resign themselves to all of these things, and decide “These girls must be mad.”

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now, but you haven’t spo ken to them yet. You may not know your future study abroad friend because you haven’t enrolled in Ger man 101 yet. You may have passed your future rowing friends on their way to prac tice because you haven’t picked up your oar yet. Allow yourself to grow to be different and potentially more than you previously let yourself imagine. Allow yourself to be your most authentic version — maybe for the first time. College will prompt transformation. It’s about giving yourself the room to grow.

In the words of Maya Angelou, “We may act sophisticated and worldly, but I believe we feel safest when we go inside ourselves and find home, a place where we belong and maybe the only place we really do.”

The path inside oneself is often unforeseen. It’s like climbing a staircase in the dark, blind to what the next step looks like and how far it will stretch. Yet, we’re made to move forward any ways, and the best way to do

Amidst the chaos and uncer tainty of the woods, an air of lightness and humility can only serve as assets.

As the show concludes, it proves to end as it began: with the command of the audience to journey into the woods themselves during the second act’s “Finale.” A quick instru mental tempo and the hushed, yet passionate, collective whis pering of the company as it sings work to create a famil iar tension, gaining in volume with the lines “Into the woods you go again/ You have to every now and then.” They acknowledge the dangers the woods may pose: the wolves, witches, and various woes one may stumble upon while thick in its branches.

Whether that be into the woods or to Edison Theatre to view the production — begin the journey. “Into the Woods’’ can be seen until Oct. 30.

so is to be wholeheartedly yourself. Talk about verb conjugation at a party, even if it’s not a normal conversa tion topic. Don’t feel forced to go to a party at all if it’s not your place. Or do go, and find the other grammar nerd in the corner. Don’t compro mise yourself at the expense of what you believe others might embrace.

In her message to firstyears at large, Pei said, “You have to give yourself grace. You need to explore and live authentically. And know that it’s really normal to be challenged.” Because as disappointing as it may be, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to belongingness.

Some first-years may feel they belong already, and I commend you for making these hallowed halls a home so quickly. Yet, to the rest of us, understand this is a free ing moment. This is what it feels like to stand on the prec ipice and accept unknowing. Because to belong here at WashU, to belong anywhere, is to belong within oneself.

PHOTO BY MARY CLEMENS

You are doing enough.

Maybe this is never a doubt that burns in the back of your brain. Maybe your resume is overflowing with words trying to encapsulate your accolades into a page, and maybe you’ve perfected the subtle art of blocking out everyone and everything else. Or maybe you’re like me, and you need to hear these words; to know the truth. That just by engaging in simple acts of taking care of yourself you are doing enough. That you are enough.

Admissions officers proudly boast to prospective families that there is no cutthroat competition at Washington University: we’ve fostered a culture of collaboration, a diverse community of bright minds, fueled by teamwork and passion. But it’s not the culture of competition that bothers me, it’s the one of comparison. From conversations about who’s the most stressed to LinkedIn posts showcasing someone’s latest summer internship, WashU’s dense concentration of highachievers coupled with the University’s emphasis on conventional success at the expense of self-care makes it difficult to avoid falling into a rabbit hole of insecurity and doubt. Free soda during finals week does nothing to

allay the mounting pressure of succeeding academically in an extremely challenging environment.

I feel as if I’m being pulled in every direction, everything begging for my attention, whining for my time. Despite the glaring gaps in my daily academic schedule, I’m often booked for several hours straight, and I know there’s no real space to add anything else. But the interspersed moments of peace I’m granted each week frighten me, along with the question ringing in my ears in these crushing moments of silence: am I doing enough?

I try to grasp how everyone else seems to have more hours in their day by operating on less sleep — with no midday three-hour-nap to make up for it — how everyone else manages to attend every class and complete every assignment, how everyone else seems to be swimming with their arms outstretched and a wide grin on their face while I can hardly stay afloat. This mental image could be far from true, but the environment I’m in certainly cultivates it: WashU touts the importance of conventional accomplishments, rewarding those who check off the right boxes, highlighting those who become Summer Analysts at McKinsey or get accepted to Harvard Medical School.

Traditional conceptions of prestige and success are

abundant at WashU, and it’s a futile attempt to try and subvert the dominant narratives surrounding them.

So I find myself asking, over and over again, waiting for an answer to sprout miraculously from the murky, bubbling mixture of doubts and insecurities: am I doing enough?

