Divided on neutrality, trust, and handling Trump: WashU, Vanderbilt chancellors’ disagreements with Princeton and Wesleyan presidents go public
During an April panel on growing public distrust in higher education hosted by the Association of American Universities (AAU), Christopher Eisgruber — Princeton president and AAU chair — criticized Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier and WashU Chancellor Andrew Martin for their handling of President Trump’s attacks on universities, according to an article published by The Atlantic on Aug. 11.
Eisgruber accused the chancellors of wrongfully agreeing with Trump’s view that American universities are increasingly ideologically conformist and disconnected from mainstream America. In response to Eisgruber’s accusations, Martin and Diermeier said that the “struggles” of several Ivy League universities were damaging the reputation of American research institutions, The Atlantic reported. The two chancellors also suggested to Eisgruber that other institutions and leaders may be better positioned to represent the country’s top universities.
The AAU panel was not open to the press, so the article in The Atlantic offered a first look into the internal disputes among leaders of elite universities and their differing views on the reforms higher education requires.
Trust in higher education has been declining steadily over the past decade. According to a Gallup Poll, the percent of Americans who have “a great deal” of trust in higher education declined from 57% in 2015 to 36% in 2024, although this improved slightly to 42% in 2025. At the same time, universities have had to contend with attacks and funding cuts from the Trump administration. Chancellors across the country have taken varied positions on how to respond to these crises.
Wesleyan President Michael Roth and Eisgruber contend that universities should not legitimize what they view as Trump’s politically motivated attacks on higher education. They emphasize instead the importance of safeguarding academic freedom.
SEE CHANCELLORS, PAGE 2
WashU’s Class of 2029 grows amid shifting admissions landscape
WashU recently welcomed the Class of 2029, the second-largest cohort in the school’s history. In comparison to the Class of 2028, this class saw an increase in rural and international students and a decrease in students from first-generation and low-income (FGLI) backgrounds, along with varied fluctuations in racial and ethnic minority enrollment.
WashU received 33,283 applications in its most recent admissions cycle, of which 3,968 applicants were admitted, and 1,963 students enrolled. While all three metrics increased over the previous year the 6% jump in enrolled students is the biggest increase in class size since the Class of 2025, which still holds the record for largest first-year enrollment.
The first-year class also continued a long-term shift toward Early Decision (ED) in WashU’s enrollment data. In 2016, ED applicants represented only about one-third of enrolled students, but by the Class of 2028, they represented nearly two-thirds of the incoming class.
WashU’s growing reliance on ED also mirrors a national pattern, as universities lean more heavily on ED to mitigate uncertainties in their class and secure commitments earlier in the admissions cycle. However, WashU’s and other elite universities’ usage of ED in admissions was recently challenged in court as misleading and in violation of federal antitrust laws.
In addition, the acceptance rate held steady at about 12%, while the percentage of admitted students who chose to enroll at WashU — called the yield rate — reached its highest point in at least ten years. Much of this increase can be attributed to the
increasing proportion of ED admits within each class, who, by definition, must enroll if admitted.
In an interview with Student Life, Grace Chapin James, the Assistant Vice Provost of Undergraduate Admissions, shared that yield uncertainty was one of the driving factors behind the increased size of this year’s incoming class.
“There was a lot of uncertainty related to the enrollment of international citizens when we sent out admission offers,” she said. “We still wanted a typically sized class, so we made more offers of admission than typical. The great news is that because of the support from the Office of International Scholars and students getting their visas, many of the international students were still able to enroll.”
The Class of 2029 includes
international students from 29 countries, who account for 12% of the total incoming class — a number that has increased from last year’s 11%, despite some other universities reporting a steep decline in international students. James noted that international students are admitted through the same holistic review process as domestic applicants and stressed their importance to WashU’s campus culture.
“They contribute significantly to the academic and cultural life of the University,” she said.
This increase continues a general upward trend of international students admitted each year over the past decade, in particular since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Class of 2029 also marks the second class admitted under race-neutral admissions standards,
WashU is not providing a University-wide merit raise to employees during the 2026 fiscal year (FY26) according to an email sent to employees July 31, a move which Chancellor Andrew Martin described as “disappointing news” to faculty and staff.
Martin cited Congress’ passage of an increased endowment excise tax within President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passed on July 3, as one of the reasons for the decision, in addition to cost imbalances within academic and administrative departments.
The University estimates that the increased tax on endowment funds will cost the school an additional $37 million per year. In addition to the endowment tax, the school also said that there is “significant uncertainty” in regard to federal cuts to scientific research funding.
In Martin’s second annual Q&A with WashU’s Student Union on Sept. 2, he was asked by sophomore treasury representative Jonathan Lewin about the state of University finances.
He responded that the University has made some changes to increase efficiency, which include not giving out merit raises.
“Almost everybody at the University, with a handful of exceptions, received a 0% raise for this year,” Martin said.
Martin added that he anticipates the University will make a profit in FY26.
“I believe that we’ll finish this fiscal year with probably a modest, a very modest surplus, if any,” Martin said. “But we’ll be in a position that our revenues are going to be growing at a faster rate than our expenses, and that’s going to allow us to continue to invest on a going forward basis.”
In comparison to other universities, Martin said that WashU is doing well.
“If you look across the sector, many universities are being hammered. I mean, really, really hammered. We’re in a very fortunate situation. … I think that from a grants perspective, we look as good as they do at any other university in the country right now.”
Tonya Edmond is a professor of Social Work and chair of the Faculty Senate Council (FSC) at WashU, an organization of faculty leaders that advocate about faculty issues to the University. Edmond said that she understands that the Chancellor’s decision about raises was not made lightly. She added that in her 25 years at the school, the only time that she remembered merit raises not being given was during the financial crisis of 2008.
following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in 2023 that banned racebased affirmative action in college admissions.
