October 22, 2020 Student Life Newspaper at Washington University in St. Louis

The independent newspaper of Washington University in St. Louis since 1878 THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2020

VOLUME 142, NO. 6

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Students share stories from their experience in WU’s isolation housing (Scene, pg 4)

As WU athletes get back to their routines, they face challenges with hope (Sports, pg 6)

WU reports 15 active COVID-19 cases under new testing plan

Three sororities push to dismantle their chapters, facing resistance from Campus Life, national organizations JAYLA BUTLER MANAGING EDITOR

However, according to Lawrence, transmission in the St. Louis region is still a major area of concern.

“The biggest thing that is driving even a yellow alert level right now is the fact that there is still moderately high transmission within our communities surrounding the campus,” Lawrence said. “That keeps the level of risk still elevated where we have to remain super vigilant.”

Missouri’s seven-day positivity rate reached 19.3% on Oct. 17, marking a record high and indicating uncontrolled community transmission. The World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have both identified a positivity rate of 5% or higher as a benchmark for a location being a virus hotspot and for schools to remain closed. On Oct. 16, St. Louis County recorded a record high single-day number of positive diagnoses and deaths.

Continuing in the fight for the abolition of Greek Life, three sororities on campus have now made efforts to officially disband their chapters, to mixed results from their national organizations and little response from Washington University.

On Oct. 4, Pi Beta Phi became the first chapter to officially disband following the start of this summer’s movement to abolish Greek Life. Delta Gamma tried to follow a similar process, but was denied by their national organization. Kappa Delta filed a petition to their national council to surrender their charter two months ago and is still waiting for an official response.

Chi Omega, the first sorority on campus to try to surrender their charter this year, was turned down by their national organization. The group has not announced any abolition or reform efforts since then and continues to have active membership.

The conversations around disbanding Pi Phi began over the summer, after the systemic racism and exclusion within the Greek system gained campus-wide and national attention. After a Zoom meeting allowing members to openly discuss their experiences within the chapter, a survey distributed to the entire chapter revealed that 60% of members were in favor of disaffiliation from the national organization.

Their leadership quickly concluded that disaffiliation and continuing to exist as a group did not count as genuine abolition, and was illegal under Pi Phi’s constitution regardless.

SEE TESTING, PAGE 2

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ORLI SHEFFEY STAFF REPORTER After three weeks of COVID-19 surveillance testing for undergraduate students, Washington University found six positive cases. Combined with diagnostic testing—available to students, faculty and staff— the University reports 15 active COVID cases as of Oct. 19.

A total of 92 cases have been reported since Aug. 1.

Following the completion of entry testing for all undergraduate, graduate and professional students living on or near campus, the University implemented biweekly surveillance testing for more than 5,400 undergraduate students beginning Sept. 28 using its PCR saliva test.

While the first two weeks of testing resulted in just four cases combined, the third week saw a sharp increase of nine positive

cases.

Dr. Steve Lawrence, one of the University’s top viral infectious disease experts, said that the testing results were better than expected.

“I think maybe nobody expected the level of adherence that we’ve seen throughout the community to be able to show very minimal transmission so far,” Lawrence said.

Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Support and Wellness Kirk Dougher wrote in a statement to Student Life that “for our numbers to be this low, it means that students are following the science and making real sacrifices to what college can include for the good of the community.”

With minimal community-wide transmission, the University transitioned from orange high alert levels to yellow moderate alert levels.

The Danforth Campus COVID19 dashboard stated that “the change from orange is an indicator that current regional and campus

conditions are stable and reassuring,” but that “despite this change to our alert level, we are not relaxing public health requirements for being on campus.”

Lawrence said that to determine the University’s alert level, the COVID monitoring team goes through dozens of different data sources each week, with a focus on three main categories: transmission in the region, transmission within the campus community and the University’s capacity to respond to positive cases.

Cheri LeBlanc, the executive director of Habif Health and Wellness Center, wrote in a statement to Student Life that in addition to low transmission rates on campus, the University’s “capacity to provide isolation and quarantine housing is more than adequate” and their “ability to provide medical care, contact tracing and diagnostic and surveillance testing is not currently stressed.”

‘Wash. U. students just don’t come’: St. Louis activists urge increased engagement from WU students SABRINA SAYED STAFF REPORTER Young organizers, activists and allies gathered at the steps of City Hall for a People’s Press Conference to demand the resignation of Mayor Lyda Krewson, Oct. 17.

The conference was a direct action event packed with political theater and community building hosted by Sunrise STL and joined

by Occupy City Hall STL, STL Reentry Collective and Uprooted & Rising STL. Sophomore Brianna Chandler, a core leader at Sunrise STL and co-organizer of the People’s Press Conference at City Hall, said that

she grapples with her own privilege as a Washington University student.

“As a Wash. U. student, I am aware that [the University has] enacted a lot of harm upon St. Louis communities through gentrification and otherwise, so it’s important for me to know that and acknowledge that and actively work against that,” Chandler said.

Sunrise STL organizer Grace Tedder played the character of Krewson, taking to the podium to announce her resignation. She cited her grave harm to the St. Louis community, including evicting the unhoused community’s encampments, resisting closing the notorious private prison known as

the Workhouse, inviting federal agents to further overpolice the community and putting citizens in harm’s way by doxxing them. The character of Krewson apologized and relinquished her position to the people.

“Mayor Lyda Krewson has been instrumental and the driving force for evicting the unhoused community and their encampments throughout the pandemic, going against CDC guidelines,” Khalea Edwards, a community organizer for Occupy City Hall STL, said.

“It is beyond time for her to go.

The mayor is imposing harm on all of our communities…Our lives are in danger as long as she continues

to hold power, oppress and repress us and our community.”

Occupy City Hall STL was created by city residents who were doxxed by Krewson when she went live on Facebook and read the full names and addresses of demonstrators who wrote letters calling for her to defund the police.

“It’s a broad coalition of Black leaders, community activists, housing advocates [and] climate justice activists who have all come together to demand the immediate resignation of Mayor Lyda Krewson…to demand an end to all evictions including unhoused encampments and, of course, to abolish the police,” Edwards said.

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Inspired by other occupations, the coalition has occupied City Hall to pressure the Mayor to resign and meet their demands as well as to amplify the plight of the unhoused community. They have been forcefully evicted by the police three times, during which the police surrounded them and used a Long Range Acoustic Device, a military-grade sound energy weapon that can induce vomiting and cause ear damage, to force their dispersal, as well as bringing dump trucks to confiscate and throw out all of their belongings.

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Edwards said. “I wish that more Wash. U. students, and students in general, were more invested in the community…

They are not involved and it pisses me off.”

Seniors Carmen Vescia and Katherine Wallace were some of the students who stood at the steps of City Hall in solidarity, holding signs that read “Resign Lyda.”