What I, and perhaps a significant portion of my peers, tend to forget in the race to win capitalism is that the act of self-care is work, too. It is time and energy devoted to doing something meaningful,

academic or career success. That message has proven time and time again to be incompatible with America’s corporate culture.

More and more people ranging from activists to authors, have spoken out against this corporate culture, proposing self-care as a radical alternative, a pushback against societal norms. Grassroots meditation activist Shelly Tygielski succinctly summarizes this recent perspective on self-care: “Selfcare is a movement in and of itself. It’s a movement of love

She began ensuring that rest, in whatever form it took — whether that was taking a long bath or meditating on the train — became a vital component of her daily schedule.

“I was exhausted physically, mentally, spiritually, and I just didn’t see any other way except to take a radical leap and say: ‘I don’t care, let the chips fall where they may,’” she said during an interview. “If I fail out of school, that’s fine if I don’t finish that grade — because I’m going to bed.”

My question is, can we

current trends, which reflect skyrocketing rates of anxiety and depression on campuses across the country, demand a new approach to mental health, or the crisis will only continue to propagate and worsen. We need more than counseling appointments and telehealth services. We need change.

When I find myself turning off my computer, even with an unfinished essay still open in one tab and a reading open in another, in order to cook a hearty meal for myself or hop in the shower, I have

TUESDAY

SUBMISSION

WashU, support first-gen, low-income students by extending the First Year Startup Grant

the stress that FG-LI students already face.

The Student Union Senate calls on the University to extend the First Year Startup Grant administered by the Financial Aid office for a second year, as a means of easing laundry costs for students receiving financial aid and providing a comprehensive support system in and out of the classroom.

WashU has a long history of competing with peer institutions to provide students with the best campus experience. However, they continue to lack in providing one fundamental necessity: free laundry. Students, particularly those who identify as First-Generation and Low-Income (FG-LI), face continual obstacles to the most basic necessities.

At a top university that recently adopted a need-blind admission system, this is unacceptable. While access to WashU for students from historically marginalized communities has been one of the top administrative priorities, access doesn’t always equal inclusion. The University has an obligation to provide basic necessities such as laundry services to alleviate

Over the last few years, a laundry subsidy has consistently been one of the top diversity, equity, and inclusion issues for WashU students as reported in our annual SU Senate Improve WashU survey. And for us and the Student Union, that is enough of a reason for the University to start acting. Since its inception, the First Year Startup Grant has provided WashU students with extraordinary economic support. The First Year Startup Grant consists of $1,550 in waived summer work expectation, $500 in bookstore credit, and a general $1,000 grant. This grant lowers financial anxieties and de-emphasizes the costs of a WashU education, allowing first-year students to chase academic excellence and

actively participate within the WashU and Saint Louis community. Because more than anything, that is what the First Year Startup Grant is: a “big hug,” as Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Anna Gonzalez would call it, that looks to incorporate students into our community, no matter their access to opportunity. By extending the First Year Startup Grant administered by the Financial Aid office for a second year, the University has the opportunity to do what is right.

Across their four years, students — particularly those who are Pell-Eligible — still face the economic challenges of buying necessary school items like books for classes, residential hall supplies, and most importantly, affording laundry services on a weekly basis. So while these challenges persist, it is unacceptable that the First Year Startup Grant is only distributed during students’ freshman year.

The average WashU washing machine costs $1.25 per wash, and the average WashU dryer costs the same amount per dry. However, taking these costs at face value

is myopic. Laundry costs easily accumulate beyond $1.25. First of all, when students wash their clothes, they have multiple loads of laundry. Assume the average WashU student completes two loads of washes per week (and some launder more often). Considering the process of separating your white clothes from your normal clothes, the $1.25 cost per wash starts to look something more like $4 or $5, and that is before the drying process! WashU dryers are notorious for being absolutely horrendous when it comes to drying people’s clothes. It already costs $1.25 per dry cycle and students often need to complete one or two extra drying cycles after the first attempt as their clothes are still damp. Students deserve more.

Between the process of separating your clothes before washing them, navigating the fact that campus dryers are often inefficient, and the reality that both our dryers and washers are incredibly small, necessitating multiple loads, the price skyrockets. So when doing laundry, students can spend an upward of $7 to $12 per week on laundry. We

have an average of 16 weeks per semester, which means students can spend anywhere between $150 to $200 on laundry per semester or $300 to $400 per academic year. This is outrageous. WashU, you just recently announced your “Here and Next” 10-year strategic vision, as well as your Make Way initiative. One of the major pillars of your strategic vision is equity, and your Make Way initiative centers around the mission of diversifying the student body and removing financial barriers. As such, extending the First Year Startup Grant should be a no brainer. Extending this grant is directly tied to your mission statement, and doing otherwise is doing a disservice to the campus community, and turning backs to your words.