James said that within the boundaries of legality, WashU has focused on broadening access to underrepresented groups through new pipelines, particularly by recruiting students from rural areas and low-income backgrounds.
While the Class of 2028, the first class admitted after the Affirmative Action ruling, showed a decline in the percentage of students of color compared to the Class of 2027, James suggested that WashU’s expanded outreach could already be offsetting some of the loss in racial diversity seen in the Class of 2028.
SEE ADMISSIONS, PAGE 2
“It can put people in financially challenging situations depending on their individual circumstances,” Edmond said.
She also said that she appreciated Martin’s transparency with the FSC and the greater community about University finances. Edmond commended work done by WashU to mitigate the size of the endowment tax, which involved demonstrating University’s positive impact on not only its students, but also the broader St. Louis region.
“[WashU] has worked really hard to be in collaborative dialogue and communication with decision makers,” Edmund said.
Martin stated in the message that the University still anticipates breaking even during FY25, which ran from June 31, 2024, to July 1, 2025.
Chancellor Andrew Martin and Vanderbilt Chancellor Daniel Diermeier work together in calling for institutional neutrality and reform at elite universities.
BRI NITSBERG | MANAGING PHOTO EDITOR, PHOTO COURTESY OF KELLOGG INNOVATION GROUP
Missouri governor speaks at Global Health Innovation Summit held at WashU
healthcare.
COBY RINKE NEWS EDITOR
Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe spoke about the importance of providing effective rural healthcare and mental healthcare in Missouri, as well as the role that St. Louis plays in healthcare innovation, at the 9th annual Global Health Innovation Summit in WashU’s Knight Hall.
The summit was hosted by BioSTL, a St. Louisbased company that “fosters collaborative efforts to advance innovation & entrepreneurship,” according to its website. The summit was held on Aug. 28 and included 39 companies hailing from 10 countries, all developing healthcare innovations. The goal of the summit was to connect those companies with existing healthcare organizations like BarnesJewish Hospital and United Healthcare.
“You all went from 1,000 companies that we looked at to 39 companies that earned the right to be in front of these [healthcare organizations],” Chauhan said. “Our goal is, after the meetings you have today, is to start your journey of partnership and impact.”
Vijay Chauhan, the global head of BioSTL, said in a speech to about 200 attendees that the companies were chosen based on their ability to solve pressing problems in
In his speech, Governor Kehoe emphasized the special role that WashU and St. Louis play in advancing healthcare innovation.
“You’re standing at a globally recognized healthcare institution, Washington
COBY RINKE | NEWS EDITOR
BioSTL Global Lead Vijay Chauhan speaks at the 9th annual BioSTL Health Innovation Summit.
CHANCELLORS
from page 1
Martin and Diermeier argue that certain Ivy League campuses have grown overly ideological and allowed antisemitism to fester. In an op-ed in the Chronicle of Higher Education last winter they attributed declining trust in higher education to the “creeping politicization” of universities.
“Some universities have exacerbated the situation by drifting from their core purposes of education and research to take official positions on political and social issues,” they wrote in the op-ed. “This has led many to see universities as just another ideological combatant in the daily political struggle.”
When contacted by Student Life, Martin, Diermeier, Eisgruber, and Roth, who was also interviewed in The Atlantic, declined to comment further for this article.
Martin and Deirmeier told The Chronicle of Higher Education. that the only way to regain the public’s trust is to adapt and reform.
“The future of American
higher education is at risk and it is important for us to engage across the political spectrum, to listen and understand what the criticisms are, internalize those criticisms, and then work to improve so we can ultimately regain the trust of the American people,” Martin said.
Unlike Roth and Eisgruber, Martin and Diermeier also believe this problem transcends the Trump administration.
“It’s clear that the bipartisan support has eroded,” Martin told The Atlantic. “It’s really misguided to think that what’s happening in higher education is a blip and that we’re going to return to where we were before.”
Conversely, while university leaders like Roth are open to some reforms in the future, they argue that universities should prioritize addressing the more immediate challenges posed by the Trump administration.
“To be worried about [reform] right now seems to me like people in Ukraine
ADMISSIONS
from page 1
“We are proud of the diversity of this year’s class across many dimensions,” she said, emphasizing socioeconomic, geographic, and academic variety. “I am also super proud of what my team has done to make sure that we represent a really wide range of students at WashU and are able to recognize the talent that’s out there.”
The University has placed particular emphasis on enrolling students from rural backgrounds.
James described targeted outreach efforts, including travel to smaller towns, collaboration with rural high schools, and virtual programming designed to reach students who may not otherwise have access to selective universities.
WashU has also joined the Stars College Network,
a coalition of institutions focused on broadening opportunities for rural students, and recently launched the Rural Scholars Academy for high school sophomores from rural or small towns. This summer marked the first year that students from the latter program matriculated at WashU — 10 of them joined the Class of 2029. One in 20 new students are also WashU Pledgeeligible, meaning they come from low-income families in Missouri or southern Illinois.
As a result of these efforts, the share of rural students in the incoming class rose to 8%, up from 6% the year prior. 15% of new first-years are from Missouri, up from 14% last year and 9% a decade ago.
While WashU has notably increased its rural student population, its efforts to
University,” Kehoe told the audience. “Globally recognized leaders in certain categories all come from the Washington University system and continue to work with the Barnes-Jewish system.”
Kehoe also spoke about his goal of making Missouri a world leader in healthcare innovation.
“We have a new speed that we’re going to move at in the state of Missouri. And it’s from the movie ‘Spaceballs’ … that is ludicrous speed,” Kehoe said.
The governor’s speech also touched on specific healthcare needs of Missourians: for instance, the need to do more to improve rural healthcare in the state.
