October 1, 2020-Student Life Newspaper, Washington University in St. Louis

The independent newspaper of Washington University in St. Louis since 1878 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2020

VOLUME 142, NO. 3

PRISON EDUCATION

Despite being unable to instruct in person, PEP professors keep teaching (Scene, pg 4)

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CUBBIES

VIRTUAL STAGE

Washington University creates over 1,000 study “cubbies” for student use (Scene, pg 4)

In-person theatre may not be possible, but the PAD isn’t letting that stop them (Cadenza, pg 6)

‘It’s part of our civic duty’: WashU Votes aims to increase turnout, prepares to help students vote by mail

2016 In

79.6 % of students were registered, but

only

52.5 % voted

This year, WashU Votes wants to

raise turnout to 62.5 %

Gephardt and WashU Votes will:

- Bring notaries to campus - Provide free stamps and envelopes at the South 40, the Village and the Lofts mailrooms - Partner with student groups for outreach - Host weekly “voter support hours” over Zoom GRAPHIC BY CHRISTINE WATRIDGE

ORLI SHEFFEY STAFF REPORTER WashU Votes, a partner of the Washington University Gephardt Institute for Civic and Community Engagement, is aiming to increase student voter turnout for the Nov. 3 presidential election by 10 points from 2016.

According to the Gephardt Institute, 79.6% of University students were registered to vote in the 2016 presidential election, but only 52.5% actually voted. While this was a 10.9% increase since the 2012 presidential election, WashU Votes aims to increase student voter turnout to at least 62.5% in 2020.

Gephardt Institute Voter Engagement Fellow and recent graduate Lindsay Gassman said that WashU Votes works to make sure students are not only registered to vote, but have the information they need to cast their ballots and make educated voting decisions.

“We’re trying to provide as much information and as many resources as possible,” Gassman said.

Outreach Chair Otto Brown said that “whether students choose to vote here in Missouri or in their home state, WashU Votes works to ensure that everyone who can vote

is able to vote.”

But voting in Missouri comes with barriers, according to Gassman. First-time Missouri voters are required to include a copy of a valid ID with their mail-in or absentee ballot request, and Missouri is one of three states that requires in-person ballot notarization.

In light of those challenges, Gassman said that the Gephardt Institute, in partnership with WashU Votes, is committed to making voting as accessible as possible. The Institute plans to hold several notary events on campus so people have ample opportunities to get their ballots notarized.

Students can pick up free stamps and envelopes in the South 40, Village and Loft mailrooms.

With the Oct. 7 registration deadline quickly approaching, Brown emphasized that students should register to vote as soon as possible in case mistakes are made on the application.

“That application has to be postmarked by October 7,” Brown said. “We want to make sure people do it early enough so that if something does go wrong, they have time to figure out how to do it right.”

Absentee and mail-in ballot requests are due Oct. 21, which is less than two weeks before the

election. With the United States Postal Service (USPS) facing an influx of mail-in and absentee ballots due to COVID-19, Brown said the USPS recommends mailing back completed ballots at least 10 days before the election.

“If you’re voting by mail or absentee, Oct. 24 is your Election Day, not Nov. 3,” Brown said.

With fewer opportunities to spread this information in person, Events Chair Ethan Liss-Roy said WashU Votes made changes to its traditional outreach process. After discussing strategies with national voter organizations and peer institutions such as the Harvard Vote Challenge, Yale Every Vote Counts, UChi Votes, Penn Leads the Vote, Columbia Votes and Stanford Votes, Liss-Roy said WashU Votes transitioned from broad-based initiatives to specific outreach programs.

“We began partnering with student groups, varsity athletics, and club sports to provide easy access to Washu Votes’ voter information, as well as any additional support they need,” Liss-Roy said.

WashU Votes also worked to expand outreach digitally. The WashU Votes website now features COVID-19 and mail-in voting frequently asked questions, and over the summer, WashU Votes launched their Instagram account.

The Gephardt Institute also holds weekly voter support hours over Zoom, where University community members can ask voting-related questions.

By providing a variety of resources, Liss-Roy hopes to combat misinformation. He said that with “so many hoops to jump through” and specific regulations pertaining to voting in Missouri, it is easy for false information to spread.

“There was this big push on social media to use ballot drop-off boxes, and while that applied to a lot of states, we cannot do that in Missouri,” Liss-Roy said.

Gassman added that among students, there are misconceptions about voting eligibility in Missouri.

“Some students have been saying that only people with a Missouri driver’s license can vote in Missouri,” Gassman said. “This is false. Anyone with a mailing address in Missouri can vote here, and a student ID is an acceptable form of identification.”

With less than five weeks until Election Day, Gassman emphasized the importance of “using your voice” and voting in the 2020 presidential election.

“It’s part of our civic duty,” Gassman said. “Democracy only works if people participate in it.”

Following a summer of mass deactivations, Campus Life considers next steps for Greek Life JAYLA BUTLER MANAGING EDITOR Editor’s note: This article contains discussion of sexual violence. If you or someone you know is struggling, resources are listed at the bottom of this page.

Over 50% of fraternity and sorority members at Washington University have permanently deactivated from their organization since the summer, according to Leslie Heusted, executive director for Campus Life. This number has continued to fluctuate over the past few months, despite active membership remaining in every Greek organization on campus.

After a summer of students pointing out the systemic oppression present within the Greek system and calling for the abolition of fraternities and sororities, many questions remain about the future of Greek Life as the school year begins.

Systems of oppression present within Greek Life organizations drew schoolwide and national attention beginning in July, as students spoke up about experiences of racism, sexism, classism and heteronormativity that went ignored in their chapters and by the University. Posts submitted to the @abolishwashuwpaandifc, @blackatwashu and @metoo_ washu Instagram accounts served as a jumping-off point for many of these discussions. Meanwhile, similar accounts and organizing sprang up at the University of Missouri, Vanderbilt University, the University of Southern California, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Stanford University, among many others, prompting national coverage and attention.

At Washington University specifically, the public opinion of Greek Life for those involved began to shift seemingly overnight—members of Greek organizations began to deactivate en masse, calling for the abolition of the organizations they were a part of just weeks before.

Campus Life is also experiencing staffing shifts. Molly Bennett, the coordinator for fraternity and sorority life, left the University, Sept. 25.

Bennett declined to comment to Student Life. Associate Director for Campus Life Beth Doores is expected to step into her position for the time being.

SEE GREEK, PAGE 2

WU launches COVID dashboard monitoring cases in the campus community ANIRUDH KESANAPALLY CONTRIBUTING REPORTER Washington University began the new year with the launch of its COVID-19 dashboard for Danforth campus faculty, staff and students, Sept. 14.

The dashboard, which currently only shows entry testing, is updated twice per week and covers the total amount of tests given, positive cases and the positive percentage since Aug. 31.

Another section shows the number of cumulative cases amongst the Danforth campus community since Aug. 1.

Although the dashboard provides enough information to recognize the University’s relatively strong performance against the COVID-19 pandemic so far, a quick comparison with the dashboards of peer institutions reveals that Washington University’s available data is limited. Vanderbilt University, for

example, provides its students with an interactive dashboard that details tests and cases in both a weekly and daily manner.

Rice University’s dashboard even publishes information about its quarantining and “in-isolation” campus bodies.

Criticism of the University’s entry dashboard overlaps with its overall COVID response.

A page manager of WashU Covidiots—a student-run social media page that seeks to feature

individuals who break COVID guidelines—argued that the account’s “vigilante approach is necessary” because the University “has not had effective messaging especially surrounding when students need to abide by certain guidelines.”

Under the “WashU Together” reopening plan, the University has welcomed students back to campus later than many other universities this year and has had more time to curate its COVID-19

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dashboard. For Danforth community members, a more comprehensive dashboard serves as an important tool for recognizing the overall health and safety of campus life. Even for members of the University community who are not present on campus, a more transparent dashboard can be helpful for gauging their decisions to come back to campus next semester.