WashU: The Student Union Senate, and all students, are calling on you to extend the First Year Startup Grant for a second year, as a means of easing laundry cost for students receiving financial aid. The economic barriers that FG-LI students face during their first year don’t end when they enter their sophomore year. People

contest

still need help buying books, residential supplies, and most importantly, affording laundry services. Paying upwards of $380 during an academic year on laundry is unacceptable. Instead of doing laundry, FG-LI students could be using that $400 to invest in themselves and their college experienceto cover for unexpected class expenses, buy a Halloween costume, and maybe, grab dinner with friends on Delmar Loop or downtown Saint Louis. These are all important college experiences that are being hindered by needless costs. There are those that can afford it, but those who greatly depend on grants and scholarships like the First Year Startup Grant need economic support. Extending the Startup Grant is the logical continuation of WashU’s commitment to supporting first-generation and lowincome students.

Editor’s note: Hussein Amuri is a Sports Editor for Student Life. Beyond contributing to writing it, he had no influence in the process of editing or publishing this article.

In early September, Student Life reported on Washington University’s now one-yearold expungement policy, in which certain student conduct violations can be expunged following periods from as short as four semesters to as long as 10 years. Student Life’s reporting drew attention to the policy’s inclusion of sexual and physical violence offenses as being capable of being expunged following a period of five years. It also included drug offenses as requiring this five-year buffer, while academic integrity offenses remained ineligible for early expungement.

The details of the policy were alarming to our Editorial Board, along with many members of our student body. This led many of us to initiate conversations regarding expungement and restorative justice, grappling with how to best forefront restorative justice while holding

each other accountable and keeping our most vulnerable safe. The article also spurred a joint initiative by MeToo WashU, College Democrats, and WashU Survivors & Allies for Social Support, drawing further attention to the issue and calling on students to sign a petition voicing their opposition to the policy.

The concerns brought by the WashU community led the Student Affairs leadership team to alter the policy on Oct. 11 — just under five weeks after the story broke in Student Life.

To us — and, no doubt, many others — the implementation of the policy change so soon after opposition was surprising. There is no shortage of calls for change directed towards the University, but said change is often slow to come. It took years and the efforts of the Washington University Undergraduate

OUR VOICE: EDITORIAL BOARD

Staff editorials reflect the opinion of a majority of editorial board members. The editorial board operates independently of our newsroom and includes members of the junior and senior staff.

Managing Forum Editors: Reilly Brady, Jamila Dawkins

Managing Sports Editor: Clara Richards Managing Chief of Copy: Ved Patel

TUESDAY

& Graduate Workers Union and other allies to secure a $15 minimum wage for over 1,000 full-time campus workers. It took years and the input of members across our entire community for the University to prioritize need-blind admissions — a goal that was achieved just last year.

So, yes — a swift administrative response to criticism is surprising. But it shouldn’t be.

As students, we are constantly beholden to powerful institutions that feel like they’re beyond our control, from the Supreme Court to our own university. It doesn’t always feel like there are many ways to make concrete changes, and there is a tendency towards apathy among our student body that discourages some of us from having the hard conversations that bring about change. It’s easy to be intimidated into silence

— to choose not to care rather than to care and be ignored.

The current expungement policy is the result of extensive drafting, Student Union and administrative feedback, and redrafting. With the initial input of Student Union last year, the reporter who took the story, the work of campus groups and student leaders who drafted a petition, and the 150 community members who signed it — every voice contributed in a way that was pivotal to the alteration of the policy and the removal of the possibility of an interpersonal violence offense being expunged.

There’s power in caring enough to share an article, sign a petition, or pass along an Instagram post. Institutions that are meant to prioritize our needs don’t always seem to care about what we have to say, but that should never discourage us from saying it. The change in the

expungement policy is proof of that.

There is, as always, much left to do. As an institution, WashU has come a long way and has a long way to go. We have yet to expand our capacity to fully address student mental health concerns (namely, by separating WUPD from mental health crisis calls); we still fall short in supporting survivors of sexual violence; and it will require a lot of work to truly make WashU the diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment it claims to be. Even within the expungement policy, conversations are still taking place regarding to what extent a five-year buffer period for expunging a drug violation — and no eligibility to expunge academic integrity violations early — reflects the restorative justice we are striving for.