“We still want to make sure we are showing up to things and at least trying to stand for all the good work that people are doing here in St. Louis because there’s a lot going on here,” Vescia said.

Wallace added that she felt it was important to translate her social media support into physical support “because reposting and putting it on your story can only do so much.

A three-year-long process of building, planning and implementing has culminated in the release of the new Gateway Curriculum at Washington University’s School of Medicine. It has been twenty years since the last renewal, and this milestone marks several timely changes and additions to the traditional curriculum.

One of the curriculum’s major stated goals is to “empower future academic physicians to lead the advancement of human health.”

Among the biggest changes, Senior Associate Dean of Education Dr. Eva Aagaard said, is the switch to a competency-based curriculum.

“We ask the question at the completion of this entire training: What outcomes do we expect our students to be able to achieve? And then you build the curriculum backwards from those outcomes,” she said.

Aagaard added that this approach to education also informs a very formative framework that features assessments for learning, not of learning. The website states this as “Development of an assessment system that is transparent and continuously incorporating both regular feedback and routine self-reflection on strengths, direction and opportunities for growth.”

Integration is another key aspect of the Gateway Curriculum that will help budding physicians be able to better understand the context of the heavy foundational scientific learning that medical students traditionally engage in. The new curriculum will prepare students to better realize how social science concepts and ethics directly relate to taking care of patients.

“The Gateway Curriculum is trying very hard to integrate those things so that you’re learning why something is important and how it’s relevant in real time,” Aagaard said.

Community engagement is also a crucial component of the new curriculum, which notably has a heavy anti-racism lens. Questions students will focus on include uncovering what structural racism means, how it has developed, how it results in disparities in health and how social and structural determinants of health impact the care that they deliver and the patients they care for.

“As part of that, they learn what it means to be a partner with our community colleagues who are caring for

attract students that couldn’t otherwise afford a medical education and to be a part of reducing the cost of healthcare,” Perlmutter said.

Instead of adopting a top-down approach to curriculum renewal, the School of Medicine decided to involve over 200 people from the WUSM community in a shared planning process for the gateway curriculum.

“Our students in our legacy curriculum have been critical partners all along in the Gateway design and really we could not have done it without them,” Aagaard said. “Their level of engagement, their ideas...them [and] the faculty are what made the Gateway Curriculum what it is.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a national and international public health crisis that has highlighted disparities in care, Aagaard said.

Together with the realization of the racial injustices in our communities, this presented a historic time to commit oneself to the medical profession.

“In some ways, I’m envious of our students that they are going through their medical education at a time when everybody in society realizes the value of physicians and other healthcare providers,” Perlmutter said. “I continue to be amazed at the way that they have responded to their purpose, sometimes at great risk to themselves and their families. I can’t imagine an environment that would be more inspiring for students.”

“Medicine is, in my opinion, a vocation,” Aagaard said. “It’s a calling. It’s not really a job.

It becomes a part of who we are, and of course it would because of the things that we’re called to do for our patients, with our patients, with their families.”

Both Aagard and Perlmutter have high hopes for the impact the Gateway Curriculum will have on medical students and the subsequent impact the students will have on the industry of healthcare and their communities.

“I think [the curriculum] has the potential to create a different breed of physician, a person who is really thinking about the experiences of the person that they’re trying to care for,” Aagard said. “I hope that [some of these changes] raise the bar on what excellence in physicianship looks like and that someday, people will look at our students and be able to know them based on the way that they interact with their patients and the quality of the care that they deliver. They’ll say, ‘Oh, you must have [gone] to Wash.

U.’”

test doesn’t tell you you don’t have infection.”

Dougher added that frequent testing does not prevent spikes in cases. He pointed to the University of Illinois, which saw cases rise despite testing students twice a week. “[Testing] does not help individuals and is not preventive for individuals in any way,” Dougher wrote.

“Rather, it is an early warning signal of increased disease prevalence in a community.”

LeBlanc emphasized that surveillance testing is just “one part of our overall strategy.”

“Our success at minimizing COVID-19 on campus is dependent on our entire community maintaining vigilance

with all preventive measures (most importantly our masking and physical distancing guidelines) far more than testing of asymptomatic individuals,” LeBlanc wrote.

Interim Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Rob Wild said that testing students too frequently can “psychologically create a false sense of security,” and that testing students “every two weeks was a good balance between allowing us to monitor and evaluate the full population we wanted to provide testing to, but also to encourage people to continue to follow the public health principles and not rely on their testing to show their situation.”

Both Wild and LeBlanc

credit the University’s low number of COVID-19 cases to broad student compliance with public health guidelines, but they said the University had been lucky.

“We know there have been gatherings with multiple unmasked people attending,” LeBlanc wrote. “Luckily, none of those have led to a superspreader event caused by just one person who is highly contagious and able to infect dozens of others as we have seen happen at other campuses and most recently at the White House.”

“It just takes one superspreader event to send us down a path that it's very difficult to recover from,” Wild added.

Wild previously warned that egregious violations of public health principles could lead to suspension or expulsion. According to Wild, the University had “a significantly higher number of conduct cases to start this fall than previous years, which is almost 100% attributed to violations of the new COVID policies.” But so far, the University had not seen “any violations that have led to suspension or expulsion of students.”

“There’s a sense among the student body that we’re all in this together,” Wild said.

“We’re just really proud as an administration of how committed our students have been to our success.”

THURSDAY 22 Open October Panel: Publishing at WashU Virtual Event, 1 p.m.

This panel discussion will focus on the accessibility and impact of research and scholarship at Washington University and include faculty, students, and staff who have worked with the Libraries on publishing projects. This event is part of Open October 2020, a month-length series highlighting trends in open science, open data, and open access, hosted by Becker Medical Library, Brown School Library and University Libraries.

FRIDAY 23 Rethinking Vaccine Hesitancy and Refusal Virtual Event, 4 p.m.

Maya Goldenberg, associate professor of Philosophy, University of Guelph, will present this lecture. Because vaccine hesitancy has been framed as a problem of public misunderstanding of science, vaccine outreach has focused on educating the misguided publics. Where efforts to change vaccine attitudes have failed, cynicism has bred the harsher view that the publics are anti-science and anti-expertise. Yet research into science and the publics lends strong support to the view that public attitudes regarding scientific claims turn crucially on epistemic trust rather than engagement with science itself. It follows that it is poor trust in the expert sources that engender vaccine hesitancy.

SATURDAY 24 Quantum Math: The Superposition Principle, Bell’s Inequality and Uncertainties Virtual Event, 10 a.m.

Zohar Nussinov, of Washington University in St. Louis, will present. We will outline several conceptual ideas underlying the mathematics used to describe quantum phenomena and its direct physical consequences. We will introduce the math used to describe quantum superposition and measurement. Time permitting, we will describe elements of this description related to Bell’s inequality (whose experimental confirmation ruled out hidden variable theories) and the fundamental position-momentum (and quite different time-energy) uncertainty relations.