SEE COVID, PAGE 2

2 STUDENT LIFE

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EVENT CALENDAR THURSDAY 1 After the Outbreak: Narrative, Infrastructure and Pandemic Time Virtual Event, 5 p.m.

Presented in conjunction with the Medical Humanities minor at Wash . U., our first Zoom-based Americanist Dinner Forum of the fall semester will feature Professor Sari Altschuler of Northeastern University. Altschuler will present “After the Outbreak: Narrative, Infrastructure, and Pandemic Time,” which examines COVID-19 and considers what we might learn from people who lived with truly global pandemics of this sort in the past. After the talk, Altschuler will be joined in discussion by AMCS Director Lerone Martin and Medical Humanities-affiliated scholars Corinna Treitel (History) and Jennifer Arch (English).

FRIDAY 2 Midwest Climate Summit Kick-Off Virtual Event, 10 a.m.

Robert Bullard, the internationally-renowned, award-winning environmental researcher, scholar, author and co-chair of the National Black Environmental Justice Network, will give the keynote address. The Climate Summit’s Think Tank sessions will build partnerships, expand engagement and focus efforts for accelerating climate action in the Midwest. Faculty, students, staff and the general public are all welcome to take part.

SATURDAY 3 Public Tour: Multiplied–Edition MAT Virtual Event, 11 a.m.

Join us for live, interactive tours on Zoom. Student educators design and lead virtual tours featuring several artworks in the Kemper Art Museum collection or in special exhibitions, showing images of the artworks through screen sharing and answering participant questions.

MONDAY 5 Two Pandemics, One Election: Race, Identity and the Future of Democracy Virtual Event, 6 p.m.

Framed against the backdrop of the vVice-pPresidential debate, this conversation will consider the impact of how political candidates’ identities shape the conversation with an increasingly diverse electorate. This includes political agendas, media discourse, the emergence of new groups as political players and new forms of backlash. This roundtable will pay special attention to intersections between racial, ethnic, immigrant and gender identities.

GREEK from page 1 65.1% of the respondents to a Student Union survey of the student body in July expressed that they were in favor of abolition, similar to the 57.7% of sorority members that favored abolition. However, only 20.7% of fraternity members at the time supported abolition.

This semester, Campus Life has assembled a co-curricular advocacy board that will consist of 30 students that will discuss ideas for how the University should move forward. The group will start meeting during the first week of October. Their goal is to propose an action plan by Dec. 1 and begin to implement it in spring 2021.

“It’s just a very challenging issue because people are so divided on it,” Interim Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Rob Wild said, in reference to the perspectives voiced during a July 14 town hall addressing these issues and with students who followed up with him. “I think one of the struggles we’re having, somewhat related to the pandemic environment that we’re in, is finding meaningful spaces for people on both sides of this to come together and really hear each other.”

When Student Life spoke to the Interfraternity Council’s (IFC) Social Justice Chair junior Matthew Berman in July, he said that abolition was not on the table at all for most fraternities.

“The trend within IFC is very significantly toward continuity and reform,” Berman said. “So whereas things are looking very pro-abolition, or at least disbandment or disaffiliation, on the Panhellenic side of things, the majority of IFC chapter members who have remained within their chapters thus far are those who

want to promote continuity and reform within their chapters. And those individuals who have been pro-abolition have either actively deactivated by this point in time, or are planning a mass-deactivation date for the coming few weeks.”

Berman voiced his support for abolition in a statement to Student Life, and raised concerns about the pro-reform stance that fraternities are taking.

“This makes me, and many others, fearful of the selfserving echo chamber which will likely arise within the IFC community,” he wrote.

“Those who support abolition are, in large part, chapter and community leaders and activists, and yet even with these individuals at the forefront of deactivation, pro-continuity community members seem adamant to reform. I’m just left asking—for who?”

Greek Life reform efforts of the past few years have yet to see significant results at the University. Along with racism, fraternities on campus have been called out for sexual violence within their chapters time and time again. A 2018 WPA survey revealed that instances of fraternity members committing sexual violence against sorority members extended to every chapter on campus.

Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) and Alpha Epsilon Pi tied for the highest instances of nonconsensual sexual contact throughout all Greek organizations.

On June 29, SAE announced a set of new policies that would require the bystander intervention chair to undergo training in interpersonal violence and discussion facilitation starting this semester.

According to an anonymous former SAE member, these policy ideas arose from discussions about the sexual assault rates in the WPA survey, but were not announced until this summer, two years about the survey results were publicized. The member characterized a sense of ambivalence towards meaningful reform within the chapter at that time.

“I remember people being way more upset about the display that was put outside with the roses and everything than they were about the numbers themselves,” he said, referring to a spring 2019 art installation placed outside of fraternity housing that represented the results of the survey with bars representing the ratio of reported sexual assaults in each fraternity.

The SAE president at the time removed the display when it first went up before putting it back later that night.

“People were trying to defend and justify, people were saying, ‘Because people know SAE’s national reputation, they might come to a party at our house and perceive something to be creepy when it’s not, just because they go into [it with] the expectation that SAE is going to be creepy.’

That’s not how it works,” the member said.

When SAE developed a sexual assault and harrassment self-reporting tool in 2018, Campus Life deactivated it because as undergraduate students, the fraternity members do not possess the training required to launch investigations into allegations.

However, no similar tools have been publicly announced by any chapters or Campus Life in the following months.

SEE GREEK, PAGE 3

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2020

Datamatch launches ‘Meet 24’ survey to help freshmen students make connections JULIA ROBBINS CONTRIBUTING REPORTER To connect with classmates, freshmen students can now be a part of Meet 24, a new opportunity at Washington University from Datamatch.

Meet 24 is a spin off of the popular Datamatch initiative that senior Michael Dizon, president of Wash.

U. Datamatch, brought to the University two years ago.

Students at Harvard University created Datamatch in 1994 as a way for people to find romantic or platonic partners on campus. Since then, the Datamatch survey has spread to over 20 schools across the United States.

While Harvard students still run the algorithm for matching participants, each school creates their own college-specific questions for the survey that students fill out to find their matches.

In years past, Datamatch has taken place over Valentines Day, but Meet 24 opened its survey up on Sept.

27 and will close the survey to submissions on Oct. 4. After this sign-up period, students will be matched up with a handful of other freshmen based on the results of the survey.

Last year, Harvard’s Datamatch team created Meet 23, the predecessor to Meet 24, but the program was exclusive to Harvard.

Co-President Isabelle Zheng, or in Datamatch terms, Harvard’s Co-Supreme Cupid, said her team was already planning on running Meet 24 before the pandemic hit.

Zheng said freshmen are often eager to meet new people and get to know students who might be different from themselves.

“I think that’s a really valuable mentality to have,” Zheng said. “I don’t know how common that is around non-freshmen, so while it’s still there I want to encourage it.”

Many of the leaders of

Meet 24 expressed sympathy for freshmen who might have heightened challenges with meeting new people this year.

“It seems like the vibe of a lot of various people is that they’re feeling alone,” Datamatch Board Member junior Gabriella Cooperman said. “And especially during these times, these unprecedented times, lonely is not good.”

Dizon cited students’ inability to congregate in common spaces like Bear’s Den or to interact easily with others while walking out of class as obstacles the freshmen face.

“There’s so few avenues for meeting new people this year with COVID-19 compared to last year, and I think that’s kind of tragic that it’s so hard to meet new people,” Dizon said. “I think that Meet 24, if it catches on, will do a lot of good for people,” Dizon said.

“It’ll make things seem a little less lonely.”

Freshman Natalie Muldowney filled out the survey for similar reasons.

“I want to meet new people, but also maybe meet some people who are in my classes because it’s hard to do that because they’re all on Zoom,” Muldowney said.

While the main difference between Datamatch and Meet 24 is that the latter program is only open to freshmen, there are other distinctions between the two as well.

Last year the datamatch team created the “Datamatch Café” at Ursa’s as a place for its matches to mingle.

However, due to social distancing restrictions, Meet 24 will not include any in-person activities this year and will instead work to fit the new climate.

Cooperman said that the Meet 24 team will provide some ideas about how first years can interact virtually to make their experiences “less awkward.”