However, in what often feels like fruitless work, even incremental change should

YOUR VOICE: SUBMISSIONS

be celebrated. We want to commend those who made their voice heard — those who kept, and continue to keep, a careful eye on what the institutions around us do.

The process of redrafting and revising that our expungement policy underwent is one that we’d like to see continued as our community continues to discern what justice should look like. The implementation of an expungement policy was a step forward, one that many peer institutions have yet to make. The alteration of the policy in response to opposition was another step in the right direction. Moving forward, we urge students to continue to hold the administration accountable as we journey towards policies that reflect the justice — and the world — that we deserve.

Senior Multimedia Editor: Jared Adelman Junior Multimedia Editor: Cynthia Chong Head of Social Media: Cynthia Chong

We welcome letters to the editor and opinion submissions (or opeds) from our readers. Submissions may be sent to forum@studlife. com and must include the

writer’s name and email or phone number for verification. We reserve the right to print any submission as a letter or opinion submission. Any submission chosen

for publication does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Student Life, nor does publication mean Student Life supports said submission.

HUSSEIN AMURI, ISRAEL FULTON, ERIN RITTER, BELA STAMPESBLACKBURN, PAT WANG, ETHAN GLAZER STUDENT UNION SENATE DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION COMMITTEE MEMBERS

ADEL CYNOLTER

Three ACL tears later, Maggie Brett is WashU’s leading scorer

RICHARDS

Maggie Brett dribbled up the field in the fifty-fifth minute of the Washington University Bears’ season home opener, the game still score less. Fifteen yards away from the goal, she looked left, then right. Her teammates flanked her, but they were blocked by defenders.

Brett forged ahead.

She cut left, right, and then rocked her weight back and kicked. The soccer ball shot in front of the keeper’s out stretched hands.

Brett’s teammates bolted towards her before the ball had settled into the back of the white netting of the goal.

WashU keeper Sidney Conner sprinted all the way up the brightly lit field to join in the celebration.

It was a lot of firsts for the senior: first career goal, first time being at the bottom of the dog pile, and first time playing a game for WashU on Francis Field where she didn’t leave with a torn anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL.

Leandre Pestcoe, her team mate and roommate, subbed her out of the game. Before she ran onto the field to replace her best friend, Pestcoe gave Brett a long hug.

“Not everyone on the team fully understands the whole story,” Pestcoe said. “I don’t even understand the full story…but everyone on the team was so unbelievably excited. You couldn’t have asked for anything better than that.”

The goal was more than four years in the making.

It was three torn ACLs, 28 months of rehab, plus a lastminute medical clearance. Maybe more than anything else, it was a stubborn refusal to quit the sport that she loved. ***

When asked for a fun fact about herself, Brett tells me that she once broke her broth er’s arm. Not on purpose, she clarifies; they were wrestling and, somehow, her brother landed at the bottom of the pile. What isn’t her fun fact — and maybe should be — is that she has tissues from two differ ent cadavers in her body, one for each knee to replace her ACLs. Her only concern about having dead people’s tissues in her knees? “I hope they were athletic,” she grins.

I realize that Brett is my next-door neighbor when I fol low her down the block to the coffee shop where I’m meeting her. After three torn ligaments, three surgeries, and three bouts of rehab, I expect Brett to have a limp. She doesn’t, at least not one that I can see. All I learn is that Maggie Brett, if nothing else, is a fast walker.

Brett’s story is the comeback narrative, the persistence that paid off. She scored the first goal of the season at home to the cheers of her teammates. Every time WashU has won 1-0, Brett was the one to make the successful shot. Yet the odds were consistently against her: 23% of athletes under 25 re-rupture their ACL, a fact that a research paper from the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine said “may end the careers of college ath letes”. The authors described uninjured ACLs as “surgerynaïve knees,” a suggestion that establishes two time periods in an athlete’s life: before-surgery and after.

But where does an athlete draw the line between opti mism and accepting the reality of their individual situation? For Brett, her decision to play soccer again was a choice that

she made knowing that she only had four months left of her collegiate soccer career. It’s a choice that she made without the guarantee that she would even get playing time in the first place. And it’s a choice that she has a hard time articulating; despite medical retirement being the easy choice, she chose to make the comeback again and again.

The first tear

Brett grew up in Chicago, and her soccer career started as just another after-school activity. Her parents put her on a team as a kid, and she stuck with the sport. She rotated around the field, trying differ ent positions, but she gravitated towards the forward line.

