The independent newspaper of Washington University in St. Louis since 1878 THURSDAY, SEPT 16, 2021
VOLUME 143, NO. 3
NEW CHURCH
One student’s experience at the church on the corner (Scene, pg. 4)
WWW.STUDLIFE.COM
STAR JUNIOR
JAZZ AT LAST
Our interview with men’s soccer’s leading scorer (Sports, pg. 6)
Holmes Lounge no longer serves food, but at least there is music (Cadenza, pg. 8)
STUDENTS STRIKE AFTER HATE FOLLOWING 9/11 FLAG REMOVAL National attention focuses on WU
Citing safety concerns and Martin’s solidarity, many stay home approach to or attend class on Zoom free speech under fire TED MOSKAL MANAGING EDITOR
Many students went on an academic strike Wednesday, skipping class or attending remotely if given the option, as Chancellor Andrew Martin continued to remain silent on the Islamophobia and other racism that spread on social media following senior Fadel Alkilani’s removal of 9/11 commemorative flags from Mudd Field Saturday. The Students for Black and Palestinian Liberation group organized the strike, circulating resources including a form to help Muslim students and students of color find rides or walking partners to campus and a hotline for students to receive security updates. Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences Feng Sheng Hu wrote in an email to faculty and staff Tuesday night that the administration expected faculty to teach Wednesday and that there was no need to excuse absences for students who participated in the strike. Some professors canceled class or moved in-person classes to Zoom, while others still required students to attend. Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Anna Gonzalez said the Washington University Police Department worked with “outside partners” to assess that none of the online threats, several of which involved plans to travel to campus, posed a credible threat to students. “We know there have been numerous posts in the past several days that have caused concern in our community,” a Tuesday night email from Washington University Law Enforcement to the community read. “We are actively investigating these posts and at this time there is no reason to believe that there is a credible threat to the university.” Gonzalez cited the lack of a credible threat and a desire to avoid causing more fear as the main factor why professors were not mandated to excuse absences. “Knowing that there was no credible threat, we didn’t want to amplify the rumors or say things that would add to the areas of anxiety of our community,” Gonzalez said. “If I were to say ‘yes, you can miss class,’ that would mean that there are credible threats, and that we should stay home out of fear.” For senior Max CampOberhauser, fear was less of a concern in his decision to strike than his desire to show solidarity with affected
students. Camp-Oberhauser also expressed disapproval of Chancellor Martin’s official statement regarding the flag removal, which stated that “[Alkilani] has access to campus resources that are regularly available to students as he navigates the consequences of his actions, both on campus and beyond.” “It just felt really cold, considering that the consequences of those actions, on and off campus, have been really undeserved,” Camp-Oberhauser said. “I feel like nobody deserves to receive death threats and be doxxed and harassed by hundreds of people on the internet and to have to go into hiding and not come to classes. Then the Chancellor sort of implied that those consequences were deserved in some way.” The Center for Diversity and Inclusion (CDI) released on Wednesday afternoon the first public Universitywide statement addressing the recent dramatic increase of Islamophobia directed at students, three days after the removal of the flags went viral. “[We] want to acknowledge the fear of harm experienced by many of our students,” the statement read. “These experiences threaten the mental and emotional health and safety of our community as it is informed and supported by a history of harm targeting minoritized identities in our country.” The CDI provided a “decompression space” at its office in the Danforth University Center Wednesday midday and a “walk and talk” event in partnership with the Gephardt Institute for Civic and Community Engagement late Wednesday afternoon. The “walk and talk” session encouraged students to discuss prompts such as “What role does power play in the interpretation of symbols in the context of the United States?” and “If you protest, how do your various identities impact your ability to engage in protest?” “Today, we actually didn’t have a ton of students, and I think it was really because they were protesting,” Student Engagement Coordinator at the Gephardt Center Colleen Smith said. “So we’re thinking of reusing the same questions next week, when there might be more foot traffic. Camp-Oberhauser agreed that the CDI’s statement and programming were steps in the right direction, but added that “I think what’s clear is that it was students
MATTHEW FRIEDMAN AND EM MCPHIE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF AND MANAGING EDITOR Chancellor Andrew Martin faced criticism Wednesday from one of the University’s most prominent first amendment law professors, Gregory Magarian, who argued that the administration’s silence on Islamophobia and racism caused “far greater harm” than senior Fadel Alkilani’s initial removal of 9/11 memorial flags and ultimately undermined the University’s support for free speech. Magarian’s critique comes as students and student groups continue to call on the University to address online hate and threats and as some students went on an academic strike Wednesday, skipping class or attending remotely out of fear for their safety or in solidarity with students who have expressed fears for their safety. “Putting up these flags as a way of commemorating 9/11 and making a political statement about 9/11 — there’s no question that that is an act of speech, that that is expressive, that it carries a message,” Magarian, Washington University’s Thomas and Karole Green Professor of Law, said in an interview with Student Life Monday evening. “And I think there’s no also no question that as a category, as a phenomenon, taking down the flags in opposition to the display is also expressive.” Magarian noted that the widespread hate speech following Alkilani’s counterprotest, and the way in which it was allowed to proliferate for days without rebuke from administrators, was likely to have a chilling effect on the future atmo-
GRACE BRUTON | STUDENT LIFE
Chancellor Andrew Martin speaks at the Day of Dialogue in 2019.