The type of questions in this year’s survey will also change a little from past years.

Dizon described the

Datamatch and Meet 24 surveys as reading similar to “a Buzzfeed quiz but with Wash. U-specific questions.”

One question from a previous year’s survey—“Which business on campus is your type?”—included answers such as “U-Trucking: Someone who can hold me in their strong arms.”

While most students who arrived on campus on a move-in day can probably understand that answer, fewer Washington Universityspecific questions will be included in this year’s survey.

“We can’t include too many references to Wash.

U. culture or previous years at Wash. U. just so freshmen can understand and still get a kick out of it,” Datamatch board member senior Sonia Muzemil said.

Just because the questions might be a little less niche this year doesn’t mean the Meet 24 team didn’t work hard to make first years laugh.

“The goal is to help people meet people, and if they don’t end up being friends with any of their matches, hopefully we made them laugh and gave them a good time,” Dizon said.

Dizon’s goal succeeded at least with Muldowney.

“I really liked it,” Muldowney said. “It was fun to fill out because the answers were humorous and so it made me laugh while I did it,” she said. “I thought they were really lighthearted and easy.”

And maybe in addition to a laugh, the survey will help some freshmen find a friend.

“It’s definitely a good opportunity to make lasting connections cause you may never know if you’ll find your next best friend through Meet 24,” Muzemil said.

“What I have to say about those timid little first years is: What do you have to lose?”

Cooperman said. “Everyone’s in their dorm rooms crying anyway and you don’t have any friends which is why you filled it out, so you might as well shoot your shot.”

COVID from page 1 Zachary Kuo, a current off-campus freshman, said that he will take into account the information the dashboard provides when deciding whether or not to come back for spring semester, adding that he was satisfied with the dashboard’s transparency.

“The current COVID-19 dashboard is nice because, at least compared to stories from other colleges where I have friends and relatives attending, this is pretty transparent,” Kuo said.

However, Kuo also mentioned that dashboards of other institutions like Vanderbilt, Rice and Harvard were “much more detailed.”

This mixed response is exactly what Dr. Steven J. Lawrence expected students and community members to notice when comparing Washington University’s dashboard with other schools. As an associate professor of medicine at the Washington University School of Medicine, specializing in infectious diseases, Lawrence acted as a liaison between the Danforth and Medical campuses during this pandemic. Through his essential work, he gained a fundamental understanding of not only the entry dashboard, but also the University’s overall COVID-19 response.

“The current dashboard

is anemic and not too flashy compared to others,” Lawrence said. “[But] if the University were able to recreate more comprehensive dashboards and superimpose our entry testing data onto them, the dashboard won’t be meaningful for anyone.”

Lawrence explained that this initial dashboard is just the snapshot of the University’s baseline COVID-19 data.

“Within the first week of classes, there isn’t an opportunity to even see what kind of transmission is happening, and until surveillance testing, there is no room to show change or detail over time,” Lawrence said.

The expanded detail Lawrence referred to could potentially include the information required to understand how good the Danforth campus has been at minimizing the spread of cases over time. Some of these details will include dividing cases in a daily and weekly manner similar to what other universities are already publishing.

“In lieu of the concern around transparency some students may have, is that we can be sure that every single positive case on campus is evident in that dashboard and once surveillance testing begins, the new dashboard will become more comprehensive,”

Lawrence said.

The positivity rate shown in the dashboard is the greatest sign of the overall health of the Danforth campus, and this information only requires the cumulative amount of testing and positive cases. As more data is made available to the University, more comprehensive features can be added to the dashboard, according to Lawrence.

With the entry testing period completed on Sept.

25 and the refreshed dashboard to be published in the coming days, the surveillance period will be the next hurdle for the Washington University community.

Current dashboard data has put the Danforth campus community with only 12 positive cases (positivity rate 0.2%) since Aug. 31, below what Dr. Lawrence and other professionals in the University’s pandemic response team had expected. However, these positive results are by no means guaranteed.

“In no way should we let our guard down now and stop being vigilant,” Lawrence said.

“We have an opportunity right here to make it through the semester with continuous operations.

If everyone—faculty, staff and students—does their part, I don’t believe there will be any major disruptions.”

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2020

EM MCPHIE & TED MOSKAL | SENIOR NEWS EDITORS | NEWS@STUDLIFE.COM

STUDENT LIFE 3

GREEK from page 2 Delta (KD) voted to submit a petition to surrender their charter to their national organization, according to President junior Laurel Levinsohn. If successful, the petition, which is still pending, would allow them to formally close the Washington University chapter and create a new organization in its place. Right now, their national organization is in the process of interviewing every member of the sorority to see if there are a significant number of members interested in remaining in the chapter to focus on reform over abolition.

The sorority will be notified of the decision after a majority vote from alumni and a unanimous vote from the National Council.

Currently, KD, along with Kappa Kappa Gamma, are both listed on Campus Life’s website as being “not in good standing” with the University due to “restricted status” from their national organization. Heusted denied any relationship between these organizations’ standings and any efforts to mass-deactivate and disaffiliate.

Kawanna Leggett, the interim dean of students, emphasized that the issue is more complicated and involves more considerations than just the decision to reform or abolish Greek Life. She said that one of Campus Life’s focuses over the course of the semester will be to find ways for students, regardless of their position, to come together to help shape the campus experience for the future.

“I think this is a very trying time, for a number of reasons,” Leggett said. “We’re in the middle of a global pandemic that has changed the course of how we operate. We have significant racial tension and climate issues around the death of Black lives. And that has all bubbled up into this conversation. And so I think our students are feeling lots of pain and anger about what’s happening in the world, and also really finding their voice about how we can make change on

our own campuses.”

Wild said that the University’s stance in creating student groups has always been student-driven, and pointed out that the University’s initial choice to add Greek chapters to campus was guided by student interest at that time.

“And we’ve supported that, just like we’ve supported a cappella groups and Uncle Joe’s and EST and all the other many things that students have brought forward,” Wild said.

“Now we do have a responsibility as an institution to hold student groups accountable to University values, which is why this conversation is so challenging. And we have systems in place through the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards, through Campus Life, when there are incidents and issues that are brought to our attention that violate expectations.”

He said that because systemic oppression also occurs outside of Greek Life and the University, conversations of how to proceed are made more difficult. He added that while the information from SU’s survey and additional input from the student body are useful, they will not solely drive any decisions.

“Should you, because a majority of students are not interested in that organization, get rid of it? You know, we wouldn’t do that to other organizations on our campus,” Wild said. “That’s why we’re trying to get away from a majority rule conversation…

I think it was a useful survey.

And I think it informs where we are and how difficult this conversation is going to be for us as we move forward.”

Many students, whether they favor abolition or reform, have voiced the opinion that they want to see more of a response from the University.

WPA President junior Emily Regan said that in making efforts to repair damage done to marginalized communities, the University needs to take an active role and not rely solely on students to change

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Since then, the topic of sexual violence in fraternities gained widespread attention on campus once again in February, when Kappa Sigma knowingly extended bids to students who were accused of sexual assault.

In fraternity Beta Theta Pi, 80% of their membership at the beginning of the summer had permanently deactivated by mid-August, including several executive board members. Former President senior Brandon Jones noted that from the IFC meetings he attended this summer before deactivating, most of the people advocating for reform were not offering solid ideas or ways to approach actually doing the work.

“If you’re not listening to the people who want change, what kind of change are you actually going to affect?” Jones said. “There’s nobody who’s coming out and saying, ‘Okay, I’m the president of this organization. I’m on the side of reform, what can I do? How can we actually change our organization?’”

In favor of abolition, Jones said that he did not believe Greek Life could be genuinely reformed at the University, and pointed to the fact that students generally do not have the time needed to fully dedicate their attention to transforming the system and fully listening to the student body.

“Maybe that’s why the abolition movement has lost some steam and also why you never see actual reform in the Greek community. Because true reform would require a dedicated effort from every member of the chapter,” Jones said. “As far as implementation goes, that takes entire semesters, entire academic years.