“The implementation of rural healthcare is really [where] things can happen [and] ideas can come from this summit, like I said, utilizing AI, utilizing some of the technology of the folks that I’ve just met,” Kehoe said.
Similarly, the governor talked about efforts to improve mental healthcare in Missouri.
“Mental health is the number-one issue that nobody wants to talk about. There’s nobody sitting in this room as a family member, including [my wife] and I, that hasn’t had somebody who’s faced
worrying about corruption in the mining industry,” Roth told The Atlantic. “It’s the Russians that are the problem.”
In response to accusations that they were caving to Trump, Martin and Diermeier emphasized to The Chronicle of Higher Education that their push for institutional neutrality and university reform began well before the Trump administration took office in January.
A month prior to Trump’s victory in the 2024 election, WashU and Vanderbilt’s boards adopted a joint statement of principles which affirmed a commitment to institutional neutrality and a refusal to advance any particular vision of social change, among other principles.
Eisgruber urges a policy of “institutional restraint,” which involves taking a stand on certain select issues, while Roth has more strongly criticized the push for institutional neutrality.
“The infatuation with institutional neutrality is
recruit more students from low-income backgrounds have not seen measurable returns. As such, 16% of the new class is low-income, down from 20% last year.
The percentage of students receiving need-based aid fell from 48% with the Class of 2028 to 42% among the Class of 2029, according to the University’s Common Data Set, and Pell-eligible students with exceptional financial need also fell slightly, from 25% to 23%. There were also fewer first-generation students enrolled this year (16%, down from 18% last year).
James acknowledged these decreases, but noted that the rising proportion of international students, who are not Pell-eligible and less likely to be first-generation, can influence these percentages.
The admissions office
some of these challenges,” Kehoe said. “We don’t talk about it enough, and we’ve got to get much better at that. We’re getting better.”
He emphasized that the Missouri government has put millions into funding a suicide hotline and behavioral crisis centers. Records also show the governor has used line item vetoes to cut millions in funding for other mental health initiatives, including some funding for a mental health and substance abuse center in Springfield.
One attendee, Matt Touch, is the Vice President of U.S. Sales & Marketing for Pulsenmore, a company developing an at-home ultrasound system. He explained to Student Life how it could help women dealing with pregnancy complications.
“Imagine it’s Thursday, and Mom doesn’t feel the baby move, and then it’s Friday, she doesn’t feel the baby move. She’s already a high-risk pregnancy, the clinic is closed, and she has no choice — she’s either going to go to the ER or wait until Monday,” Touch said. “Well, now she can do a home ultrasound and check for fetal movement, fetal heart rate, and the doctor will review it in the cloud.” Touch added that he was
just making cowardice into a policy,” he told Politico in mid-March. “I’m friends with presidents who genuinely think they’re encouraging free speech by hiding, but I think that the fear is manifesting [in] people just not wanting to talk about policies that they really do oppose.”
Additionally, Martin and Diermeier have taken steps to distance themselves from some other elite institutions. Rather than joining the roughly two dozen universities organized by Eisgruber to lobby against the Trump administration’s proposed endowment tax —- ultimately enacted earlier this year — WashU and Vanderbilt chose to lobby separately, according to The Atlantic.
The two chancellors also started Universities for America’s Future, an “invite only group” intended to uphold what Diermeier and Martin view as the purpose of higher education institutions. While some see this as an attempt to create an alternative to the AAU, Diermeier
expects to release a detailed demographic profile of the Class of 2029 later this fall. For now, James highlighted
told The Chronicle of Higher Education that the group has no such purpose.
“Universities for America’s Future is just a name, a label that we have for that now.
Maybe it’s a movement, maybe it’s a set of discussions, maybe it’s a set of activities that we’re thinking about,” Diermeier said. “The AAU has its purpose. It’s a membership organization. We have no intention of doing anything like that. Nobody has any intention of competing with the AAU.”
Diermeier and Martin said that their intellectually diverse environments have led to increased enrollment interest from prospective students, especially those from the Northeast.
“I can share many anecdotes from families that I met with whose children were admitted to many of the Ivy institutions, and were admitted here, and chose to come to WashU,” Martin said. “I didn’t have those conversations three years ago or five years ago with admitted
the resilience of the applicant pool and the adaptability of both the University and its incoming students.
at the conference to make connections with people who are interested in using Pulsenmore’s home ultrasound system for pilot and clinical studies.
Another attendee, Michael Jordan, leads a BioSTL initiative to “accelerate the deployment and testing of AI solutions for under-resourced health organizations.”
“So [for] rural hospitals, federal clinics, urban community hospitals, we’re trying to provide resources and services to support resource-deprived health systems and deploy AI at scale,” Jordan said. “It’s a pretty big initiative, and we’ve been working hard to assemble a coalition of hospitals, innovators, policy makers, to make Missouri number-one in AI adoption.” There were also several WashU students in attendance. Justin Strugger, a junior, said he attended in part because he had interned at BioSTL over the summer.
“It’s a pretty incredible opportunity to have global healthcare startups all connect right here in our business school,” Strugger said. “It’s been an incredible opportunity to see the purchasing power of St. Louis attract people from all across the globe.”
students.”
According to The Source, WashU received 32,753 applicants for its class of 2028 and 33,283 for its class of 2029, with the latter including 112 more enrolled students than the former. In 2024, for the first time, WashU also offered a mid-year transfer option to students. Many of those transferring to WashU were Jewish students who told Student Life that they faced antisemitism at their previous institutions. Martin emphasized in his interview with The Chronicle of Higher Education that their disagreements with other university presidents have remained civil and constructive.
“There’s no infighting, there’s no squabbling. There have been many public discussions and public disagreement about what the right approach is for the future,” Martin said. “I think it’s actually great for us to live up to our academic principles and actually have debates about issues that we disagree about.”
“Every year looks a little different,” she said, “but our commitment to access and excellence remains the same.”
