February 15, 2024 Student Life newspaper, Washington University in St. Louis

The independent newspaper of Washington University in St. Louis since 1878 THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2024

VOLUME 145, NO. 17

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MARDI PARTY

WashU students celebrate in Soulard.

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Women’s basketball extends win streak.

(Sports, pg 5)

REVIEW

LYNF Year of the Dragon.

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University forms naming review board ISAAC SEILER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Beginning this semester, the newly formed Washington University Naming Review Board (NRB) will begin receiving reports on names that might conflict with University values of University buildings, programs, and monuments.

The Board was created after the University’s Board of Trustees approved it in December as a product of the Committee to Examine Remembrance and Commemoration (CRC), an initiative implemented in January 2023 by the chancellor’s office.

Recently, the WashU community has been dealing with controversy around the names of certain buildings and university features, like the Wayman Crow Residential College located on the South 40.

Crow was one of the co-founders of Washington University and a close friend of WashU founder William Greenleaf Eliot, and was recently revealed to be a slave owner. His lobbying efforts and monetary contributions persuaded the Missouri Legislature to establish Washington University in 1857.

Dr. Peter Kastor, the Associate Vice Dean of Research in Arts & Sciences and Samuel K. Eddy Professor of History, was appointed

by Chancellor Andrew Martin to lead the board.

“The primary purpose of the Naming Review Board is to provide a process for evaluating situations where somebody questions how or what a campus feature is named,” Kastor said.

Kastor is optimistic about the role the board will play in helping people

understand WashU’s history.

“Understanding the past means fully exploring the past and often grappling with really difficult elements of it,” Kastor said.

“Anything that enables us to do that is good.”

The Naming Review Board does not preemptively evaluate the names of campus features. Rather, members of the WashU community who want a campus feature to be considered for re-commemoration or contextualization can submit a report now on the University’s website through an online form.

To submit a report, community members must identify why the name of a university feature violates WashU’s core mission, include supporting evidence, and identify the name and location of the feature in question.

The board’s membership will include members of WashU faculty, administration, staff, and student body. Once the NRB receives a report, its members will evaluate it using three metrics: whether a “significant aspect of the legacy of the named individual or entity is directly associated with slavery, genocide, or discrimination,” whether the individual or entity caused will likely cause harm to the community, or whether the individual or entity is directly tied to “criminal activity or other destructive behavior with broad societal impact,” according to the NRB website.

If the NRB decides that the report clearly reveals injustice on the part of the individual or entity for which the university feature is named, the NRB will submit a formal recommendation to the chancellor, and the chancellor will submit the recommendation to the Washington University Board of Trustees.

JIALING SUN | STUDENT LIFE Wayman Crow Residential College was named for a co-founder of the University who was a slave owner.

The Naming Review Board is a product of the Committee to Examine Remembrance and Commemoration (CRC), an initiative implemented in January 2023 by the Chancellor’s office.

Rebecca Brown, Vice Chancellor for Strategic Initiatives and University Governance, chaired the CRC. “The [CRC] started meeting in March [2023]. It met monthly. There were a few subcommittees, and then it provided its recommendations to the board at the end of November [2023],” Brown said. “There was a lot of outreach involved during that time.”

WashU joins several colleges and universities across the country, including Johns Hopkins University, Ohio State University, and the University of California, Berkeley in creating boards and committees

to evaluate renaming buildings and other features initially named after individuals or groups who supported or participated in unjust actions not in line with the institution’s values.

The CRC looked to those other institutions when developing the NRB. “There was a lot of benchmarking that was done by the committee throughout the process,” Brown said. “There are many institutions that have committees or that have set up processes either in response to something or proactively, and of course, ours was done proactively.”

Kastor emphasized the flexible structure the NRB adopted, making it clear that representation is the priority.

“A request could concern any part of the University, and there is space within this to make certain

that the part of the University that’s affected is part of this process,” said Kastor. “That was part of what made this a useful exercise for all of us — developing a structure that would be sufficiently flexible to address the wide range of situations that can emerge.”

Other committee members and divisional designees include Vice Dean of Faculty Development and Diversity, Adia Harvey Wingfield, Director of Housing Operations, Will Andrews, and University Trustee Alicia McDonnell. A full list of committee members can be found on the CRC website.

WashU students can apply for a two-year appointment as an at-large member of the NRB on the CRC’s website. The deadline for applications is Friday, Feb 16.

Thinking outside of the shoebox:

Stuart Weitzman shares lessons in life, business and design LAUREN SMITH STAFF WRITER

Stuart Weitzman, luxury shoe designer and owner of the Stuart Weitzman company, delivered a lecture on his brand’s history, including his most successful advertising campaigns and the business truisms that have led the company to where it is today. About 80 students and faculty attended the event, which was hosted by the Business of the Arts Club in Kemp Auditorium, Feb. 9.

Weitzman, who has designed red carpet footwear for celebrities including Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, shared advice for students to succeed in business.

Before founding his company in 1986, Weitzman designed shoes at his father’s company, Seymour Shoes, for several years. He advised students in the crowd to work for a company before starting a business of their own.