SUNDAY 25 Film Screening: ‘Picture a Scientist’ Virtual Event, 12 p.m.

Join the Biology Department for a special screening of “Picture a Scientist,” a film highlighting female scientists and the endeavor to make science itself more inclusive, equitable and diverse. “Picture a Scientist” was an official selection of the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival, postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film’s virtual theatrical run reached 47 theaters across the USA in June 2020, and raised money for two organizations advancing women of color in STEM.

KREWSON from page 1 such as Edwards have spent time attempting to get more University students involved in the community, all to no avail.

“Any protest or any community event in general, Wash. U. students just don’t come. We don’t have enough support from any of the students at all,” Edwards said.

“Wash. U. students are always on social media putting out stuff, but they’re never out. It’s performative.”

Edwards’ said their life was shaped by redlining, segregation, over-policing and poverty in St. Louis.

“I am now a community organizer and I think about how my entire life, the system has imposed so much oppression and repression in not just my life, but the people around me, and the communities I’ve lived in since I was born,”

Gateway Curriculum at School of Medicine marks first renewal in 20 years, focuses on integration and community engagement patients in a variety of different ways, people in a variety of different ways, in all different forms of social and structural determinants of health,” Aagaard noted.

As part of the community engagement portion of the Gateway Curriculum, students will also have required service learning components.

The community engagement component was a particular draw for first-year medical student Kevin Yin. “My main reason for choosing WUSM was to be a part of the Wash. U. and St. Louis community, and the new curriculum has a very heavy emphasis on community engagement in St. Louis, which was a big draw for me,” Yin wrote in a statement to Student Life.

Yin also expressed his enthusiasm about being able to engage with the St. Louis community as part of his academic work.

“I think the importance of embracing our role in the community as advocates and understanding social and structural determinants of health that affect our patient populations is often overlooked, and I am very grateful that it is front and center in the Gateway Curriculum,” Yin wrote.

In terms of the actual renewal process, Executive Vice Chancellor for Medical Affairs Dr. David H. Perlmutter spoke to some of the reasons for updating the traditional curriculum.

“Part of the decision for us to go to renew and reformat [the] curriculum was really initiated in response to being ever more attractive to the best students in the country,” Perlmutter said. “So up until 2016 [or] 2017, we had a trend where our yield of the top students was going down progressively, and the two things that we could really do something about were scholarships and curriculum modernization.”

Perlmutter mentioned the $100 million commitment made by the School of Medicine over the next ten years. This funding does not include any donation, and primarily comes from the School of Medicine. Specific sources include new funding from Barnes-Jewish Hospital and St. Louis Children’s Hospital, the University’s affiliated training hospitals, as well as departments within the school. This commitment is dedicated to providing more MD scholarships, and has also considerably affected the Gateway renewal process. “[The commitment] really is for us about continuing to be a place that attracts the best students, that allows us to

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Sophomore Ronelle Williams attended the People’s Press Conference as a co-founder of the STL Reentry Fund, a mutual aid fund founded by formerly incarcerated people and allies to provide direct cash support to formerly incarcerated people in St. Louis to assist with rent, utilities, medication and other needs. The fund has distributed over $38,000 since July.

“I have friends who have gone through the reentry process and it can be very very difficult just transitioning back into society with all the stereotypes and stigma that they face,” Williams said. “Seeing that, I wanted to be part of a movement that helps people find a path that best fits them.”

Through the years, St. Louis community members

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2020

GRACE KENNARD STAFF REPORTER

TESTING from page 1 Although some universities test students every few days, Lawrence stood behind the University’s decision to test students every two weeks.

Lawrence said that universities are using a wide variety of methods and strategies “because the reality is that nobody, nobody knows what strategy exactly is going to be the most effective.”

According to Lawrence, the mathematical study that received the most attention was led by the Yale School of Public Health, which found that students need to be tested every 2-3 days for colleges to safely reopen. But Lawrence argued that the assumptions they used were “overly aggressive.”

“This isn’t a paper that showed data. It didn’t show data on actual observations of what happened. It's a mathematical model,” Lawrence said. “The assumptions they used were unlikely to be realistic.”

Lawrence said the University looked at a wide variety of mathematical models over the summer to form their plan to test undergraduate students biweekly.

Lawrence said that the most challenging part of developing a testing strategy was the “many misperceptions about what testing can and can’t do.”

Due to the possibility of false negatives, Lawrence explained that “a negative

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22 , 2020

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STUDENT LIFE 3

GREEK from page 1 After former president junior Susan Wie and former Vice President of Risk Management junior Cassie Vaden held a series of Zoom calls with their headquarters, both with the two of them and with the entire chapter, Pi Phi’s national correspondents told them that they would not be allowed to vote to relinquish their charter and urged them to consider reform instead. The two reviewed their constitution and concluded that their national organization’s decision was unconstitutional. When they pointed this out, the chapter was given the opportunity to vote.

Now that Pi Phi has officially disbanded, the two plan on continuing to engage in abolition efforts across campus by continuing to have conversations with Campus Life, participating in protests and helping other chapter leadership.

“I definitely don't think that disbanding is the end of all inequity on campus, especially [because] we’re one chapter.

And it would be naive to think so,” Wie said.

Reflecting on the process of disbanding, Wie emphasized the difficulty of communicating the need for abolition with nationals, as well as the University administration.

“Any time that we would make the point of ‘Okay, sure you want to try reform, but this is a system that has historically not wanted so many of the people that exist in the chapter today. So why would they feel comfortable staying there?’ There was never any productive conversation,” Wie said. “I would say that the conversations we've had were really frustrating and emotionally draining, and I don't think they understood what our responsibilities exactly even were at some points.”

Representatives from Pi Beta Phi’s national headquarters did not respond to requests for comment.

By the beginning of August, around 75% of the remaining members of Delta Gamma were in favor of relinquishing their charter, according to former president senior Emily Aunins.

Undergoing a similar process to Pi Phi, the sorority consulted with their national organization several times to request a vote to relinquish their charter.

After a Zoom meeting with their national organization on August 24, the next day, they received an email from Council Trustee Amy Ayres denying their request to relinquish despite a majority vote.

In the email, Ayres wrote that the Delta Gamma Fraternity Council would not implement the standard 60-day deliberation process that typically elicits input from alumni and other members of the national council, and suggested that members reconsider before deactivating.

“With the recent social justice and equity conversations happening in our world, we understand why many of you believe the most effective way to address systemic racism is to relinquish the charter as

part of a larger movement to abolish the predominantly white fraternity/sorority culture and what it represents,” Ayres wrote. “However, we believe that the most impactful change can be made by an empowered group of members calling for reform within a system they see as flawed and we are committed to working with the members of Alpha Epsilon to create that change and continue to build upon the efforts currently underway by Delta Gamma.”