And people are busy; people go to class and do homework and are up late and come back and they don’t have time for a meeting or whatever. I think that’s part of the reason why they shouldn’t exist—I don’t even think there’s a chance for reform.”

In August, 82.5% of the members of the sorority Kappa

GRACE BRUTON | STUDENT LIFE

Sigma Alpha Epsilon tied for the most nonconsensual sexual contact in Greek organizations in a 2018 WPA survey. As of July, only 21% of all fraternity members supported Greek Life abolition.

the culture surrounding Greek Life.

“I think they’re very much trying to pass the buck to us, saying ‘This is your problem, you created it.’ But the reality is the administration decided to have these charters, they’re the ones that are paying nationals to have these charters on our campus. So it’s also their problem, and they are responsible for perpetrating these same systems of oppression that we’ve all bought into,” Regan said. “I think it’s really important to note that this is just as much the University’s issue to deal with as it is WPA and IFC members. By them saying ‘It’s not our job to abolish or we don’t want to abolish,’ I think that definitely ignores that they have a stake in the issue and are very capable of abolishing Greek Life to begin to fix it.”

Sisters of Color (SOC) President senior Caitlyn Johnson wrote in a statement to Student Life that the organization’s efforts in the past four years to make Greek Life a more inclusive space have historically been met with low student engagement.

“I am struggling to determine if the conversations happening right now are more performative than genuine,” Johnson, who is a member of Kappa Delta, wrote in July.

“It is extremely frustrating that it has taken so much to

get people to finally care about diversity. I also wonder if this is temporary because of the current climate of the U.S. or if people really are committed to doing the work it would require to reform the system.”

Senior Mia Hamernik said over the summer that while she has seen more students engaging with this issue than several issues in the past, she was not fully confident that the momentum would continue offline.

“Students [at Washington University] hold themselves in a high regard, and because they believe themselves to be free of these racist ideologies, they view themselves as exempt of having to engage or having to really analyze or think about themselves in the context of racism in the United States,” Hamernik said. “Regarding this current moment, I am honestly overwhelmed by how much people are speaking up and taking action because of Wash. U.’s history of not fully engaging or even participating in protests. I think it’s difficult to measure the commitment of students right now because I think it’s one thing to be vocal online and a completely different thing to take action and engage with your community in a physical sense.”

Johnson said that she has mixed feelings on whether Greek organizations would do

the work required to educate their members and hold them accountable for their actions.

“The only way I think Greek Life should be able to continue at Wash. U. is if these organizations truly commit their energy to working with their national organizations to truly make a more inclusive environment rather than a diverse one,” she wrote. “Because too often, diversity is assumed to be enough, but it is important that chapter members are committed to ensuring that their members of color, LGBTQ[IA*] members, etc. truly feel comfortable being a part of the organization.”

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Copyright © 2020 Washington University Student Media, Inc. (WUSMI). Student Life is a financially and editorially independent, student-run newspaper serving the Washington University community. Our newspaper is a publication of WUSMI and does not necessarily represent the views of the Washington University administration.

Editor’s Note: The Sexual Assault and Rape Anonymous Helpline (S.A.R.A.H) provides confidential and anonymous support and can be reached at 314-935-8080 24 /7 during the fall and spring academic semesters.

There are counselors at the Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention (RSVP) Center, located in Seigle Hall, Suite 435, available confidentially to any University student.

The office can be reached at tel:314-935-3445 or by email at mailto:rsvpcenter@wustl.edu.

The National Sexual Assault Hotline can be reached at tel:1800-656-4673 or via online chat at https://hotline.rainn.org/ online 24/7.

VOLUME 142, NO. 3

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4 STUDENT LIFE

SCENE

BENJAMIN SIMON | SENIOR SCENE EDITOR | SCENE@STUDLIFE.COM

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2020

Students, administrators discuss creation of campus-wide ‘cubbies’ LYDIA MCKELVIE STAFF WRITER As many have said before, this semester is certainly shaping up to be one unlike any other. Campus spaces are no exception to this, as libraries and other study spaces are closed for the time being.

But Washington University members were hard at work to replace these spaces while adhering to appropriate public health guidelines, developing and implementing over 1,000 “cubbies” for student use.

The cubbies, which are individual desks with felt dividers for privacy and noise control, were initially announced as “Zoom-studydine pods” in the late July fall plan from the University. Will Carter, a sophomore who has frequented the cubbies in the past few weeks, confessed, “They aren’t quite what I envisioned when they called them ‘pods.’” He is not alone in this sentiment, and James Kolker, University architect and associate vice chancellor of facilities planning, explained the name change.

“I would say ‘Zoom-studydine pods’ was a working title that described what they were...and that was what was published in the plans,” Kolker said. “Then, there was this parallel talk nationally about ‘pods,’

you know, pods of people living together and pods of communities, so there was some confusion with what a ‘pod’ was, and the imagery that ‘pods’ conjures up was not exactly what they are. In the town halls that were in August, Beverly Wendland, the provost, would call them ‘zoom-study pods’ and then say ‘I think they should be called cubbies!’ She said it in every town hall, and all of the sudden they became cubbies.”

Despite the disconnect between the expectations from the initial announcement and the reality of the spaces, most students have found the cubbies to be effective study spots, albeit a little too quiet to participate in a Zoom class. “I like that they are kind of private so I don’t have to walk all the way back to my place for online class,” said sophomore Jenna Rogge, “but they are also dead silent and it’s super awkward if you have to ask a question or participate in class.”

Cubbies can be reserved on the University's “ReserveA-Space” website for a few hours at a time. Some students, such as Carter, have found this to be a bit redundant, stating, “I thought they were a comfortable place to get your work done, but I don’t really see why there’s a need to make a reservation,

because when I went there were probably at least 10 empty seats surrounding me.”

This system has several specific purposes, according to Brian Newman, the project manager for this endeavor. In reference to the online reservation system, he said, “It was debated for some time, and in the end there were really two deciding factors. One was we liked the idea of avoiding any space use conflict. We like the idea that someone could reserve the cubby and know it’s there and not have someone sitting in the spot where they’re planning on spending a couple of hours. The other thing that was appealing to us was the potential to aid in any contact tracing that may be needed.”

These spaces are located throughout campus in former classrooms, large gathering spaces like Holmes Lounge and Graham Chapel and in the newly constructed outdoor tents. According to Kolker, “We were specifically looking at things other than classrooms and housing and dining, everything else that’s part of the holistic student experience…What are the pieces that make up the complete student experience on campus, beyond going to school, studying, eating and sleeping? So, in those conversations it became evident

COURTESY OF BARSTOOL WASHU

Tents house the cubbies so students can maintain social distancing while learning and eating. Students can visit these cubbies at various locations around campus, including Mudd Field and Graham Chapel.

that it was really important to provide other spaces...and it also became apparent that it was very likely the libraries wouldn’t be open for student use. I believe if you look at all the libraries on campus, there are almost 2,000 seats, and basically that’s a big part of the student experience.

Where are students going to fit and do things?”

Students have still mourned the loss of the spaces they used to frequent.

“The first time, it was in the DUC fun room, which was weird to see filled with study

cubbies,” said Abby Matt, a junior. She did say it was a good place to study, stating, “the quality wasn’t ‘Olin level-focus,’ but it was okay. I miss Olin.”

Planning for how to handle campus study spaces in the future is still in preliminary stages. “I think those conversations are starting,” Kolker said, “but it’s all in response to the changing public health situation, so we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, but I think we have the flexibility to use them as they are, fill them all up if we

need to, reduce the density if we need to, maybe use them in different ways in the spring if we see the cubby use is not peaking…We’re doing the best we can to be as flexible as we can, and we’re fortunate to have so many spaces on campus.”

Students have still been grateful for these efforts and are mostly happy to use these spaces for the time being. As senior Zoe Holtzman noted, “I don’t know how much better they could do. They’re trying, and I appreciate that.”

‘We’re plugging away’: How the Prison Education Project keeps working during the pandemic BENJAMIN SIMON SENIOR SCENE EDITOR Trevor Sangrey normally runs discussion-based classes.