Book clubs aren’t just for Oprah. At WashU, 19 reading groups funded by the Center for the Humanities and led by professors and graduate students meet regularly to discuss themed reading lists. Topics range from the digital humanities to medical anthropology to a singular, famously intricate book.
Ph.D. student Varun Chandrasekhar, a co-convener of the Marxism and Literature reading group, observed that graduate study can sometimes feel isolating because “you’re in class with…the same people every day for two years, and then you’re…in your room, writing your dissertation. That can get a little siloed.” For Chandrasekhar and his co-convener, Ph.D. student Tad Biggs, the Marxism and Literature group is a community of peers with different research backgrounds and varying opinions on big economic questions.
“I find that the discussions are consistently really generative, and I come away with a different set of thoughts,” Biggs said.
Rebecca Weingart, the leader of the Digital Humanities (DH) reading group and a Ph.D. student, also noted that meetings invite interdisciplinary discussions.
“Rarely is someone working alone on a DH project (teams are made up of faculty,
SCENE
students, librarians, etc.), which is why the reading group is so appealing,” she wrote in an email. “We get to talk through new thinking/debates in the field with a group from a wide range of disciplines and roles at the University.”
Ph.D. student Max Carol leads a group that exclusively reads “Finnegans Wake” by James Joyce, and he said that knowledge from different disciplines is not just beneficial — it’s fundamental to understanding the book.
“Finnegans Wake” is written in a “crazy, made-up dream language”, according to Carol, which he has spent years parsing. In his free time, Carol has contributed close to 2,000 annotations to the Finnegans Wake Extensible Elucidation Treasury (FWEET).
According to Carol, the language in the novel “lends itself to [Comparative Literature] because of how multilingual it is. It lends itself to even kind of STEM people too, because it’s almost something kind of mathematical about it. It’s kind of like a puzzle you have to decode.”
Carol noted that while many groups read a book in advance and then discuss it together, the “Finnegans Wake” group reads aloud together.
“And it’s really, I think, the best way to read the book because it’s a book that encourages collaboration,
because of how weird and dense it is and how everyone’s coming in with different perspectives and different references and allusions that they know,” he said.
While the “Finnegans Wake” group focuses on one novel, other groups seek out recently-released works, sometimes leading to conversations directly with authors.
Katherine Tilghman and Paco Tijerina Martinez, both Ph.D. students, are coconveners of Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Latin American Literature, a club which highlights new Spanish-language stories. “We’ve been lucky enough that either through our reading group funding or through our department or through the library, we’ve been able to actually meet a lot of the authors whose works we’ve been reading…Just this last year, we had a Zoom call with Gabriela Jauregui, a really important Mexican feminist,” Tijerina Martinez said.
Ph.D. student Gloria Fall, who runs the Medical Anthropology group, said the club’s reading list is composed of books published in the last three years and shared plans to also hold discussions with authors over Zoom this semester.
Just as author talks and collaboration are valuable parts of the reading group experience, so are the books themselves. Several students said that the books they read
impacted them.
“It is incredibly eye-opening to be able to work with this material that really elucidates what is happening in the world,” Chandrasekhar said of Marxist literature. He often finds himself wondering, “What is the sort of economic driver of this? What is the sort of influence this has on the consuming public?,” even while scrolling TikTok. “It becomes a moment to reflect, to think ‘What is actually happening here?’ in a way that I
think is incredibly valuable and part of the reason that we are fundamentally scholars,” he said.
Echoing Chandrasekhar, Carol said that “Finnegans Wake” is a book that challenges how you think. “Aside from the actual fun of reading it, the actual meaning you can get out of reading it…I feel like it’s a book that helps you think critically…It makes you read differently.”
When asked if the reading group might one day finish
the 650-page tome, Carol said, “It’s kind of a book you’ve never really finished…Some pages I’ve read upwards of 50, 60, almost 100 times… It’s a book that every time you read it, you notice something new. So I think what’s so great about the reading group is it evolves over time. People come and people go as they graduate.”
“It’s about this experience more than coming to a conclusion,” he said.
Over 400 student groups crowd Mudd field for 2025 Activity Fair
BY BRI NITSBERG
VOLUME 147, NO. 2
MANUEL LOPEZ | STAFF ILLUSTRATOR
PHOTOS
Iced strawberry matcha at Corner 17 at Whispers Cafe
Latte with brown sugar syrup at Collins Farms Law Cafe
The coffee snob’s guide, revisited:
The best drinks on and off campus
ELIZABETH GRIEVE SENIOR SCENE EDITOR
In the midst of a sweltering St. Louis summer, there really is no better way to beat the heat than a refreshing iced drink. As a certified drink snob, I created a guide to my favorite drink finds on campus last year. You can still always spot me walking to my lab job with a beverage in hand, and it’s pretty much guaranteed that it’ll be
Iced dirty chai at Blueprint Coffee
am absolutely obsessed with Blueprint, so much so that some of the baristas know my name and can anticipate my order: an iced dirty chai (a chai latte with a shot of espresso added). You pretty much can’t go wrong here, but I find myself continuously coming back to this drink. The is just around the corner, with cardamom, cinnamon, and a bit of sugar complementing the bitterness of the coffee. What really makes Blueprint so special is the quality of their espresso. In all my years as a coffee drinker, I have rarely found a place that puts as much care and precision into
For the 21+ers:
an iced coffee, either from my refrigerator or from my holy grail, Blueprint Coffee.
Beyond that, my list of go-to drinks has continued to expand, especially after spending a summer on the Loop after turning 21. The thing about St. Louis summers is that even when the sun goes down, it’s almost just as hot. So, I found myself purchasing a lot of iced evening drinks. I can proudly say that I am not just a coffee snob, but I am
New on-campus favorites:
now a cocktail snob too. Back on campus, it feels as if the drink menus are everchanging, with each year providing a wealth of new options. All of this makes it an opportune time for me to add to my previous list. While I still love all of the drinks in my previous guide, the following drinks have me truly becoming a regular at these places. Without further ado, here is an additional installment of my favorites.