Representatives from Delta Gamma’s national organization did not respond to requests for comment.

When sophomore Adrianna Patacsil accepted the role as Delta Gamma president earlier this fall, she made it clear that she would not pay dues and she would focus on striving for abolition. After receiving the email, Patacsil has requested to see the organization’s constitution, as it is not a public document, to review it and determine in the coming weeks if the national counsel’s decision to allow an official vote is unconstitutional. At that point, the group will consider possible next steps.

“We knew we didn't have the power, the entire time, which was really frustrating,” Aunins said of the decision from their national council.

Kappa Delta’s petition to relinquish their charter was submitted in August, after the chapter already voted to dismantle with 82.5% of members in support. The organization then underwent a membership review process, in which their national organization interviews each member to determine if there are enough remaining members willing to stay in the chapter and reform rather than abolish. Alumni members of Kappa Delta are expected to vote soon as well. Contingent on a majority vote from alumni, their national council will conduct a final vote.

Kappa Delta president junior Laurel Levinsohn wrote in a statement to Student Life that the delayed communication with their national headquarters was one of the biggest roadblocks in their efforts, and characterized working with them as “long and difficult.”

A major obstacle for the chapters was the fact that Campus Life has taken an unwavering stance towards reform since the summer.

Leadership of both chapters expressed that Campus Life did not provide much counsel for navigating these conversations with their national organizations.

“That was really frustrating, when we had 100, 120 women telling us ‘This is what we want,’ and to an administration that says that ‘We will listen to our students,’ but then saying, ‘Oh, that's off the table,’ was really frustrating for Cassie and I,” Wie said. “And then I had a lot of calls with other presidents [in] WPA, who also expressed the same frustrations with the school of ‘We are not going to help you navigate relinquishing the charter, because that is

not in the school's interest at this moment.’ And then the conversation would switch towards reform.”

In a statement to Student Life, Campus Life Director Leslie Heusted wrote that deactivations and discussions of the future of chapter charters are simply part of the ongoing process and conversations that have taken place since July.

“We continue to respect and support the individual choices that are made by our students and expected that there would be some actions regarding overall membership and chapter activity as an outcome of this form of activism,” Heusted wrote.

“Campus Life [should be] the one to communicate with our nationals and, to be frank, do their job and advocate on our behalf, but they chose not to do that,” former WPA President and member of Delta Gamma junior Emily Regan said. “Therefore, all the onus is on us students to communicate with these adults, whose job it is to keep our organization existing. The fact that Campus Life is completely unsupportive was a huge obstacle.”

Regan said she considers the fact that all active fraternities and sororities plan to recruit students next semester as planned to be disrespectful to the student activism over the summer. It is fully supported by Campus Life.

Similarly, Vaden said that even within the topic of reform, Campus Life’s counsel was often too broad to be helpful.

“When the conversation

would switch towards reform, it usually would be like, ‘We want to discuss with you how to reform.’ It wasn't like, ‘These are things that you can reform by doing this, this and this,’ and as two 20-year-old women, we didn't and don't feel like we're in a position to make broad sweeping reforms in these institutions that have been inherently harmful and damaging for 100 [years].”

Heusted claimed that Campus Life has been and is continuing to support members of Greek Life advocating for abolition.

“Campus Life staff have been in consistent communication with the inter/national offices of all chapters who make up the Sorority and Fraternity Life Community at Washington University throughout the summer, including Pi Beta Phi…” Heusted wrote. “Our priority is to continuously be available to support our students as they have tackled difficult conversations in respect to the future of their individual organizations.”

Levinsohn wrote that many of her conversations with Beth Doores, the associate director for Campus Life, and other Campus Life staff were uncomfortable due to the clash in positions on abolition. She wrote that she wants to see the University do better at acknowledging the position of the majority of the student body.

“They are determined to go down the path of reform, and from what I’ve seen they are simply getting the abolitionists out of the picture so they can move forward,” Levinsohn

wrote. “It seems to me that the strong push for abolition from the student body has hardly been considered, even after the results of the SU survey.”

Heusted also wrote that Campus Life’s Co-curricular Advisory Board, formed after this summer’s calls for abolition, expects to present a report to Campus Life by Dec. 4 on how to make all student activities on campus more equitable, not just Greek Life.

The current goal is to implement their plan during the spring semester.

“So much activism happened this summer, and there was such a strong push to make meaningful change on our campus,” Regan said.

“The fact that they thought that it could be funneled into an advisory task force is just ridiculous. To be frank, it's an insult to all the student activism that occurred this summer.”

Regan attended the board’s first meeting this month and said that its conception is part of a larger pattern of how the University addresses issues raised by student activists.

“It just goes to show again that the easiest way for Campus Life or an organization in general to stifle a movement is just a bureaucratic task force that just allows them to funnel any ideas, any activism, into their format to really quell any student dissent at all,” Regan said.

Patacsil suggested that other sororities considering abolition should band together to put pressure on Campus Life to take their demands more seriously in order to reach

more widespread progress.

Sophomore Sarah Buchanan, a former member of Delta Gamma, expressed her disappointment with the lack of impact that the mass deactivations have had on Campus Life and the overall movement.

“I felt at the time that mass deactivation would be a way to kind of get the attention of Campus Life,” Buchanan said. “But now, in retrospect, it's creating this vacuum where the people that are remaining are not going to push for abolition and now people wanting abolition have gone so it kind of seems like in a way, Campus Life has won because they don't have to necessarily listen to us anymore because we're no longer members.

We're no longer giving them money.”

She emphasized the importance of people who have deactivated from their organizations to continue to push for the abolition of their chapters and Greek Life in general.

Despite the roadblocks, Patacsil maintained her dedication to Greek abolition over reform, but frustration over the lack of action from the University so far.

“Reform is not an option.

It's never going to be sustainable. And there's never going to be enough people who want to actually do that,” Patacsil said. “Campus Life has no intention of actually doing much more for reform. At this point, I just want to see this to the end and if that doesn't happen in the next semester or two, I really don't know if we ever will see an end to Greek Life on this campus.”

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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2020

‘Longest ten days’: The story of WU’s self-isolation dorms JULIA ROBBINS CONTRIBUTING WRITER Sophomore Carly Abramowitz’s stay in quarantine housing was “like a fever dream”: a time filled with attending classes virtually, walking around her room and throwing balls at the wall.

Abramowitz was sent to quarantine housing for 14 days after spending time in close contact with friends who ended up testing positive for the virus.

Sophomore Ashley Weir was one of Abramowitz’s friends who tested positive.

Weir was put into isolation housing on a Thursday morning in September and spent the next week and a half living out the “longest ten days” of her life.

Housing criteria Certain aspects of isolating, including the length of isolation and which dorm students stay in, is dependent on whether or not a student receives a positive test result.