This means small group conversations, mid-semester presentations and witnessing the “funky dynamics” that take place within a classroom setting. But Sangrey couldn’t teach their normal discussion based class this past semester.

Instead, they had to teach class through pre-recorded videos, a 500-page course reader and loads of emails.

“I don't like lecturing,” Sangrey says of their class titled “U.S. Social Movements.” “I thought making those videos was hideous. I'd much rather talk to someone than write emails.

Emails also are hideous.”

Sangrey, who is an a​ ssistant dean of Arts & Sciences and lecturer in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, didn’t have a choice.

That’s because they were teaching the 2020 summer semester at Missouri Eastern Correctional Center (MECC) as a part of the Washington University Prison Education Project (PEP).

In a normal year, PEP instructors make the 35-minute drive southwest to Pacific, Mo. where they conduct in-person class, put together study hall sessions and even organize clubs.

In lieu of other work, the 35 students enrolled in the program spend their time working towards associate and bachelor’s degrees. “It was just like being on the campus of a university,” said former PEP student Kevin Hammerschmidt, who is now finishing his degree at the University College.

But when COVID-19 hit, the prison completely shut down. The students couldn’t see their families, let alone teachers from PEP. Luckily, every incarcerated individual at MECC, and in the Missouri Department of Corrections, receives a JPay tablet to download music, play games, watch videos and read books. PEP students also have access to a Canvaslike system called Lantern (“It can do one-tenth of what Canvas can do,” says PEP Co-Director Robert Henke), which was first rolled out in the fall of 2019. With this

platform, teachers have had the ability to upload videos, write assignments, administer quizzes and email students.

PEP organizers initially hoped Lantern would complement their in-person classroom work. But shortly after the emergence of COVID, the tablets became their main source of learning–making PEP unique amongst other prison education programs across the country. Without the same technology, these programs were forced to mail packets of coursework to students.

Some have paused their programs altogether.

“I don't mean to brag,” Henke says, “but very few other college prison programs were able to continue classes… we sort of have been the model in a way.”

Even with the tablets, PEP has faced a mountain of challenges. The tablets have limited storage space, requiring professors to record shorter videos. Emails can only go one-way, making a discussion board impossible. And students do not have access to WiFi, forcing them to upload their content

JOE ANGELES/COURTESY OF THE PRISON EDUCATION PROJECT

A graduate hugs someone during the 2019 Washington University graduation ceremony at Missouri Eastern Correctional Center. It was the first graduation in the history of the Prison Education Project.

through the sole kiosk machine that resides in their 60-person wings. As a result, a simple email exchange may take days to finish.

Despite the struggles, Hammerschmidt has seen some positives in the fully virtual semester.

“I think that if you think about it, there's guys who are using these tablets who have never even been on a computer before,” he says.

“They don't know what a smartphone is. They've been locked up for the past 20 to 25 years and they had no access to that. They're learning some computer skills through the tablets, they're learning how to navigate through them.”

Some teachers, like Sangrey, found creative ways to work around the technology and foster a discussion-based class.

Throughout the summer, Sangrey would record two to three videos per week to provide contextual information.

Then after doing reading, usually 75 to 110 pages per week, Sangrey asked the students to organize themselves into three or four person discussion groups within the prison.

For each set of readings, a different student served as the discussion leader, recorder or primary source analyst. After each discussion, the students would write up a response based on their given role in that week’s conversation.

The small discussion groups worked, Sangrey said, that is, if the students had access to one.

After March, incarcerated individuals at the mediumsecurity prison were confined to their 60-person wings in hopes of halting the spread of the virus. Despite this, MECC still saw an outbreak over the summer. Out of the approximately 1,100

incarcerated individuals, 166 have been infected, in addition to 43 staffers (those numbers are currently down to four and 12 active cases, respectively).

In response, Sangrey had to stay flexible. A portion of the students in Sangrey’s 15-person class could not participate in the discussion groups. Some, for example, lived in wings with individuals they didn't get along with.

To compensate for the lack of discussion, those students had to write longer reflection papers.

Normally, Sangrey made assignments due on Fridays, but they quickly learned that technical difficulties run rampant. Three students in Sangrey’s 15-person class are still finishing up their coursework from August.

One was pulled for COVID cleaning duty, while another lost their tablet. Although Hammerschmidt knows PEP is doing all they can to make these COVID semesters worthwhile, many students in the program, he says, have struggled to stay motivated with the lack of in-person contact.

“It's broken the camaraderie in a way, because they don't have that classroom experience with the professors who care,” Hammerschmidt says.

Natasha Narayanan, PEP’s Program Coordinator, has noticed the toll taken on students as well.

“I think it's a difficult time to be a student in general,” says Narayanan. “And then the added stress of being in a position where you have so little control, and so little autonomy over your circumstances.”

The men of MECC have felt this firsthand during the virus. While they do have masks, many COVID safety supplies, Hammerschmidt

notes, aren’t readily available. With shared phones, bathrooms and kiosks, social distancing is practically nonexistent. Guards often fail to wear a mask or gloves, even when doing security checks, he adds. In late July, there was a reported protest over the conditions. “A lot of guys are saying they don't even want to go eat up [in the cafeteria], because they're afraid they're going to catch it,” Hammerschmidt says.

For these reasons, PEP has no current plans in returning to the prison and further exposing its students.

“The incarcerated population in general is such a vulnerable population,” Narayanan says. “They don't have access to adequate health care, they don't have access to personal protective equipment necessarily.

It's very difficult to social distance within a prison if that's even being enforced.

The safety of our students is our top priority.”

And for the time being, the professors and program organizers will make it work. PEP has a full six course load for the fall semester. They have their virtual learning system.

They have their course readers. And they are continuing to adapt. In March, PEP sent keyboards to their students.

They now have access to virtual tutors over Lantern. And they hope that, in the coming weeks, they can set up Zoom in one of the classrooms as well.

“We're pushing Lantern to the limits, and we're squeezing everything we can from that thing…. There's a certain good feeling that we're plugging away and powering through,” says Henke. “And I think a certain feeling of pride in that [too]. I'm very proud of our incarcerated students for being positive about it.”

CADENZA

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2020

ISABELLA NEUBAUER & SABRINA SPENCE | SENIOR CADENZA EDITORS | CADENZA@STUDLIFE.COM

STUDENT LIFE 5

The Black Rep makes ‘Front Porch Society’ a memorable experience SABRINA SPENCE SENIOR CADENZA EDITOR “Front Porch Society”

by Melda Beaty is the most recent production by the St. Louis Black Repertory Company (Black Rep). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the show was produced as a reading virtually via Zoom and live streamed Friday, Sept. 25, recorded and made available through Sunday, Sept. 27. “Front Porch Society” is the second show in the fall lineup of The Black Rep’s 43rd season.

“Coconut Cake”—the season’s opener—was also a virtual performance.

Directed by Ron Himes,

a Black Rep founder, Washington University alum and professor in the Performing Arts Department, “Front Porch Society” tells the story of one small-town Black community’s excitement and scandal as secrets come to light on the eve of President Barack Obama’s first election.

Majorie Johnson plays Carrie Honey, a woman made bitter after seeking justice for her son’s death for the past 40 years, which she believes occurred at the hands of the police. Every year on election day she mourns his loss. She writes letters to the authorities in the hopes that they’ll give her son justice, but the

system continually fails her and her son.

Through Johnson’s portrayal, we see the way the system can wrong those it should be protecting—the families of those who’ve lost loved ones at the hands of the system. Losing faith in the system can remove you from the world around you even when it looks like times are changing, and Carrie spends the majority of the play experiencing life vicariously through those around her.

Choosing not to take part in the celebratory atmosphere of Obama’s impending victory, Carrie sits on her porch as people from the town of Marks, Miss.—one of whom

was portrayed by Wash. U. alum Kentrell Jamison— keep her informed of the daily happenings, all to her disinterest. But the defilement of her son’s grave brings her into the present and almost destroys the significance of that historic election day, and the secrets that are revealed restore her faith.