Latte with brown sugar syrup at Collins Farms Law Cafe
Although the lines may be long, the coffee at Collins Farms is definitely worth it. Velvety-smooth and rich, their espresso is
a new favorite for me on days when I can’t make it to an off-campus spot. Their brown sugar syrup adds a delicate, slightly
caramelized sweetness to the drink. It is delicious either hot or iced, and for a little extra nuttiness, get it with oat milk!
Iced strawberry matcha at Corner 17 at Whispers Cafe
In semesters past, I would use the GrubHub notes section to sneakily ask for the
previous guide). But my secret is out, since this drink is officially on the menu! For 17’s matcha is the best I’ve found on campus. Something about the strawberry flavor
Flavored lemonade at LaJoy’s Coffee at Parkside Cafe
Flavored lemonade at LaJoy’s Coffee at Parkside Cafe Iceddirtychaiat BlueprintCoffee
Of all of the specialty cocktails at Blueberry Hill, Summer Fling easily takes the cake for me. Poured over ice and garnished with a lime, this drink is so light and ridiculously refreshing. The very slight sweetness gives way quickly to the herbaceous taste of the cucumber vodka with a spicy hint of ginger, all tied together with a splash of
Smuggler’s Blues at Session Taco Summer Fling at Blueberry Hill
Session’s frozen margaritas are really good — citrusy with a good balance of tequila and agave. But they are made even better with the splash of strawberry and pineapple unique to the
Smuggler’s Blues. This drink also has a drizzle of creamy coconut syrup, which ampli fies the tropical taste and provides a little extra rich ness, as well as counters some of the liquor taste.
Summer Fling at Blueberry Hill
Smuggler’s Blues at Session Taco
STAFF EDITORIAL
In light of Missouri’s current affairs, we can’t be silent
Last week, Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe gave a speech titled “St. Louis and Missouri Welcome Cutting-Edge Global Innovation” as the keynote speaker at the Global Health Innovation Summit on WashU’s campus. In response to a question regarding cuts to healthcare research by the Trump administration — which have significantly impacted WashU — the governor said that he supports “the government being more efficient” and believes there are “really good things to come.”
It’s undeniable that this semester, WashU looks and feels noticeably different as a result of federal budget cuts. The construction of Riney Hall has been indefinitely paused. According to students, the toilet paper, TVs, and printers in some residential buildings are gone. Below the surface, the changes are more drastic. Our professors and friends involved in research are working with fewer resources. Departments within the University wiped some mentions of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives from their websites, leaving many students from marginalized backgrounds uncertain of where to go for Universitysanctioned support. While the effects of the Trump budget cuts have been the talk of campus this year, Missouri politicians are working hard behind the scenes to ignore the will of their voters and bring our state further to the right. Despite this, many students might not even be aware of what’s going on in Jefferson City.
On Aug. 29, 2025, the state began a special legislative session — ordered by Kehoe — to gerrymander Democratic U.S. Congressman Emanuel Cleaver out of his Kansas City-based district. In July, Kehoe signed a bill into law to directly overturn Proposition A, the ballot initiative intended to expand sick leave that 58% of Missouri voters supported last November. And this spring, lawmakers in Jefferson City introduced a ballot initiative, scheduled for 2026, to ban abortion, a slap in the face to the majority of Missourians who
voted to legalize abortion in 2024 through Amendment 3. This move was the most recent attempt in a series of actions by the government to overturn the amendment. Governor Kehoe is aligned with Trump’s farright movement, and these notable policy shifts are just the beginning of the harmful policies Kehoe has promised to carry out during his term.
Most WashU students are not originally from Missouri. 87% of our student body comes from out of state. You’re much more likely to see Illinois, New York, or even California license plates in the South 40 garage. But for the four years that we spend at WashU, we too are Missourians.
Many students voted for the very ballot initiatives that Governor Kehoe and the
state legislature want to take away. Students haven’t hesitated to speak out against the Trump administration, so why is our campus silent about what is happening in the halls of the Missouri government?
As students, we stand at the crossroads of academia and government. State and federal leaders like Governor Kehoe come to campus on a relatively frequent basis. These leaders understand and respect WashU’s status within the state, and some even have close ties to WashU.
Take Catherine Hanaway, who Kehoe recently appointed as Missouri’s Attorney General (AG). Before she was appointed as AG, Hanaway’s last publicfacing role was as a member of the ad hoc committee
ANAELDA RAMOS | MANAGING ILLUSTRATION EDITOR
that investigated (and ultimately upheld) WashU’s response to the pro-Palestine protests in spring 2024.
As AG, Hanaway will be responsible for defending these state laws when they are inevitably challenged in federal court. While Hanaway’s agreement with WashU’s encampment response suggests that she might not be receptive to student protest, she certainly respects our university as an institution.
When Kehoe, Hanaway, or any Missouri political leader comes to campus next, we, Missouri’s future, have to show them that we vehemently disagree with the democratic backsliding that these lawmakers are either spearheading or complicit in.
We recognize that this
CAPTION CONTEST
First Place: Me snuggling up knowing damn well I did not understand any of my homework readings but at least they’re done.
Sean Henry, Current WashU Student
is a difficult time to expect WashU’s administration to outwardly take a stand against this Trump-backed power grab, considering both the effects it could have on WashU’s federal relationships and Chancellor Martin’s stance against academic politicization. This makes it even more important that students make their voices heard as members of the WashU community who are directly affected by these policies.