Quarantine housing, which Abramowitz was in, is for students who were in close contact with someone else who tested positive for the virus.

Isolation housing is for students like Weir who test positive for COVID-19 themselves.

Students, like Abramowitz, who are deemed to have been in close contact with an infected individual are required to quarantine for 14 days, regardless of whether or not they test positive. Dr. Cheri LeBlanc, the Executive Director of Habif Health and Wellness Center, wrote that this policy is in place because it can take 14 days to develop symptoms after being exposed to the virus.

Students who do receive a positive test result can be released from isolation after the following three criteria are met: It has been ten days since their symptoms began, they have had no fever for 24 hours and their symptoms are improving.

If infected students live by themselves, or exclusively with other people who also test positive for the virus, they are allowed to quarantine off campus.

However, “for off campus privately housed students who are unable to isolate due to shared bathrooms or other considerations, we also move them to on campus quarantine, P.U.I [Person Under Investigation] or Isolation Housing,” Kawanna Leggett, the executive director of residential life, wrote in a statement to Student Life.

Food delivery This topic of food and refrigeration was one of the biggest issues that students pointed out. Students quarantining receive a knock on their door three times a day to indicate that a meal has been left outside their room in a brown bag.

Abramowitz noted that dinner for her came at 5 p.m. which was earlier than she normally eats so her food would often no longer be warm by the time she wanted to eat.

She said that having a refrigerator would have helped her isolation period.

“I literally would have just brought frozen meals and things I could cook or produce that I could keep in the fridge,” she said.

“Something like that would have improved my quality of life so much more.”

Abramowitz added that she would have liked an option to choose her meals at the onset of the quarantine period, which she said friends at other schools were able to do. “They could do more to improve the little things about quality of life in there,” she said, “because it is such a destitute situation.”

Physical and mental health care At the beginning of their

CURRAN NEENAN | STUDENT LIFE

Students who come in close contact with someone who has the virus are sent to Nemorov (right), while those who test positive themselves are housed in Millbrook 1 (left).

time in quarantine or isolation housing, students are provided with a pulse oximeter and asked to bring the thermometer they received when school started. A nurse from Habif regularly contacts students to check in on their vital signs and any other mental or physical health issues they may be experiencing.

After-hours health care support is provided through Provident Behavioral Health, a St. Louis-based mental health care organization that the University works with to support students, LeBlanc wrote.

Weir noted difficulties that she had with Provident and with Habif mental health services. Weir said it was frustrating that the therapists at Provident were unable to effectively help her cope with her situation.

“I was really just frustrated in the moment because I wanted people to, I don't know, fix something for me that couldn't be fixed,” she said. “You just have this whole ‘I hate the world’ mentality sort of thing, so it's easy to get frustrated with people who are struggling just as much to try to give you the resources that you need.”

“I think now that I'm outside of it,” she continued, “I do understand that what we're dealing with is so new and that it is hard to give people maybe the questions that they're looking for in the moment.”

Weir also noted difficulties with Habif ’s mental health care system. She detailed repeated experiences of being sent to voicemail and having difficulty getting on to the phone with a therapist. She said that a large reason this issue came up was because there were often only one or two triage nurses on call.

“Wash. U. can't tell me that they don't have enough money to pay for someone else,” Weir said. “I think about the difficulties that I had [as] one of the 10 cases on campus. Imagine if it had been much more than that. I can't imagine. It would probably be a mess.”

While Weir found the mental health system to be unsatisfactory, she said that the physical care she received from Habif for virus complications was positive.

“I’m very grateful that I was able to receive the physical care that I needed from the University, because it's the same care that probably could have saved the lives of my own relatives,” said Weir.

Students dealing with

physical ailments are able to access Habif through a sidedoor, Abramowitz said.

Besides going to Habif for health appointments, students are not allowed to leave their room for any other reason. Abramowitz noted the toll that this restriction had on her mental health.

“Laying outside for like 15 minutes would have done so much for me personally,” Abromowitz said.

“I'm a very endorphinoriented person. I love to run and work out and just be outside, and it was really, really hard for me in that respect.”

Weir also talked about the difficulties of having no time to spend outside and only limited access to fresh air. “My windows were locked except for one small one in the living room, and even that one only opens to a certain extent. You just feel so trapped and claustrophobic.”

Abramowitz emailed administrators to ask if she could spend any time outside. She said they wrote back that there was no way for her to be let outside and instead gave examples of other ways to cope with boredom.

LeBlanc cited the instructions of St. Louis County as a main reason for why students are not allowed time outside. It states that people in multiple person dwellings should not use common stairways or elevators and should not walk in their neighborhood.

“Since there are no private egresses from our Wash. U. res halls, getting students in quarantine to outside requires them to travel in hallways potentially utilized by other residents and staff,” LeBlanc wrote. “If we are able to learn more about quarantine procedures and communal living shared spaces that would allow for risk free access to the outside and how to effectively cordon off spaces on our open campus we would be open to revisiting this issue.”

Coping with boredom While students are not allowed to go outside, they have found creative ways to connect with the outside world.

Thomas Brounk, the Director of Mental Services at Habif, noted that humans are “social creatures” and that students quarantining should be more intentional than

normal about reaching out to people in their social network in order to feel connected with others.

A friend of Weir’s invited her to a family Rosh Hashanah dinner where they propped her up digitally to take part in the meal. “I didn’t even really have the appropriate things to eat, but I was still there which was really nice,” she said.

Abramowitz said that she frequently Facetime’d with friends to stay connected, and used Netflix Party to watch movies with a friend of hers who was also quarantining.

In addition to connecting virtually with friends, Abramowitz took up some unexpected pastimes.

“I had a ball. A bouncy ball. I would just throw it at the wall and catch it 30 times in a row,” she said.

“I did a lot of drawing. I did a lot of random activities I haven't done since I was probably like 11 years old, because you can only watch Netflix for so long or do your homework for so long.”

Abramowitz advises self-isolating students to bring games and things to draw with. “Definitely bring stupid activities that you wouldn't think you'd want. You might actually use them.”

The “Isolation Wellbeing Plan” given out to students at the beginning of quarantine recommends employing distractions like coloring books, craft supplies and knitting to help with mental health.

Weir said that the school could have given more of those suggested coping mechanisms to students. “I don't have board games, I can’t knit, I don't have all that stuff,” she said. “You find out that you have COVID and then you're supposed to go quarantine.”

In addition, Abramawitz said that bringing snacks to one’s quarantine dorm is one of her main pieces of advice.

Brounk also shared advice for students required to quarantine. “Reduce the expectations that you have of yourself,” he said. “I think if you go into something like that expecting that it's just a usual routine or that nothing’s going to change, that can actually impair or get in the way of you having some compassion for yourself.”

And he wants students in quarantine to recognize that their situation will eventually end.

“This is finite,” he said.