Before each scene, stage directions and character descriptions were read, giving audience members the opportunity to fully understand and appreciate the production elements.

These notes about costumes, setting and props are things that audiences oftentimes overlook when watching

a production seated in a theater, as they are ushered along from their seats going from one scene to the next in a hubbub of blackouts and applause.

While it would seem that watching a production via Zoom would take away some of that so-called “theatre magic,” that wasn’t the case with “Front Porch Society.”

Watching the actors via Zoom as opposed to being in the Edison Theatre, where The Black Rep’s shows are usually mounted, meant that we could see each and every actor up close and “personal.” We could feel their emotions, see their expressions; rejoice when they

rejoiced and feel anger when they felt anger. Watching theatrical performances from home provides a different feel that audiences are going to have to get used to as we continue through the pandemic.

And although the actors were performing from their own screens, that didn’t make it any less of a memorable experience. This virtual reading of “Front Porch Society” not only examined the way in which we participate in our civic duty and how we let personal experiences influence our political ideation, but it also proved that theatre can be done and done well in the midst of these unusual circumstances.

‘Border South’: A new take on the migrant documentary genre KAMALA MADIREDDI CONTRIBUTING WRITER The Survivor. The Trail.

The Anthropologist. These are the three different legs of the migrant journey that are the focus of Raúl O. Paz Pastrana’s 2019 documentary “Border South.” The film offers a completely new take on the migrant documentary genre with its more intimate details of the migrant trail running from southern Mexico to the U.S. border. While many documentaries about migrants describe the fast-paced passage and the proposed happily-ever-after end of the immigration journey, “Border South” is about the

less-publicized waiting game many migrants have to play.

“Border South” follows Gustavo—the survivor, a Nicaraguan shot by Mexican police on a train while getting closer to the border—as he awaits a humanitarian visa. Pastrana’s documentary offers a close up view of “The Trail” with intimate conversations with Central Americans waiting for an opportunity in migrant camps, forests and by the train tracks.

Even more uniquely, “The Anthropologist” provides an ethnographical lens to the trail by following University of Michigan anthropology professor and Director of the Undocumented Migrants

Project Jason De Leon as he waits for more information on a missing young migrant.

The film is part of a global pop-up exhibition—Hostile Terrain 94—organized by the Undocumented Migrants Project, an anthropological study of the migrant movement from Latin America to the United States. The exhibition includes handwritten toe tags that represent the thousands of missing migrants, and it shows many different artifacts, ranging from shoes to backpacks, that were left on the migrant trail. On Sept. 24 and 25, Washington University kicked off its version of Hostile Terrain 94 with a free screening of “Border

South” followed by a question and answer session with both Pastrana and De Leon.

The film’s unique take on the migrant journey is one of the main reasons it found a place in De Leon’s Undocumented Migrants Project. In the post-screening Q&A, De Leon reminisced at his recognition of the distinctiveness in Pastrana’s vision as “a narrative trying to explore aspects of this process that [De Leon] felt were really ignored.”

While other migrant movies focus on the dreamcome-true ending of the journey, “Border South” presents the unresolved stories that end right where they began. The lack of

resolution is just as frustrating as it is sobering. The reality in the lack of progress is refreshing to watch, especially compared to the feel-good stories like “Made in LA” and “Which Way Home” that are pervasive in the genre. This aspect of the film was not an accident.

“The lack of resolution that the film has speaks to this idea that... there's no way to wrap this up kind of nicely and to put a bow on this kind of thing,” De Leon said.

Even though the waiting and the lack of progress can drag on for a while, the documentary uses it to show the reality of the journey.

Overall, the authenticity of

the film and the new stories it shares definitely make it a must-watch.

Hostile Terrain 94 and the Undocumented Migrants Project will be hosting monthly webinar series starting Wednesday, Sept.

30, and are collecting videos for a “Moment of Global Remembrance” for the thousands of people who have died or gone missing while crossing the U.S./ Mexico border. According to Pastrana, PBS is working to broadcast “Border South” in the near future. All of the information regarding these events can be found on their website, https://www. undocumentedmigrationproject.org.

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6 STUDENT LIFE

ISABELLA NEUBAUER & SABRINA SPENCE | SENIOR CADENZA EDITORS | CADENZA@STUDLIFE.COM

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2020

Performing Arts Department virtual season to look to the past, present LYDIA MCKELVIE STAFF WRITER For all the stress and mess this year has brought, there has been one shining moment of internet glory that has illuminated my time in quarantine. It seems that the youths of the web have decided the plague throwback we’re experiencing is inspiration enough to invent a brand new aesthetic: BardCore.

That’s right, the medieval times have come back with a vengeance, with the likes of lute covers of “Mine Hips Doth Not Deceive Thee” by Lady Shakira and Apothecary-themed ASMR videos gracing Youtube

and TikTok. While being delightfully entertaining, this trend also showcases a strange convolution of time we’re collectively experiencing in which the past seems increasingly relevant, the present is hard to pin-down, and the future is nebulous at best. The Performing Arts Department intends to utilize this with an innovative new season that highlights where we’ve been, where we are and where we might be going.

The medieval has certainly influenced many of the ways this season is moving forward, most notably with the introduction of the new PAD Mobile Stage—PADdee Wagon,

CURRAN NEENAN | STUDENT LIFE

The A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre stands empty ahead of the Performing Arts Department’s 2020-2021 season “On Moving Ground.”

as it has been dubbed.

Designed by Professor Robert Morgan, this mobile stage has been inspired by medieval pageant wagons, which were the go-to way to experience theatre back in the day. According to Performing Arts Department Production Committee Chair Professor Bill Whitaker, “The dream is that come spring—since we know that being outside, in fresh air, safely distancing—maybe we can gain permission to wheel our wagon up and arrive at the bottom of Brookings Hall and socially distance and put on a performance piece.

So, if we can’t be inside of our buildings, what if we steal a little something from medieval pageant wagons.”

This historical reference will not only be reflected in the performance structure, but also in the content of the performance itself in the play “The Covid Mysteries,” which is directly inspired by the 14th century York Cycle Plays. This play will tells the stories of Creation, Passion and Judgement from Christian tradition that formed the core of theatrical experience in an earlier time, but

produced for a contemporary (and only mildly heretical) audience. “We thought, ‘Well we’ve got a pageant wagon, the inspiration for the pageant wagon came from the York Cycle… so the touchstone is the York Cycle Plays, but we’re doing it for the time[s] right now’… so there’s a kind of playful take on the York Cycle Mysteries that we can actually officially launch the pageant wagon using that piece,” said Whitaker.

Relevance is key to the PAD this year, as they hope to bring theatre that is specific to the time we’re in both in content and in structure. Many plays slated for production deal with the complex social injustices and systemic problems brought to the attention of many this year, such as the world premiere of “Remember....That Time Before the Last Time” by Ron Himes, which is “an exploration of the effects of race, social injustice and the traumatic impact of slavery on the creative impulses of a people/artists through spoken word, music and dance from the diaspora.”

The PAD is not just looking to the past and present,

however, but they are also attempting to find a footing in this brave new world. For Whitaker, “It has everything to do with being defiant about not giving up and just ‘not doing theatre,’ and finding ways of doing it in spite of a steadfast obstacle and hopefully not only that we are mindful of our times.”

This means the department has primarily incorporated virtual performance methods to properly abide by public safety measures, but that doesn’t mean they’re done innovating or looking forward.

Whitaker recognizes that this time, while unique in its challenges, is also unique in its opportunities for student engagement and expression.

For example, there will be a virtual platform run through the PAD in which students can bring their own creative visions to life in a more supported capacity through the department. As Whitaker explained, “There are a lot of people doing really cool stuff on YouTube and throwing things up on TikTok, all these things happening, we go, ‘Well wait a minute! Maybe there’s an inspiration here. What if

we created within the PAD a platform virtually where students...if they want to do something within the struictures of online-ness maybe we can do some productions there that will be vetted and released under the banner of PAD.’” Clearly, it is difficult to plan for anything in a concrete way this school year.