As a freshman in high school, Brett was a selfdescribed B-team player for Loyola Academy until she got the chance to play with an older age group. The seniors were bigger, stronger, and more physical, which pushed her to improve. “It definitely changes your mindset,” she said.

As early as her sophomore year, her high school coaches encouraged her to begin think ing ahead to collegiate soccer. She started to look at Division III programs, and WashU was in the spotlight after the team’s 2016 national title. She began peppering WashU’s head coach Jim Conlon and assistant coach Rebekah Roller with emails every time she would play. After a positive recruiting visit, Brett commit ted to WashU, contingent on her admission.

The summer after her junior year of high school, Brett spent a week in St. Louis at WashU’s campus for a train ing camp. On the last day of camp, while playing a game of counselors vs. campers, she took one bad step. Afterward, it was described as a non-con tact injury; at the time, though, it was just an odd shift of her weight. In retrospect, she remembers a small pop, but she wasn’t expecting the injury to be anything catastrophic. She thought that she had tweaked something.

After a hospital visit in the following days, an MRI con firmed her diagnosis of a torn ACL. About to start her senior year of high school, the begin ning of her collegiate soccer career was already in jeopardy. Brett called Conlon, cognizant of how this might impact her recruiting process. Without missing a beat, he told her, “You’re still coming here,” even though he knew it might mean that she would have to miss her freshman year.

“It was the ‘we still want to have you if you want to type of thing,’ which also really solidi fied why I wanted to come [to WashU],” Brett said. It solidified the beginning of her relationship with her coach; without really knowing her as a player, he still had her back.

“Going back to Maggie’s character, we knew that injury

wouldn’t set her back,” Conlon reflected. “I mean, it was hard, and she needed support, but she handled it with grace and determination and really attacked that rehab to get her self back on the field.”

That summer before her senior year of high school, she had her first surgery. The doctors took a portion of her patella, making a small inci sion and removing the torn ACL. The new ligament was fixed to the bone with screws to hold it in place while the suture healed. Then, a new graft had to integrate itself with her origi nal knee.

She was at home in Chicago, which made the postsurgery period easier for her. After spending a few weeks on crutches, she started doing physical therapy for her knee, relying on her support system at home. The first three weeks alone were spent trying to bend and straighten her knee straight — “the most painful thing ever,” she described. “It was like nails on a chalkboard.”

The second tear

Nine months later, Brett was cleared in time to play in time for her last season of high school soccer. But in a midsea son game with her team, she collided with another player while running downfield and tumbled onto the turf. This time, she knew right away what had happened — she knew what a tear felt like. Once again, she went to the doctor, and after another MRI, the doctors confirmed that she had torn the same knee again. Just months after building up strength and confidence, one tumbling crash destroyed nine months of building strength and muscle. This time, there was no uncertainty about the timeline: she would definitively not be able to play her fresh man year of collegiate soccer.

Statistics on ACL injuries raise the question of whether Brett should have been back on the pitch at all. Teenagers are vulnerable to re-injury, and athletes with college pros pects face the added pressure of securing — and keeping — their place on their college team, along with the social ele ments that come with being part of the group. But they also face heightened risks. Athletes younger than twenty years who returned to sports within a year of an ACL injury were fifteen times more likely than uninjured players to suffer a second ACL tear, according to a study from orthopedic surgeons Timothy Hewett and Christian Nagelli.

But at the time, Brett was medically cleared to return to play, a goal she had been work ing towards for nine months. The repeat injury she described as a natural risk, really a freak contact accident.

The high school injury immediately defined her rookie season at WashU. Once practice started, she sat on the sidelines for the entire

season. She got to practice an hour and a half early to do her own physical therapy sessions before watching her teammates on the field. “There are defi nitely moments where you’re sick of shagging balls, or you’re just like, ‘I want to be in there so bad,’ but it comes in waves,” she said.

I asked Brett’s best friend and current roommate, Pestcoe, about her first impres sion of Brett. She paused a little before answering. “So honestly, we weren’t really friends freshman year,” she told me, and then she trailed off. “Obviously, if you’re injured, you don’t travel. So, she wasn’t really playing, so we weren’t really…Yeah.” Even while on the roster of a close-knit team who spent upwards of thirty hours together a week dur ing the season, as a freshman, Brett never got the opportunity to play with her team.

Instead, the two became friends in the offseason. On Mardi Gras, Pestcoe, Brett, and their friends never made it to the downtown parade. They spent the day in their room together, Pestcoe said, and it was the first time they spent together outside of a soccer setting. Six months later, as COVID-19 shut down the sport that they dreamed about playing, they became roommates.