“This isn’t forever.”

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2020

STUDENT LIFE 5

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SPORTS

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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2020

Once a bear, always a bear: Madara returns to WU CLARA RICHARDS CONTRIBUTING REPORTER When Paige Madara was a first-year at Washington University in 2009, she set a goal for the end of her tennis career with the Bears: to play in the Elite Eight at the NCAA Championships. During her first year, that goal felt a long way away, but by her senior season, she was on the cusp of making it a reality. Surrounded by a strong team that had already secured four victories in the Sweet 16, Madara had the chance to clinch an Elite Eight appearance with the victory. She delivered, finishing her career as a student athlete by accomplishing that longtime goal. Now, as the newly appointed head coach for the Washington University women’s tennis team, she brings with her both experience and high hopes to the team.

After playing at the University from 20092013, Madara coached at Washington and Lee College before heading to Grinnell College as the head coach for both the men and women’s tennis teams. Now, she is bringing back skills that

she learned through being a part of the other programs.

Being surrounded by different department members, coaches and players taught her how to communicate with all the different pieces of the program, from student athletes to the administration. That experience made Madara an appealing choice.

“When someone is a student of the game and has expertise and enthusiasm, that’s a scary combination,” Director of Athletics Anthony Azama said.

When Kelly Stalhuth, the Bears’ women’s tennis head coach for 15 years, stepped down this summer, Azama created a search committee to create a deep, diverse and qualified pool of candidates to replace her. The University then hosted numerous interviews, including the players for the final four. “I was really impressed with the amount that my own voice was taken into consideration in the process,” said senior Ally Persky, a captain on the team. “When I shared my opinions about the candidates, people were really listening.”

While the committee made

a recommendation, ultimately the choice lay with Azama.

He said the mission was to identify a coach whose values aligned with those of the athletic department and then to determine whether that coach would make Wash. U. better.

“I know we found that person [in Madara] to fit that build and lead our women’s tennis program,” he said. “You want to hire people who see Wash. U. as a destination, not a stepping stool. That brings a different level of energy, a different level of focus, a different level of commitment.”

What made Madara stand out in the interviews was her plan, her values and her ability to develop student athletes holistically. Azama also emphasized that the fact that she was an alum was “not an automatic slam dunk—she still had to go through the process,” but that it would help her relatability for the players.

Persky emphasized that because Madara was a Wash.

U. alum, she already understood the players’ priorities and ambitions. A good relationship between Madara and the three senior captains would be essential to understanding

COURTESY OF MELANIE SCHAEFER

Paige Madara speaks to players while the head tennis coach at Grinnell College. Madara played for the Washington University women’s tennis team from 2009-2013, winning 98 matches and helping to bring the Bears to the NCAA tournament’s Elite Eight.

the team dynamic and culture.

“I’m happy to take on that extra responsibility, if it means that the team is better for it,” Persky said.

Laurel Wanger, another senior captain, felt that there was another layer of trust between coaches and players since, as an alum, Madara understands the team culture.

“She’s not just this random person who came to our school—she’s lived in St. Louis and she has family ties

here,” Wanger said.

Wanger said that as a captain, one of her main goals is to create a good team culture and environment, especially for the incoming players.

Whether they will compete in the spring is still uncertain, but in the meantime the Bears will continue to practice. “My goal for the spring would just be to have a season, I guess,” Wanger said. “But ideally, it would be a good season.”

Since her official start last

Monday, Madara says she has hit the ground running.

She has goals for the season, but she said the first step is to get to know her players and their values on an individual level. “The catchphrase that we used when I was a student athlete was ‘once a bear, always a bear,’” she said. “I felt that whether I was on campus or away from campus, and to bring it and live it every day is something I’m looking forward to.”

Despite challenges, a sense of promise accompanies the return to practices JOSH SHAPIRO SENIOR SPORTS EDITOR For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic

struck in early March, Washington University sports teams have resumed practices. Practices are a far cry from normal, but

they have provided some sense of normalcy for athletes who have missed their routines for months.

The return of athletic

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activities comes amidst continued uncertainty over what intercollegiate competition will look like in the coming year, as Wash.

U. teams are unlikely to play games until at least January.

The return required significant planning, as Director of Athletics Anthony Azama noted in a statement that the department has worked “closely with the University COVID Monitoring committee to design meaningful team-related engagement activities to meet the campus, St. Louis county and city guidelines while simultaneously complying to NCAA resocialization guiding principles.”

As a result, the practices themselves have taken on a new look. With new social distancing guidelines in place, athletes have been forced to adapt and reshape their training regimens.

For senior Christina Passerell, a forward on the women’s basketball team, the new practices have proved challenging. Though the team was recently granted limited access to the Sumers Recreation Center basketball courts for shooting practice, practices are still non-contact in order to comply with University regulations. “Usually we’d jump right in on October 15 and compete in scrimmages,” Passerell said. “I definitely do miss playing pickup. It’s always a lot of fun to do.”

Nevertheless, Passerell maintained a positive overall outlook on the season. “We are really just trying to focus on making the most out of the season, having fun, and doing what we can do to succeed,” she said.

Some teams, such as track and field, had spent the majority of their pre-pandemic practices outdoors—making the transition to COVIDera practices slightly less

daunting. Still, in order to adhere to University standards, the Track team has split into a number of smaller event-specific pods, each of which practices together.

Sejal Rajamani is a sophomore who hurdles for the track team.

Though Rajamani noted that hurdling in a mask is noticeably more difficult, she also credits the new, smaller-scale practices with bringing the team closer together. “Our little event groups have actually made the freshmen feel a lot more comfortable,” Rajamani said. “I know last year, for me as a freshman, because there were so many people on the team, I was a little intimidated. But this year, because our groups are so much smaller, you get to know the people in your event group a lot better because you’re spending so much time with them.”

Whether there will be conference and nonconference competition remains undecided. For track and field, it appears likely that outdoor events and races will continue in some shape or form.

Rajamani, however, noted the difficulty of fitting a number of schools’ track teams—each of which has more than 100 athletes— into an indoor facility, making it unlikely that the Bears will get to compete

inside this winter.

For sports that can only be played indoors, such as basketball, a number of proposals are on the table. Men’s basketball junior forward Justin Hardy said that the team hopes to compete in some capacity, noting the potential for a winter break bubble where teams come together to play. “Still, we’re definitely looking at a shortened season,” Hardy said.

In spite of the lack of schedule clarity, Hardy and the Wash. U. men’s basketball team has a championship in its sights.

The Bears had made it to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament in the spring before the pandemic cut the playoffs short. “While there’s so much more to this game than just winning a championship, our eyes are on the big prize,” he said. “We’re committed to making that happen.”