This is why the season has been intentionally designed to be flexible and adaptable for a changing public health situation in both the Wash.

U. and greater St. Louis community. “The season wanted to be enduring, it wanted to be a season that was present to what’s going on in our world, and that maybe has some hopes and dreams for dealing with the changing circumstances of the world as we know it…

We’re calling it “‘on moving ground’” because these are hopes and dreams, we think they’ll happen but if things change, these may change,” said Whitaker. More information about these performances andre others slated for this season is available on the PAD website, which will be updated as dates are set andor schedules and formats change.

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STUDENT LIFE 7

STAFF EDITORIAL

On the importance of following up and following through

I

n June, the renewed surge in activism surrounding George Floyd’s death led many students to once again call for accountability from the Washington.

University. administration. Chancellor Martin’s statements didn’t follow far behind, and in them, he promised to work towards a concrete plan to address systemic racism within the Wash.U. community as well as the larger St. Louis area.

Last week, one of the fruitions of that promise came to light: a committee formed to “examine public safety and policing on the Danforth Campus and in nearby neighborhoods.”.

In the release, the Uuniversity claims to have “begun a process” to rethink

safety and systemic racism on campus—–language that makes the commission seem like a novel step forward.

But in reality, the proposed committee is the latest in a parade of committees created by the administration to address various symptoms of the systemic racism present in and around the Wash. U. community.

In 2018, a task force was created by the University City Council to “address the city’s relationship with Washington University.”.

In 2015, another commission—: this one, to create a plan for increased diversity on campus.

Each of these commissions was born out of student uproar—–but what happens when the ruckus

dies down?

Martin’s initial promises in his letter to students in June were delivered under the gaze of a frustrated, riled-up student body. But the follow-up—–this commission, among the first concrete actions to emerge from that letter—–arrived rather quietly in the Source, despite (supposedly) being the fulfillment of those same initial promises.

This is one of the hardest parts of activism. We become active in response to blatant injustice—–but those emotions don’t last forever, and once they peter out, we are confronted with a mountain of work and a long road ahead. When dealing with issues that are deeprooted and systemic, this is

especially true. Even under the best of intentions, casual activism has a tendency to trim the branches off the tree rather than really get at pulling up the roots.

That being said, the cycle of fervor and apathy that casual activists experience is the same cycle that allows Wash. U. to generate committees without concrete action.

It’s important to continue to follow -up on the demands made to the University. It’s important to care about what has been done and how it has been done. This committee, for example, is currently comprised of members who are expressly affiliated with Wash. U., despite vowing to reexamine Wash. U.’s

policing practices outside of the Wash. U. community.

This may seem like a small detail, but it cannot be overlooked. In a discussion about the interactions between Washington University Police Department (WUPD) and St. Louis, input from members of the neighborhood surrounding Wash.U. is fundamental.

Activism isn’t always protests and dramatic, visible change. When it comes to addressing the effects of systemic racism, the details matter. It’s up to us, the students, to be watching when the university attempts to deliver on its promises.

This is not to say that it will be easy. It’s not only apathy that leads to a lull in activism—–sometimes

it’s hard to know what to do to help. But when we don’t know what we can and should do, we should turn to those who know more than us, and support the activists and organizers who can direct us toward tangible action. Listen when they call out to the student body, –and respond.

Ideally, we could leave this kind of change in the hands of the University.

But if we can’t follow up on our demands, can we be surprised when they don’t follow through on their promises? Hold the University accountable.

Keep an eye on which promises they keep. This is your chance to create real change; this is your chance to pull up the tree by the root.

Rest, resist and rise for Breonna Taylor SABRINA SAYED CONTRIBUTING WRITER

S

he was used for everything. Used to promote everything.

Used to make people look good and socially conscious. Used to promote parties. Used and used and used. And even with all of this, she didn’t get the one thing she needed. Justice. @ThisBeLi If the grand jury verdict of Breonna Taylor’s murder should teach us anything, it’s that justice does not come out of a courtroom.

Nor does it come from any other institution—not even the electoral system. Why? Because the United States is the child of capitalism, white supremacy and colonialism, systems that work in tandem to sustain one another. No politician, no president, no organization or judicial body can truly carry out justice while operating within the confines of these systems.

We see so clearly how incessantly capitalism and white supremacy work together when corporations use Breonna Taylor as a marketing strategy to gain profit. What we may not see as clearly is how the grip of capitalism prevents us, as individual agents, from resisting white supremacy.

After the grand jury verdict was announced on Wednesday, most people returned to work, class or whatever qualified as ‘business as usual’ the next day.

We feel obligated to work because we feel we have no other choice if we want the ability to feed ourselves, clothe ourselves and live our lives. We go to school to learn, yes, but also to eventually get jobs and make money to support our lifestyle.

As we are stuck in this cycle, we are forced to keep moving through our daily routines that don’t allow much time for us to mourn, grieve, organize or

simply sit with our feelings before we have to get back to work. Even a pandemic couldn’t stop us from getting back to work.

What did you do after you learned about the Breonna Taylor verdict?

Although I wanted to attend the protests downtown, I felt constrained by the endless pages of reading for my classes and my work-study job. My rationale was that I have to keep my grades up and I need the money. That was all it took for me, and I know that’s all it takes for many people with privilege.

Meanwhile, there were some who marched in the streets because their lives depend on it, but even then these protests haven’t lasted more than a few hours or days at a time before they must return to school or work, too. The next day in classes, only one of my professors mentioned Breonna Taylor. None of this sits right with me and it shouldn’t for you either.

These days I often think about Egypt, my father’s country, famous for the Arab Spring revolutions of 2011. Millions of Egyptians flooded the streets for weeks because they simply had nothing left to lose—no money, no medicine, no food. I think we as Americans can (and should) learn from the Arab revolutions. Let us not forget that it was largely the youth who led and organized them. We know that we have the power to change these systems, but do we have the will to resist them first?

It is time we denormalize the capitalistic cycles that have desenstitized us from the terrorism and traumas of our communities. It is time we “rest, resist, then rise.”

In a capitalist society, to rest is to be labeled lazy or unproductive, but rest is a necessity. To resist capitalism and its sisters, we must rest as a means of caring for ourselves

and our communities. I challenge professors to cancel as many classes as they feel comfortable to defy the business-as-usual attitude. Cancelling classes allows for those who are exhausted from reality to rest. Rest allows those who are riddled with grief to mourn and begin their healing process. It offers those who feel indifferent, time to reckon with their passivity and privilege. In fact, cancelling all University activities in response to such injustices is wholly appropriate and necessary for the entire community to be able to rest, resist, then rise.

When we resist as a community, we also rise together. For those faculty and administrators who will undoubtedly refuse to disrupt the status quo, it is up to students to use their privilege. Simply talking about Breonna Taylor in a privileged academic space that insists upon ignoring her worth can be powerful.

Students who feel emboldened to do so can organize a walk out (or a log out) from their classes. For those professors who feel capable of doing so, utilize class time to teach your students about how pervasive white supremacy and capitalism are, even in the very subject matter you are teaching.

I am well aware that none of these tactics dismantle white supremacy or capitalism, although that is the goal. The point is that the grand jury verdict that failed to indict Brett Hankison, Jonathan Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove for murdering Breonna Taylor is not “normal.” It is not “normal” for Breonna Taylor’s life to be perceived as less valuable “than the drywall she slept next to.” And it is not “normal” for us to continue to go about our days as witnesses to these realities without skipping a beat. Let us rest, resist, then rise.

University health services need help OLIVIA POOLOS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

I

magine you wake up on a Saturday morning, and that sore throat you’ve been ignoring all week has suddenly become unbearable. What do you do? Call Habif Health and Wellness Center, of course. That much has been drilled into Washington University students since orientation week. Unfortunately, however, you’re going to get slammed by the mechanical-sounding voicemail that politely informs you that Habif is closed on weekends.