The third tear

Francis Field held a strange curse for Brett, as the site out of two out of three of her ACL tears.

She walked onto the field on September 11, 2021, as a junior, prepared to play her first game on the gritty turf field. She had put hours of training in front of the same concrete stands and old Olympic con crete press box. Still, this was her first time in the number fifteen jersey while playing at home.

Brett’s game is about speed. “She’s the fastest person on the field at any time. Like, that’s just what’s gonna happen,” Pestcoe said. But five minutes into the game, Brett charged towards the goal. She cut left, and then touched to the right. The goal was wide open. Then, she collapsed.

“I knew right away, because I knew what it felt like. Everyone’s like, ‘You don’t know until you know.’ I was like, ‘I knew’,” Brett said.

The athletic trainers attempted to have her jog around anyways. Brett sat through 85 minutes of the game on the sidelines before she went to the hospital and an MRI confirmed what she already knew.

“Obviously, you go home and then you cry,” she said. “But it was like one of those things where I was just like, ‘Yeah, right now, if I can be happy and it’s contagious, then their energy will fuel me.’”

The results came back the next week, confirmation of the tear that Brett already

suspected. The next weekend was Brett’s twenty-first birth day. While her friends departed for a game in Memphis, Tennessee, Brett spent her birthday weekend sitting in her apartment away from her friends combating a nightmare injury.

The third rehab was the hardest. Her mom came down and helped for a week, and then Brett was on her own to get to her appointments. The logistics were a challenge because she couldn’t drive to the physical therapy build ings in the Central West End, unable to use her foot to drive. She couldn’t use the Metro because she couldn’t get down the steps.

Brett had to make a decision about whether she wanted to try to play soccer for one more season. Statistically, she knew she had a much higher chance of re-injury, and the rehab was so mentally challenging that her parents couldn’t help but be protective. She didn’t want to go through it again to have it not pay off. Plus, there were complicating factors. She was planning on going abroad to Madrid during the spring semester, and she was worried about her mobility in a foreign country.

“When she was in a team setting, you wouldn’t know that this was the worst thing that could have happened to her,” Pestcoe said. “Very much a team first attitude. But like, obviously at home, it was a tough semester.”

She left for Spain weeks after surgery. She did her hour-long rehab program in a hostel in Seville and then tromped all over the city. She spent a week end in London, where she got to go to Wembley Stadium, and she visited Valencia with some friends. Over the sum mer, she talked with her coach, parents, and doctors about what her return to soccer might look like.

“I think an athlete is always all-in on competition. And Maggie’s no different. I think the conversations Maggie and I had were about being intel ligent about making sure she was truly healthy, making sure she was ready from a physical standpoint as well as the men tal standpoint,” Conlon said.

Still, it wasn’t a clear cut decision for the rising senior. She didn’t know if she would be disappointed again — if all the work that she put in would ultimately be validated. She wasn’t sure if her knees would hold up under the stress of ninety minute games on match day.

“I think that was kind of a big thing: like, is this even worth it?” Pestcoe said. “I know she was thinking about it…early in the summer, we were talking, and she said, ‘Yeah, I don’t know, yet. We’re still working.’”

Over the summer, Brett started to get into her practice routine, and she slowly joined the preseason workouts. But even after she returned to

practice, returning for game day was never guaranteed. The day before preseason, Brett’s doctor called her and said she wouldn’t be cleared for two months.

“It was a devastating phone call,” Brett said. “I was like, I’m going to be retired by the time they clear me.”

Brett continued to work in the weight room, gaining strength and mobility. She had one final hurdle before she could return to the pitch, a return-to-play test, which she had difficulty scheduling. Her doctors, she said, “told me you’re not gonna pass this test if you take it right now. Like, straight up, you’re not gonna pass it.”

But just days before her first game, she got the green light to play in the season opener.

Before texting her parents, she texted Conlon. “I almost crashed my car,” she remem bers him saying. “What do you mean you passed it?”

“I was elated for her,” Conlon said. “You know, when she had done all this work, continued to try and put in all this time. I was just elated for her that she would have the opportunity to play the game she loves with her teammates.”

She plays with a big black knee brace that reaches from her upper thigh to her shin. The straps aren’t delicate— they’re thick and abrasive, and they were the first thing I fixated on when I saw her bolt down the field.

“She wanted two [braces, one on each leg],” Pestcoe said. “And her doctors were like, ‘No. You can’t.’”