For Hardy, Rajamani and Passerell, the potential to still compete for the Bears has not gone unnoticed. “Never take this game for granted— you don’t really realize what that means until it’s gone,” Hardy said. “We all kind of got to experience that being stripped from us and I think that we all kind of feel that sense of urgency now. That our time together is that much more valuable.”

GRACE BRUTON | STUDENT LIFE

Then-freshman Justin Hardy passes the ball against Fontbonne University in December 2018. The men’s basketball team hopes to play games against other teams in a bubble over winter break.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2020

FORUM KYA VAUGHN | SENIOR FORUM EDITOR | FORUM@STUDLIFE.COM

STUDENT LIFE 7

STAFF EDITORIAL

While they exist, take advantage of virtual office hours

I

n past years, visits to office hours have been fraught.

Students have trekked across campus— often at times inconvenient for both them and the professor—to get help with their classes. For large classes, often these office hours can involve long lines of students waiting to get the attention of a professor or a teaching assistant (TA).

Students with questions can find their issues unresolved, talked over by others who similarly need assistance. For small classes, too, office hours can be difficult, as setting up an in-person appointment to discuss what can seem like a minor or

trivial question can easily be pushed aside in favor of leaving campus after class.

Due to the impossibility of physical meetings this semester and the reality that many students and professors are studying or teaching from home, those in-person office hours have been replaced with virtual ones. Having office hours virtually makes them accessible to all students, regardless of whether they are on or off campus this semester.

Additionally, they keep students safe, and are much more convenient for students, professors and TAs. The Student Life

Editorial Board urges students to utilize these virtual office hours this semester. As we are beginning the sixth week of the semester, many students have already taken their first midterm exams.

For others, those exams or projects are looming.

Even if you don’t have an exam soon and are just a little confused about a homework problem, your professors and TAs are there to help with those problems, and this semester, it is easier than ever to get in contact with them.

Students who had to walk in the cold and in the dark to campus for late-night Introduction to Computer Science (131) office hours,

for example, can now simply connect via Zoom from their homes. Zoom office hours are more convenient for professors, too; without having to worry about exactly when they’re supposed to be in their office, professors no longer have to hustle across campus after class or stay late in the afternoon, as they can take a Zoom call from anywhere.

Additionally, the very nature of a Zoom call means that it is easier to get personal attention during office hours.

Most STEM students recall the inefficiency of in-person office hours; those long lines have been transformed into small

Zoom meetings. For some courses, office hours can act as a mini-lecture, covering topics students had trouble understanding during class. In others, like 131, students meet with TAs individually, ensuring that any questions they have will be answered.

The history department has taken the step of listing each professor’s virtual office hours on its website. That way, students from any major can connect with a professor even without taking their class, making things like asking questions about a professor’s research or even determining which classes to take next semester much easier.

Though we do not know how next semester will look, we can assume that the mixture of remote and hybrid courses we have this semester will continue. We on the editorial board hope that the virtual office hours will also continue, even after Wash. U. is able to return to in-person classes. The convenience and personalization that virtual office hours possess make them a better option for both professors—who can more easily share information like lecture slides with students—and students, who can ask more detailed questions and are better able to ensure they understand the material.

women have been sharing their experiences. While the act of men interrupting women is a systemic problem of privilege that should be addressed, a lot of women have taken humor from the issue.

This isn’t because it is something that is purely humorous or lighthearted, but instead because the videos demonstrate the extent men will go to exert their presumed superiority.

Recently, we have seen several women being talked over in live events—most notably, the vice-presidential debate and the presidential town-halls. People were excited by Kamala Harris’ response to Mike Pence

after he cut her off. “I’m speaking” was praised as a power move, but I simply don’t think it deserves the hype. Instead, that should be a normal response to interruption. People praised Harris for her “bold” move and called her a “strong, independent woman”. It was the right thing to say, but it shouldn’t be the “courageous” thing to say as a woman. We shouldn’t be deemed “strong independent women” for calling out men, but instead for acknowledging that we are, indeed, strong independent women that have the self-worth to know when we have been treated wrongly.

I was speaking GRACIE HIME STAFF WRITER

T

he new adventure of online classes has taken full swing, and students across the nation have had to adapt to Zoom University.

Staying engaged, doing group projects and lectures have become incredibly more difficult, but some things have remained consistent. One of the most notable remnants of in-person class, though, is the tendency for men to interrupt and speak over women.

A recent TikTok trend highlighted this difficulty that women have been dealing with. One

of the most famous videos is of a woman in a science-technologyengineering-mathematics (STEM) class being constantly interrupted by male classmates in the middle of her spoken response. There are no other students telling the men to stop interrupting her so that she can speak, but instead, the male classmates target her and attack her suggestions. Instead of politely correcting her or offering an alternative opinion, they simply say “no” and divert the attention away from her. She doesn’t get a chance to defend her view and explain it past the basic concept. While

this is no new concept in the world of academia, it has been worsened by remote video discussions.

Whereas a woman could once talk over an interrupter or bring attention to the rude actions, Zoom and similar web video applications allow one voice to be projected over another. With the function of lighting up the speaker’s screen, attention is quickly changed to the person who is talking the loudest. This allows people to interrupt with no consequences. In addition, apps like Zoom have the option of turning off your camera in a session.

While-in person classes required people to talk

face-to-face, Zoom gives you the ability to not even have a virtual face.

Many people turn off their cameras for personal and privacy reasons, but this feature still allows some shielding of accountability. These functions hide the interrupter more than ever and give them a supposed sense of entitlement.

While Zoom may make it easier to interrupt without condemnation, it happens too frequently during in-person classes as well. With the new technological adjustments, it has just become harder to combat it. The TikTok trend started a conversation around this topic, and

Who won the presidential debates? Not American voters CLARA RICHARDS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

D

uring the first presidential debate, five million tweets flooded the internet, according to the University of Tennessee’s Social Media Command Center tracking. Those tweets covered a range of topics, from COVID to the Supreme Court. However, the fly on Vice President Pence’s hair garnered similar attention to the debate on Roe v Wade, and more attention than the issue of climate change and the Supreme Court appointments. The LA Times published a story headlined “Who has six legs and won the vice presidential debate?

Study declares a Twitter victor,’’ and many major news sites published coverage of the fly along with the rest of the debate.

It’s not fair to say that the fly is the harbinger of the increased irreverence of the debates. However, there should not be the expectation that voters make concrete decisions on a segment that is nothing more than glorified entertainment.

Politics are being covered as if they were a game of soccer, the net being the 270 votes to win the Electoral College. Ultimately though, this coverage of the game of politics is most detrimental to the voters, who get to know the candidates as debaters and not as effective

legislators.

In his book “Out of Order,” Thomas Patterson proposes this thesis: that politics either follows the game schema or the governing schema. The game schema explains that candidates are actors whose every move is important, and that a reporter will look to that game. On the other hand, the governing schema has candidates rationalize the party and issues that are important to them to try to improve the voters’ quality of life.