This year, due to COVID-19, healthcare for students has been chopped, redesigned and delegated to the point of absurdity. When I woke up on my first weekend on campus with puffed-up cheeks and a toothache, I frantically circled between the offered support lines. First came Habif ’s robot phone line, then Emergency Support Team (EST)—who offered an ambulance—then the nurse advice line, followed by a series of Resident Advisors (RAs) and Washington University Student Associates (WUSAs), who, while very

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kind, weren’t sure what to do either. The whole escapade took over an hour, during which I grew both more panicked and more swollen. I eventually found non-University care.

Habif ’s web portal that is used to schedule general appointments, has also been partially axed (though it seems that mental health appointments may still possibly be scheduled). Instead, a cryptic message written in bright red lettering on their homepage reads: “Appointments have temporarily changed.”

Logging into the student portal, putting in your

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birthdate, and selecting an appointment type also leads you back to a vague and carefully constructed transcript of polite rejection: “Due to COVID-19…no longer able to…” Now, on top of whatever medical issue you’re dealing with, you have a headache from banging your head against the wall in frustration.

Habif has added a new service, WashU Express Care, to their arsenal. The virtual appointments are fine for minor concerns, but not great when you need to be physically examined. Additionally, the system adds time and

frustration to the process, as you must listen to more press-1-for-scheduling messages, and “can you please hold while I transfer you to another specialist.”

Furthermore, the University discourages off-campus urgent care, in order to reduce risk of COVID-19 transmission.

While this precaution is understandable, it’s also another closed door to face when you’re in need of medical help.

Instead of piecing together a mishmash of semi-useful health services, the University should funnel all medical

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concerns (except perhaps emergency services) towards one clear resource. Ideally, this would be the one we’ve all been pointed towards already: Habif. The added stress that comes with a lack of clear direction when you’re already sick or in pain is both detrimental and unnecessary.

While I’m not denying the very real threat of COVID-19, I know that simply reducing hours, offloading to different services and swapping to online care for all other health concerns isn’t the answer to keeping students safe.

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SPORTS

8 STUDENT LIFE

DORIAN DEBOSE & JOSH SHAPIRO | SENIOR SPORTS EDITORS | SPORTS@STUDLIFE.COM

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2020

What explains the unlikely return of baseball glory?

JOSH SHAPIRO SENIOR SPORTS EDITOR For all the glitz and glam of Citi Field–the New York Mets’ current stadium–I’ll never forget trekking out to storied Shea Stadium as a seven-year-old baseball newbie. It was at Shea that I watched my first ever Mets game and caught my first baseball. And it was at Shea that I forged my first lifelong connection with a sports team.

Thinking back to that game, the sprout of my fandom, I am filled with mixed emotions, simultaneously grateful for my first introduction to professional sports and upset with how out of touch I’ve fallen with baseball recently. Yes, there were great moments, highlighted by the Mets’ appearance in the World Series in 2015.

But over the last decade, like it did to many in my generation, America’s oldest pastime became somewhat of an afterthought for me–a fourth fiddle to football, basketball and soccer.

During the pandemic though, something funny happened. Baseball made the unlikeliest of comebacks–both

in my life, and in the lives of other Americans across the country. While NBA basketball sputtered ratings-wise, baseball surged, led by a huge jump in viewership with arguably the most valuable and sought-after demographic: young people.

On a personal level, baseball’s recovery makes little sense. Teams this year are playing in empty stadiums without any fans, which theoretically should have caused huge problems. Live audiences are more important to baseball than arguably any other sport, and going to a baseball game is as much about the atmosphere and the ball-game grub as it is about the home runs and the strikeouts.

Watching baseball on TV was always about immersing myself in that same experience vicariously through the fans on my screen. It was about getting to see fans compete aggressively with one another for foul balls, watching them perform the wave in near-unison when they–like me–got a little antsy, and standing up and cheering with my TV compadres when a run was scored or a great catch was made. That

baseball has persisted in spite of the lack of crowds is incredibly unlikely and even more exciting.

Perhaps most importantly, the pandemic forced the MLB to make the long overdue decision to dramatically shorten its season. It’s hard to invest too deeply in one game out of a 162-game slugfest, but it’s a lot easier to care when teams’ schedules are compressed into a neat two-month package. The pandemic also caused the MLB to expand its playoffs to sixteen teams, similar to the NBA and NHL. With so many spots, no team was truly ever out of the playoff picture–even my lowly Mets, who limped towards the finish line, were eliminated just a few days before the end of the regular season.

Baseball has also lucked out, aided by the changes in lifestyle resulting from COVID-19. For years, the prime reason for baseball’s steady decline had been attributed to structural challenges the game imposes on viewers. America’s oldest pastime wasn’t prepared for the technological innovations of the present, and the resulting shorter attention spans that are incompatible

GRAPHIC BY MIA GOLDBERG

with baseball’s slow-moving nature. But with less to do and fewer people to see, people have adjusted their attention spans, so more folks are likely to exhibit the patience to sit through nine innings of baseball.

For the MLB, the uptick in viewership is not guaranteed to hold steady. And when life

returns to normal, baseball risks snapping right back to its past failures. But the pandemic–if nothing else–has shown that baseball still has a path to prominence and reinvigoration. Yes, boredom helped baseball. But so did the other changes: the shortened season, the bigger playoff picture, and the abbreviated

double headers. Baseball had become too predictable. This year has offered a promising alternative. An alternative that, should the MLB choose to embrace it, could offer them a path to recapturing me and the millions of other young fans around the country and world who once called baseball their favorite sport.

Matt’s Musings: The Ten Commandments of pandemic sports MATT SINGER SPORTS COLUMNIST Over six months ago, when the NBA suspended its season due to COVID-19, sports fans everywhere were left to wonder what the near future of sports looked like. Would they be coming back? If so, in what fashion? If not, how else would we fill our days?

The reality of the situation has been weirder than perhaps anyone anticipated. I mean, who would’ve guessed that J.R. Smith and LeBron James would be reunited on a Finalsbound team? Or that college football would be reckless in its handling of its season?

Okay, I probably could’ve seen that one coming.

I’ve compiled a list of things to know and live by in the world of pandemic sports. Here are the Ten Commandments of sports in quarantine.

I. I, LeBron James, am still the best in the world. Thou shalt have no other GOATs before me (except maybe MJ).

After

he

missed

the

playoffs last year, some thought LeBron had lost the title of best player in the world. At the very least, with Giannis winning MVP and Kawhi leading the Raptors to an unexpected championship, the question “who is the best player in the world?” was certainly one worth asking. But in the NBA bubble in Orlando, LeBron has left no doubt that he remains the best in the world, leading his team through the playoffs in dominant style. His Game 5 performance against the Nuggets put any argument against him to bed. Now in his tenth(!) Finals, LeBron can also edge closer to Jordan in the GOAT conversation, especially if the Lakers annihilate the Heat.

II. Thou shalt not make unto thee any comments on Dame Lillard’s Instagram, especially if thou are Paul George and/or Patrick Beverly.

One of the reasons the Clippers were so disappointing was that Paul George, arguably a top-ten player in basketball during the regular

season, reminded all of us what “Playoff P,” his postseason alter ego, is capable of. He was awful for all but a handful of the Clippers’ 13 playoff games. Ditto with Patrick Beverly, who let Jamal Murray absolutely destroy him en route to coming back from 3-1 down. We knew that Pat Bev couldn’t really score, but he’s supposed to be able to play defense. For two guys that talk a lot, they really didn’t back any of it up. To tie it all up, Damian Lillard, star of the bubble until getting knocked out of the playoffs by the Lakers— who beefed with George and Beverly in the bubble—had some kind parting words for the two Clippers after they got sent home: 1, 2, 3, Cancún, indeed.

III. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord Christian Pulisic in vain.

There were questions about Chelsea’s Christian Pulisic after his $73 million move to West London last year. All those questions were answered after the Premier League’s restart. It didn’t

matter that Pulisic hadn’t played since New Year’s Day; he put Chelsea on his back and carried them to a top four spot. He was by far the Blues’

best player during the restart, with especially noteworthy performances against Man City and Liverpool. God is real, and his name is Captain

America.

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