sphere of free speech on campus. “If I had an identity that subjected me to frequent or likely instances of abuse based on my identity, I would feel less free and less comfortable expressing myself in any kind of controversial way, knowing the sort of blowback that this incident got,” he said.
SEE STRIKE, page 2
SEE FREE SPEECH, page 2
EMMETT CAMPBELL | STUDENT LIFE
A student holds a candle at the vigil for survivors held on Friday night.
MeToo WashU hosts vigil for survivors and demands Greek abolition TED MOSKAL MANAGING EDITOR This article contains discussion of sexual violence. We have listed resources for those impacted by this issue at the end of the story. Around 50 students attended @metoo_washu’s two-part vigil for survivors at the overpass and protest for Greek Life abolition on Fraternity Row, Sept. 10. Volunteers at the vigil read stories of sexual violence that had been shared anonymously on the @metoo_washu Instagram page. During the second half of the night, students marched to Fraternity Row and stood outside each house chanting “F*** rapists” among other calls for the abolition of Greek Life. Organizers titled the protest “Occupy the Red Zone,” referring to the period between the start of the fall semester and the beginning of Thanksgiving break, when more than half of all sexual assaults on college campuses tend to occur according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network. The twopart structure of the night was intended to give survivors a place to process trauma while also enabling community members to call for change. Junior Marin Powers, who attended both the vigil and the protest, said that hearing the stories of survivors before protesting had a powerful effect. “I did like having the vigil beforehand,” Powers said. “I think it really makes you think and reflect before and it really gets you fired up for protesting, and I would definitely attend again.” Junior Lexy Courneya, a volunteer at the event, began the protest on Fraternity Row by framing it as a tour of campus. “We'll go from house to house and we're going to take you on a tour that you did not receive as a prospective student,” Courneya told protestors. “And on this tour, you're going to visit sites of sexual violence and rape culture. So although sexual
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violence occurs throughout the Washington University campus and adjacent neighborhoods, a significant number of sexual assaults and rapes occur right here on Frat Row.” A 2018 survey by the Women’s Panhellenic Association found that sorority members reported experiencing unwanted sexual contact from members of every fraternity on campus. A 2019 campus climate survey conducted by the Association of American Universities found that 42.5% of undergraduate women could expect to experience nonconsensual sexual contact by their fourth year at Washington University. Outside of each house, volunteers supplemented these statistics with individual accounts of sexual violence or general misconduct that had occured at each location, such as a survivor’s story of being raped by a member of Alpha Epsilon Pi, Sigma Nu brothers “mock kidnapping” a sophomore girl and Kappa Sigma knowingly offering bids to two pledges who had been accused of sexual misconduct. Near the end of the night as protestors were standing outside the Tau Kappa Epsilon house, three brothers walked through the crowd to enter their house. Some protestors followed them up to the door, shouting “Shame on you,” “Come out you cowards” and “Matt Jones come defend your frat,” referring to the president of Tau Kappa Epsilon. The protestors initially held the door open, but soon allowed the brothers to shut it after organizers called for de-escalation. Matt Jones did not respond to an email request for comment. Courneya called out the University’s inadequate response to the broader issue of sexual assault on campus. “The rate at which fraternity members rape freshmen concerns administrators to the extent that they banned freshmen from visiting fraternities
SEE SURVIVORS, page 3