Students (and faculty) should consider joining campus political and advocacy organizations that make it clear they will fight Kehoe’s regressive policies. They should also consider the Bear Advocates program, which allows students to lobby on behalf of the University
in Jefferson City and Washington, D.C. To fight the attacks on Amendment 3, they can join our chapter of Planned Parenthood Generation Action. We encourage students to also make their voices heard alongside Missourians and St. Louisans outside of WashU through organizations like Abortion Action Missouri and Missouri Jobs for Justice — the WashU College Democrats are partnering with Jobs for Justice on an anti-gerrymandering lobbying trip to Jefferson City next week. Above everything else, you should pay attention to what Missouri’s government is doing. This is a critical crossroads for our state. As students, we should continue to critique the federal government’s attack on academic freedom and research. But as future leaders, and above all, as Missourians, we must stand against this overreach.
Staff editorials reflect the opinion of the majority of our editorial board members. The editorial board operates independently of our newsroom and includes members of the senior staff.
Matt Eisner, Managing Sports Editor Sylvie Richards, Managing Forum Editor Dion Hines, Senior Forum Editor David Ciorba, Senior Forum Editor Amelia Raden, Senior Forum Editor Kate Theerman Rodriguez, Senior Forum Editor Quinn Moore, Managing Newsletter Editor Sydney Tran, Editor-in-Chief Will Rosenblum, Managing Scene Editor Bri Nitsberg, Managing Photo Editor Elizabeth Grieve, Senior Scene Editor Laurel Wang, Senior Scene Editor Sara Gelrud, Junior Scene Editor Sophie Schwartz, Junior Scene Editor Astrid Burns, Special Issues Editor Eliza Stulman, Junior Sports Editor
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What the ‘performative male’ says about us
Since I have been back on campus, I’ve heard a lot of talk about the performative male. Women warn one another about the man who is strictly performative, and even my guy friends wield this accusation. Recently, I heard that there will soon be a “performative male contest” on the Swamp. Clearly, this meme has taken hold of a large part of WashU’s collective consciousness, but why? And what does it say about our campus?
For those unfamiliar with the term, the performative male is a typified character that has recently gained traction online. He drinks matcha, wears wide-legged jeans, collects vinyls, reads feminist literature, and is well-versed in internet culture — behaviors that subvert gender norms. Ultimately, the hallmark of this man is that his interests are not genuine, but feigned. His true motive is to appear disarming to women often for the purpose of courting them.
While the phenomenon started as a warning for women to look out for this particular type of man, it quickly became a joke. Men began to dress as performative males or film other performative males in public. Recently, the meme has manifested into in-person competitions in cities like Seattle, Chicago, and San Francisco where men compete to be the most performative.
The immense popularity
of this meme reveals a deeply hypocritical tendency amongst liberalleaning campus culture: though the performative male meme is meant to be socially conscious, it actually reaffirms the same patriarchal systems we — as a society and generation — claim to subvert.
But that’s a lot to unpack. Let’s go back to those cities where the performative male competitions happened.
It’s no coincidence that these contests took place in left-leaning cities. The performative male is restricted to these liberal bubbles, where his rise is reactionary to the current political climate.
With the overturning of Roe v. Wade, a president in office who boasts of sexually assaulting women, and the largest political gender divide of any generation being amongst Gen Z, one can imagine why many men can come across as threatening to women.
The performative male arises out of the necessity for Gen Z men to display their political (and moral) stances without having to outright say them. In other words, they are virtue signaling.
But there are multiple layers to this virtue signaling, which is enacted by even the accusers of performative males. In order to be the performative male, you must be savvy when it comes to online discourse. Therefore, those who might be labeled a performative male are likely to have already engaged with
PUZZLE PUZZLE Mania
the meme. In response to the threat of being labeled as performative, they mock the performative male themselves. In simpler terms, men who make jokes about the performative male are momentarily absolved as being considered as such.
With that said, it’s easy to imagine why this meme has taken to such heights. The performative male recreates the meme to show that he’s not performative himself — he’s in on the joke. This is why we see competitions with hundreds of men in parks “pretending” to be performative males. This is a joke that
parodies performance even as it mocks it. And that irony doesn’t stop at this behavior — it is embedded in the very language of the term itself.
As Alisha Haridasani Gupta and Nicole Stock describe in their New York Times article on the performative male, the term “performative” as it relates to gender can be traced back to Judith Butler’s essay, “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory.”. Gupta and Stock explain how the term has gone from “a philosophical concept to common pejorative.” By
stripping the term performative down to an insult, the speaker appropriates academic language. This appropriation can still give the speaker an air of being well-read, asserting their membership in a politically-aware in-group, even as the term is wielded as little more than an insult.
And still, the irony runs deeper. If the word “performative” signals feminist literacy, the word “male” signals something else entirely — and it is one of the reasons this meme grips us so tightly. When speaking of the performative male, we steer clear of casual terms for men which are more commonly used in daily speech. Instead of “guy,” “dude,” or “bro,” popular culture has opted for another academic, and this time, clinical, term: “male.”
By choosing the word “male,” the meme positions him less as a social subject and more as a biological specimen. He is not a “guy” with quirks or contradictions but a “male” whose very essence is reduced to performance in pursuit of sex. This framing reinforces, rather than subverts, the essentialist link between masculinity and sexual desire.
Through the guise of humor, the performative male allows us to deflect the possibility that men might enjoy Labubus, matcha, vinyl, or Clairo for genuine reasons. It is easier — and safer — to assume that their actions arise from an essential, heteronormative drive rather
than authentic interest. In doing so, the meme reassures observers that gender norms remain intact, that masculinity is predictable, and that subverted expressions of identity are always, by default, performance.
What appears as playful parody is in fact a mechanism for containment: it laughs off nonconformity while reinforcing the very social scripts it seems to critique.