And despite it being her first complete collegiate season, Brett has been a weapon for a team that has struggled to get goals in the back of the net. Through the first nine games, WashU only scored seven goals, and Brett had the last touch on five of them.

“As you can probably see from our stats, we’re not scor ing that many goals — our forwards aren’t really convert ing, but somehow, when she gets in the game, she finds the ball,” Pestcoe said. “With everything that she’s gone through, she could have so many excuses, but she’s the best player on the field right now.”

For the team, though, there’s no upperclassman intimidation factor with Brett. “She has that respect, of a per son before a soccer player…I think her leadership style is just, like, people respect the sh*t out of her. What she says goes.”

When I ask Pestcoe about a core Maggie Brett memory, though, it’s not on the soccer pitch. Instead, Pestcoe tells me that about a week after her third surgery, she and Brett went to a Luke Combs con cert. They had to trek all the way to the top of the top row of seats in the massive hockey arena. Brett hobbled up the stairs on one crutch; the girls were dressed for the concert, but Brett was also wearing her big knee brace. After the concert, they traversed back down all the stairs and walked three blocks east to a restau rant and music venue. There, Pestcoe reported, Brett was “the life of the party.” At one point, she started passing her crutch around, and her friends could see it bobbing among the crowd among the bright neon lights.

“I see the crutch over there,” Pestcoe said. “She’s over here. I was like, hello. The next morn ing, she wakes up, and she’s like, ‘Oh my god, it hurts so bad.’ I was like, ‘I wonder why.’”

MADI HERMEYER | STUDENT LIFE

Brett looks over to head coach Jim Conlon, on the sidelines, in the team’s late season game.

Volleyball sweeps weekend games

25-17, 22-25, 25-17). Coach

Football scoreless against North Central

TOM MUELLER & ARYAN KUMAR STAFF REPORTER AND CONTRIBUTING WRITER

On Friday, at the start of parent’s weekend, the volley ball court was electric as the Bears swept Cornell College on Breast Cancer Awareness night. Riled up by the crowd, WashU took a 9-3 lead after three kills from fifth-year out side Michaela Bach. Junior Lily Steinbach notched two kills, and an ace from Elise Kilroy pushed the lead to 12-4. The collective effort highlighted the strength of this team. The Bears never looked back, and they went on to win the set 25-16. They went on to win the next two sets 25-20 and 25-20. The team only played from behind during the third set, where they reached a 16-18 score. The lead was quickly regained on an 8-point streak with stellar defense from senior defensive specialist Taryn Gurbach and a pair of kills from sophomore middle Zoe Foster.

To get this win, head coach Vanessa Walby said over email, “Cornell is always a strong program, and we knew we had to come focused and ready to play.”

On Saturday, WashU would notch two more wins against Earlham (25-20, 25-14, 23-25, 25-19) and Grinnell (25-8,

Walby acknowledged the sup port of the parents in these wins saying, “They are loyal to our program, and [we] really enjoy spending time with each other! We are really fortunate to have such amaz ing people supporting our program.” With these 3 wins, WashU cements its position at number 7 in national polls in what has already been a his toric season for the team. The Bears’ 26-3 season record puts them at a .897 win record, and they are on a four-game win ning streak ahead of the UAA tournament.

The team played agressively all weekend, with freshman Sam Buckley getting 136 assists across the 3 games. Steinbach was spectacular at the net, notching 3 blocks alone against Grinnell. Walby emphasized, “I think we have done a great job serving tough and forcing our opponents to be out of the system.” This sentiment was highlighted by freshman rightside Tori Taylor and Kilroy gaining crucial aces across all 3 games.

The team seeks to continue this hot streak. They will travel this weekend to Indiana to play Transylvania University and DePaul. On Nov. 4, they will begin conference championships.

To be on the end of a knock out blow isn’t always a bad thing. If nothing else, it gives you perspective.

In the Bears’ bout with the North Central College Cardinals last fall, their 42-0 halftime deficit made clear the difference in weight classes between the Cardinals and the Bears. In the 2021 game, WashU entered the game 6-2 on the season. The final result, a 59-20 loss, was a dis appointment for sure. It was also a challenge to improve, or as head coach Aaron Keen phrased it, to “close the gap”.

And that’s what the Bears hoped to do.

With the majority of a season-high 2442 attendees in their corner, the Bears came out swinging against the topranked Cardinals — but they failed to land anything of consequence. Miscues caused much of this effort to have just glancing effects on the Cardinals.