The lack of substance at the past presidential debates further demonstrates how the presidential campaign is focused entirely on the game—and how it ignores

Associate Editor: Matthew Friedman Managing Editors: Jayla Butler, Kya Vaughn

follow the intentionally complicated path for laws that the Constitution laid out to them.

The memes produced by events such as the presidential debates appear to never end. Commonly, all they serve to do is spread misinformation or a quote out of context. Now, the faster you can understand the meme, the faster it will gain popularity. And such easily digestible posts completely ignore the nuance that any conversation about policy may hold. While they can be used for humor and engagement, it’s worrying for those who use social media as their first source of information.

When I log into Twitter

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the governing specifics, something that has concrete consequences for the voters; undecided voters will end up electing an official who they agree with superficially because they have no way of knowing the policies that will impact their lives.

These debates encourage candidates to make broad statements and focus on one-liners that will gain attention online from people who can understand them without the context of the whole debate. The promises made in debates, though, are consistently empty; in reality, presidents don’t have the power to fully implement change themselves.

They have to go through the legislative branch, and

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and see the internet focusing on the fly on Pence’s head but not Harris’s statement concerning Biden’s policy on hydraulic fracking, it makes me question the very premise of the debates. If someone was truly undecided, it’s hard to believe that two adults quibbling would help them decide. In an age of such polarized politics, it feels like we’re divided and voters already know what side they are on. Maybe the cancellation of the second debate was a chance for voters to do their research on the policies that will concretely impact their lives instead of scrolling through tweet after tweet of whatever viral moment that the internet would have produced.

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8 STUDENT LIFE

CADENZA

JJ COLEY SENIOR EDITOR This year we have all the normal things that make midterm season stressful, combined with the fact that we cannot go outside or socialize nearly as much due to COVID-19. Lots of tests, high expectations and social isolation can be a perfect recipe for midterm season misery, which is why I’ve compiled a list of songs that make me happy in stressful times, to try to curb the general sadness that may come along with midterms.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2020

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

Plot Twist NIKI This song by 88Rising starlet NIKI is absolutely infectious in how bright it is. About unexpected joy, the song finds NIKI being thankful for such positive plot twists, her lithe voice beautifully layered over upbeat and dreamy music.

Mirror Keiynan Lonsdale Keiynan Lonsdale released his debut album “Rainbow Boy” back in

May, and it’s constantly been in my music rotation ever since. One of my favorite tracks from the album, “Mirror” is an ode to fierce self-love and confidence, even when those emotions seem hard to come by. Every time Lonsdale croons “Deep down you’ve got all this confidence, there’s balance in your essence and you’re talented,” I begin to believe it a little more.

The entire track exudes warmth and hope, which we could all use a little more of right now.

Rocketeer Far East Movement “Rocketeer” was released a decade ago, but for some reason I just keep coming back to songs that permeated my childhood when I’m in the mood for comfort. I almost don’t even know how to describe this song outside of nostalgia, but the smooth vocals over the distinctly 2010 production elements just slap in a way that 2020 songs can’t compare.

Tap In Saweetie

f—ck, i’m lonely Lauv

“Tap In” is the ultimate party song, which makes it all the more disappointing that we can’t go outside this midterm season. But the isolation has helped me appreciate the small beauty that is relishing in my alone time.

Every time I hear “Tap In,” I feel like I’m having a one person dance party in my studio apartment, and there’s not much better than having unabashed fun with yourself.

If the title didn’t give you the hint already, this is an objectively sad song. But while Lauv sings about missing a loved one and being lonely, his lyrics are layered over an incredibly buoyant and lighthearted beat. Even though this song isn’t happy in itself, it reminds me that I’m not alone in my loneliness, which cheers me up. I have been really lonely lately, but when Lauv is lonely too, our somber feelings suddenly become something worth dancing about.

Thyrsus adapts to COVID-19 with radio plays, play-reading group KAMALA MADIREDDI STAFF WRITER This semester, student theatre groups are being forced to adapt to these unprecedented times, and Thyrsus is no different.

Thyrsus focuses on student-run experimental theatre. Under normal circumstances, students can participate in “no shames,” monthly writing workshops for student written pieces.

Performance opportunities come in the form of

Day of Shame, a 24 hour theatre festival featuring student-written monologues and scenes directed and performed by students.

However, with the current COVID-19 restrictions, Thyrsus has introduced two new programs that promote the experimental mission: radio plays and Thyreads, a play-reading group.

Sophomore Alexander Hewlett is leading Thyrsus’ radio play projects, which are student-written monologues that are performed

The poster for Slave Play, the first reading of the semester for Thyreads, one of two new programs Thyrsus introduced this fall to maintain programming despite the pandemic.

and recorded by students in the theatre group. Even in this seemingly perfect socially distant medium, Hewlett explained that they are restricted to “mostly monologue plays right now, which is a bit of a constraint of the way that we can record because you can only have so many people in the studio spaces at once.”

Even with the restrictions, the experimental aspect is still prevalent. “We’re sort of constantly going to be trying to push the boundaries of what we can do with the medium,” Hewlett said.

“We’re trying to make sure that we still keep up the elements of experimentalism, so we want to keep things fresh and new.”

The experimental aspect of radio plays made this new medium a possibility before the pandemic even hit. “Thyrsus is always looking for new projects to make so there’s different mediums and we can get different people involved,” Hewlett noted. “Also, in line with experimentalism, [radio] was sort of a medium that I had never worked with, and a medium that I know a lot of people as actors hadn’t really worked with yet,” he added.

Not only is Thyrsus exploring different mediums of theatre and art, but they are also expanding the way they are engaged with theatre through the new program Thyreads. “Because we can’t be engaging with theatre in the traditional way that we normally do,

we’re looking at theatre through more of a literary sense,” said junior Shaelee Comettant, the leader of Thyreads.

Thyreads is a play-reading group that compiles a semesterly reading list of three plays and one multimedia piece, which are connected by theme, genre or form.

This semester, the theme is Black Experimentalism, and all of the plays are written

by Black artists who alter the typical expectations of viewers.

In monthly meetings, students will “analyze what

[the plays] are doing” and “talk about how a play could look on stage, different ways that playmakers could put that play into stage and turn it into work of theater,” Comettant noted. “We’re hoping that students can engage with theatre and works and narratives that they don’t normally engage with at Wash. U.,” she added.

With the discussions surrounding Black Experimentalism, Comettant remarked that the “plays engage with topics that are uncomfortable

to talk about and there’s a lot of shame surrounding them.” Having these difficult conversations about race is important, and Thyreads is hoping to “create a level of comfort around being uncomfortable in conversations,” Comettant added.

Despite having to make changes due to the COVID19 pandemic, Thyrsus is still embracing the experimental aspect of their identity and using it to create theatre through different mediums and to view theatre through a different lens.

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