Our obsession with the performative male unmasks the contradictions of Gen Z’s liberal culture and consequently a large swathe of students at WashU. We laugh at his posturing to reassert our own moral and cultural capital. The name we’ve given him transforms him into a specimen, while his behavior is reduced to heteronormative and essentialist desire. Throughout all of this, humor is the weapon of choice.
With this seemingly simple joke, we reinforce gender norms and signal political righteousness while slashing the unsettling possibility that the performative male’s interests could be genuine. In the end, he is a caricature where parody, signaling, and essentialist thinking coexist in perfect, ironic harmony.
As for the competition on the Swamp — well, perhaps you will see me there. After all, what is more performative than a cis, white, heterosexual male criticizing the patriarchy?
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SPORTS
Playing like champions, No. 1 women’s soccer demolishes Westminster and Illinois Wesleyan
the weekend routing, sophomore forward Olivia Clemons and senior forward Grace Ehlert led the Bears with 3 goals each.
In their record-setting 2024 season, it took the WashU women’s soccer team three games to score 14 goals. The 2025 team achieved that goal total in just two games. It will be hard to follow up the Bears’ unbeaten championship season in 2025, but this year, the Bears are off to a hot start.
“We are thrilled on winning the 2024 national championship, but now it’s 2025,” head coach Jim Conlon said. “We just need to focus on this group of women. The team is in a really good place and we just need to focus on us right now.”
WashU swept its opening two games of the regular season, dominating Westminster College and Illinois Wesleyan University, 8-0 and 6-0 respectively. Following
On Friday, Aug. 29, the Bears proved that their dominance was not simply a thing of the past during their home opener against Westminster. Outshooting their opponents 34-0, WashU shut Westminster out 8-0. Even more impressively, just four members of the Bears’ starting 11 on Friday had previously started in last year’s national championship game.
The Bears demonstrated their dominance right away. Within the first five minutes of the match, WashU took three shots on the goal, picking apart Westminster’s defense early on.
The Bears scored their first goal of the season 17 minutes in. Off of a header, sophomore Cami Colpitts made a quick pass to senior Ella Koleno,
giving Koleno a clear scoring chance that she did not miss. Ten minutes later, Ehlert added to the scoreboard, putting the Bears up 2-0 at halftime.
The Bears’ momentum continued through the half when Clemons, the reigning University Athletic Association (UAA) Offensive Player of the Year, scored back-to-back goals to give the Bears a 4-0 lead.
Following Clemons’ goal, first-years Heidi Fesler and Annika Park notched their first collegiate goals to make the score 6-0.
“Scoring my first college goal was an unforgettable experience,” Fesler said.
“As a local from St. Louis, last year I had the privilege of watching almost all of the team’s home games. So going from admiring them last year to scoring my first goal for WashU on Francis was an incredible feeling.”
To finish off their first win of the season, senior Kerrigan Ferland and junior Anna Rosato each
added their names to the scoresheet to secure the 8-0 victory.
“For us to go out there and win game one, in the fashion we did, with the way we moved the ball, and the way we passed, and the way we connected with each other, I thought was a great start to the season,” Conlon said.
After a successful home opener, WashU traveled to Illinois Wesleyan the following Tuesday for their first away game of the season.
The Bears got off to a quick start for the second straight game when sophomore Kate Martin scored a goal less than two minutes in. This continued when Clemons got control of the ball at the 15-minute mark, and assisted Colpitts for her second goal of the weekend.
The first half ended with
back-to-back goals, the first from junior Sophie Viscovich and second from Ehlert. In the 43rd minute, Illinois Wesleyan tried to get on the board, but sophomore goalie Suzie Green stopped the Titans’ attack, saving the first of two shots on goal.
The pile-on continued, as Ehlert and Clemons each added another goal to the scoresheet. Despite their second shot on goal, Illinois Wesleyan failed to find an opening past junior goalie Charlotte Shapiro, preserving the 6-0 shutout until the final whistle blew. Over the weekend, the Bears took a total of 39 shots on goal and gave up just two. The Bears will play their first-ranked opponent of the season on Friday, Sept. 5 when they host No. 25 Calvin University.
Full of first-years, men’s soccer routs Millikin and falls to Westminster in opening weekend
As the WashU men’s soccer season kicks into action, one problem has loomed over the Bears: injuries. The team has lost player after player, leaving the Bears with only two healthy forwards and several first-years dropped into the starting eleven for the first time.
Despite these absences, the Bears won in convincing fashion against Millikin University 8-1 on Aug. 29 but lost to Westminster College 2-1 two days later on Aug. 31. These games showed a glimpse of their tactical setup for the season to come and how the firstyears will be integrated into the team.
On Friday, the Bears attacked clinically against the Millikin Big Blue, headlined by junior Ethan Wirtschafter’s four goals, for which he was named University Athletic Association (UAA) Athlete of the Week.
“It was a great way to start the year,” Wirtschafter said. “I think we had a very
strong beginning. I’ve never scored a hat trick in college before, so that was obviously very exciting for me. Although, I always want to score more goals. I always want to hold myself to very high standards, and I do think that I could’ve scored even more than that.”
Sophomore Quentin Wallace scored the first goal of the game in the eleventh minute, setting the tone for the rest of the game. The first two of Wirtschafter’s four goals then came in minute 19 and 22, both assisted by first-year Sebastian Valdes. Head Coach Andrew Bordelon commended Valdes for his performance in his collegiate debut.
“Sebastian has integrated well,” Bordelon wrote in a statement to Student Life.
“He is a crafty player who is full of confidence. His ability to influence matches is already really good and I know [he] will continue to improve as he continues to build relationships on the pitch with other players.”
After the break, Wirtschafter scored two more, along with first-year
Wole Adeoye, sophomore Yash Kshirsagar, and junior James Whitehurst all with one each. Millikin denied the Bears a clean sheet with a consolation goal in the 79th minute.