After forcing North Central to a fourth down with three yards to go, a WashU penalty extended the drive, allowing the Cardinals to eventually capitalize and jump out to an early 7-0 lead. A few posses sions later, now trailing by two

scores, a promising Bears drive — highlighted by a 26-yard completion from senior quar terback Matt Rush to junior wideout Collin Hoyhtya — fizzled out with a fumble in the redzone. This would not be the only such turnover of the half, however, as a Rush interception in the endzone with nine seconds remaining in the second quarter guaran teed WashU would enter the second half without points for the first time all season.

Had it not been for these miscues, Keen believes the game could have had a differ ent tenor entering the second half. “We’ve got to find a way to convert,” Keen said. “We punted on the first possession and turned it over the next two in the red zone. Against good teams, you’ve got to come away with points in those situ ations — and maybe [then] the game’s different at halftime.”

Compounding these mis cues, though, was the dearth of possessions for the Bears, a byproduct of the Cardinals’ rushing attack gaining over 120 yards. Ball carriers often got to the second-level before being touched by a WashU defender.

The second half rendered much of the same for the Bears’ offense as it continued to sputter. The team never improved its offense’s effi ciency, as it started the half

with three straight 3 and outs which rendered a mere total of 28 yards. The fourth offensive drive of the half proved to be their most successful as they gained 43 yards in 8 plays, but no points were put up due to the offense’s inability to con vert a 4th and 1. In total, in five offensive second-half drives, the Bears gained a total of 94 yards.

Despite the jumbotron read ing a 21-point halftime deficit for the Bears on the breezy, temperate October afternoon, the game still felt in reach for many of the players — a differ ent perspective than this team had in previous years.

“Last year, I remember thinking, like ‘God, this team we’re playing is really good’,” sophomore receiver Collin Goldberg said. “But this year, I felt [the deficit] was more of our mistakes than them beat ing us.”

Defensively, there were glimmers of improvement. The Bears’ defense caused North Central to punt the ball twice, something North Central never did in the first half. Additionally, a porous Bear run defense seemed to stand strong and limited North Central to 91 rushing yards, which was an improvement from the 144 yards the Bears allowed in the first half.

As the game began to run away from WashU in the

second half, Keen began to insert younger players into the game, such as sophomore backup quarterback Clark Stephens.

“Any opportunity that our players have to jump in there and run our schemes is really valuable against differ ent teams and they will grow from it and be better,” he said. Players like sophomore receiver Zach Ginsburg and freshman Xander Georgoulis also got time on the field in the final minutes of the game.

“These are guys that can definitely help the program. They’re not getting minutes right now, but for the future going into next season, you get reps against a good team like this, then next year you won’t be fazed by it,” Goldberg said.

Although the final score board read 31-0 in favor of North Central, Keen believed that the gap between WashU and North Central narrowed.

“If you look at last year’s game against North Central versus this year’s game against North Central, it is a com pletely different feel, with the feeling I get from the team,” Keen said. “The disappoint ment they have after that game is palpable, and so I know the belief is strong amongst our team members and what they can do and what they would like to do against teams like this in the future.”

Jack Nolan selected in second round of NBA Draft to Santa Cruz Warriors

CLARA RICHARDS MANAGING EDITOR

“The Santa Cruz Warriors drafted ‘Division 3 Curry’,” read the headline of a social media post from G League TV.

The ‘Division 3 Curry’ has a name: Jack Nolan. And on Saturday, October 22, Nolan

was drafted to the Golden State’s G League. He’s Washington University’s sec ond player drafted to the NBA in school history.

“Jack was a very unique talent, and we’re seeing that talent being recognized now in the professional ranks, which is fantastic,” head coach Pat

Juckem said. “He is so thrilled and excited — and we are all rooting for him just to have this opportunity.”

Nolan committed to WashU as a Division 3 leg acy. His uncle, Gene Nolan, had a storied career for the Bears from 1992 to 1996, in the record book for the most

career three-pointers. Nolan committed to play initially under former coach Mark Edwards before his transition to Juckem’s program in 2018.

In an interview fresh man year, Jack said he wasn’t focused on his uncle’s record. “We’ll see what happens down the road, but I’m just a

freshman,” he said noncha lantly. “I’m not worried about records or anything, just wins and losses.”

Still, he finished his career third on the all-time three-point free throw list, just eight FTs behind his uncle. He did claim the highest free throw percent age record from his uncle,

shooting .915 from the line.

Nolan played four seasons of basketball for the Bears in a career that defined the record books. He was the team’s top scorer for three out of his four years. If there was a conference

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