Valdes, one of 14 new recruits this year, spoke about the team’s attitude that helped them score eight goals.
“We were super confident going into the game because we knew all the preparation we had during preseason was going to be successful,” Valdes said.
“As soon as the first whistle blew, we went 100% into all the tackles, and we attacked with menace. And it was great. And after the first goal, the goals just kept coming.”
During the game, nine first-years got playing time: Valdes, Adeoye, Miles Newman, Jack Hayeems, Hale Fernandez, Will Atticks, Nick Hammond, Roshan Greene, and Immanuel Goveas.
Despite this trial of fire, the first-years have accustomed well, partially due to the help of upperclassmen.
“I think that’s our job as
upperclassmen is to make sure that the transition for them when they show up to school is very smooth, that they feel like they fit into the team, that they understand the team culture, the standards,” Wirtschafter said. “So I take that very seriously when it comes to making sure that the freshmen feel like they belong and that they’re in the right place.”
The Bears faced a tougher test on Sunday against the Westminster Blue Jays, who the Bears have not faced since 2015 but shut out for six consecutive victories in the years prior.
WashU conceded first in the 26th minute after junior goalkeeper Cal L’Hommedieu mishandled a long ball over the top, gifting Westminster a simple tap-in. Just three minutes later, the Blue Jays scored again from a cross into the box that the Bears did not close down.
Right before half-time, junior Quentin Gomez flicked in an impressive header from a corner from senior Zach Susee to
pull the score back to 2-1.
Despite increased pressure from the Bears in the second half, and with 10 shots to the Blue Jays’ zero, WashU were not able to break through and ultimately fell short.
Valdes explained what the team’s performance was missing against Westminster.
“We created so many chances, and we worked really hard with first and second balls,” he said.
“But, ultimately, what failed us was the final touch, and I think that only comes with time and experience. It’s only the second game of the season, and, obviously, we’re gonna make mistakes. But as we settle in and get to know each other even more on the field, then the results are gonna come, and we’re going to keep scoring goals.”
Despite Sunday’s somewhat disappointing defeat, the Bears still put in some strong performances as they collectively adjusted to a starting lineup full of players getting their first official collegiate minutes.
With several players scheduled to be out for an extended period of time and the regular season kicking into full gear, the Bears will have to use these next matches to develop the team’s chemistry.
Bordelon acknowledged the arrival of many new first-years but also how their talent will only continue to shine as the season progresses.
“The first-years are integrating well with the group,” he wrote. “We are still improving as a unit and very much looking forward to when it all clicks. The advice is simple, you were brought here for a reason, and we believe in all of them as players. As they continue to get used to new methodology and new ideas, while growing relationships on the pitch, it will be an exciting group.” Next weekend, the Bears have two more games, starting with a home match against Elmhurst University on Friday, Sept. 5, before traveling away to face Illinois College on Sunday, Sept. 7.
CHRISTIAN KIM
JUNIOR SPORTS EDITOR
Sophomore Olivia Clemons dribbles past a defender en route to goal.
BRI NITSBERG | MANAGING PHOTO EDITOR
Clemons, the reigning UAA Offensive Player of the Year, scored three goals last weekend.
BRI NITSBERG | MANAGING PHOTO EDITOR
Volleyball dominates Bear Invite en route to promising 4-0 start
Saturday’s finale, demonstrating the grit of the Bears early on.
For a team with national ambitions, the No. 11 WashU volleyball team could not have asked for a stronger start to the 2025 season. Kicking off the year at the annual Bear Invite, WashU swept through four opponents in two days to open the season with an undefeated start. The weekend showcased a blend of dominance and perseverance, highlighted by three sweeps and a dramatic five-set comeback
The season-opening set against the Willamette Bearcats certainly didn’t disappoint, as the Bears fought off multiple set points from the Bearcats to eventually secure the 32-30 victory. Clutch kills from senior Anna Freeman and junior Naya Ohuabunwa sealed the win. Both players were assisted by senior Sam Buckley, whose 40 assists led both teams and lapped
Buckley looks to continue her stellar play from last season, where she was named University Athletic Association (UAA) Player of the Year and was a Second Team
“I’m so proud of the energy, persistence, and resilience our team has shown in both practices and matches so far,” Head Coach Vanessa Walby wrote in an email to StudentLife.
“Every day, they come into the gym ready to work hard and eager to
drink.
Pulling through the first set established the tone for the rest of the match; a 6-0 burst keyed the second set and allowed the Bears to ride their depth to a 3-0 match sweep, with 11 different players seeing playing time. That momentum continued into the closing match Friday against the Loras College Duhawks.
“The depth we have at each position has created healthy competition, pushing us to grow as a team every single day,” Walby wrote. “It’s been exciting to watch this group develop and come together.”
A 9-1 start against the Duhawks set the standard for the match and led to a coast-to-coast victory with WashU never loosening their grip. Buckley again led both games in assists with 40, and Ohuabunwa’s game-leading three blocks provided enough defensive utility to seal the match sweep.
“I’ve been focusing on consistency and communication,” Ohuabunwa wrote. “Making sure I can be steady for my teammates and keep energy high has been really important.”
Despite the eventual 3-0 match score, Saturday morning brought a test for the Bears. Quickly falling behind 8-1 to the Bluffton University Beavers, WashU clawed back with a late 6-1 push to seal it. The Bears dominated set two with a 15-2 run that erased any suspense, and
pulled out of the third with a victory fueled by junior Leah Oyewole. She led the match with 10
set and never looked back, capping the comeback 15-6. Oyewole capped her weekend with 19 kills, while Ohuabunwa added 11 and contributed at the
demonstrated a level of consistency and spark that the Bears think can lead them to where they want to go. The intensity and grit displayed in the final