Weitzman said working for Seymour Shoes allowed him to establish relationships with top retailers, leather suppliers, and shoe manufacturers that he used later on when he started Stuart Weitzman.

He also said that designing for Seymour Shoes helped him avoid business mistakes down the line.

“We made mistakes in the company,” Weitzman said. “And you know what? It didn’t cost me a nickel because it was all their mistakes and their money. But I learned from the company and never made those mistakes again.”

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Weitzman also discussed his design process. He said he doesn’t take inspiration from other designers, but instead finds his influences outside of the luxury shoe industry.

“The greatest ideas in fashion don’t come from the runway, they come from the street,” Weitzman said.

Weitzman also said that original ideas in fashion are more valuable than copied designs. He described a photo of a woman from the Academy Awards posted on social media with a caption that said she was wearing Stuart Weitzman sandals.

The sandals were not actually Stuart Weitzman; they were a Calvin Klein dupe of Stuart Weitzman’s “Nudist” heel.

“It wasn’t my sandal, it was his copy of my sandal,” Weitzman said.

“But once it reaches that level of recognition, it becomes yours.”

First-year Seth Skyles said he found the fact that the shoes were attributed to Weitzman fascinating because of his interest in intellectual property. He similarly appreciated Weitzman’s commentary on design inspiration.

“I liked what he said about not taking inspiration from your competition, but taking inspiration from other places where you see success and growth and innovation and looking to see how you can implement that into what you’re doing,” Skyles said.

Weitzman brought three of his most famous shoes for randomly selected audience members to try on and model, including a red heel

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Cara DeLevingne wore to the 2023 Oscars, a Swarovski diamondcovered “Nudist” heel Taylor Swift wore to Jack Antonoff’s wedding, and the most expensive shoe ever made: a pair of heels covered in 464 diamonds.

First-year Margot Kades was an audience member who was randomly chosen to model the Taylor Swift Nudists. She walked along the perimeter of Kemp Auditorium while audience members took photos.

“I loved getting to do a little model strut around,” she said. “They were such pretty shoes, I’m kind of sad I didn’t get to take them back with me.”

Weitzman also talked about some of his most successful advertising campaigns, including a nude photo of supermodels Gigi Hadid, Joan Smalls, and Lily Aldridge that was inspired by the Antonio Canova sculpture “The Three Graces.”

He said that three car accidents happened in front of the billboard advertisement in Times Square within eight days of the photo being displayed, and his lawyer advised him to take the billboard down to avoid a lawsuit.

The Times Square billboard was taken down, but the advertisement continued to run in fashion magazines and on other billboards across the U.S. and internationally.

“The editors loved it because the inspiration was a work of art,” he said. “If it hadn’t been a work of art, there might’ve been 50/50 animosity towards it, but they loved it.”

He also emphasized the

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LAKSHMI MULGUND | STUDENT LIFE Luxury shoe designer Stuart Weitzman addresses students and faculty at a recent Business of the Arts event. importance of community outreach in business and talked about a scholarship contest he held for high school students where contestants had to design a shoe loosely inspired by a socially conscious theme.

Weitzman said the contest wound up having two winners.

One of the winning designs was by a student from Iraq whose parents immigrated to the U.S. when she was three to ensure she would receive an education. The shoe had a stack of books for the heel, the words “education for all” etched into the heel, and tears of newspaper wrapped around the straps that she might have never learned to read if she’d remained in Iraq.

The second design that won was by a 15-year-old girl from Angola, who created a sandal centering on the history of enslavement. She included ropes and chains to wrap

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around the foot, and black diamonds dangling from a poplar tree that jutted out from the heel, an allusion to Billie Holiday’s song “Strange Fruit” where the poplar tree is the site of lynchings.

Weitzman said that both women used their scholarship to go to the Fashion Institute of Technology (NYC) and that the winner from Angola is now the lead luxury designer at Calvin Klein.

He said he led another campaign that raised enough money to build schools in Ghana, Guatemala, and Laos, and he said he hoped students in the audience would do similar things with their future businesses to make a positive impact in their community.

“I hope you can get into some things that copy this idea,” he said.

“Just the things that make the rest of your community feel fabulous.”

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THURSDAY, FEB 15, 2024

“Earthalujah!” Reverend Billy and the Earth Church Preach Against Consumerism

LAUREN SMITH STAFF WRITER

Two organizers of the radical performance activism group Earth Church, William Talen and Savitri D, gave a sermon and answered a series of questions posed by Professor Leigh Eric Schmidt in the second installment in the “Reverent Irreverence” series. The event was hosted by the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics in Emerson Auditorium, Feb. 6.

Formerly known as The Church of Stop Shopping, Earth Church is known for enacting theatrical stunts emulating the style of evangelical protestors to protest mass-consumerism and the exploitation of Earth’s resources. Their activities have ranged from entering JP Morgan Chase buildings and dancing on office desks, to attempting to exorcize demons from cash registers in various Starbucks.

Talen is an actor and playwright who acts in the role of Reverend Billy for the Church, and he channels the voices and mannerisms of televangelists to play his character.

Savitri D serves as the artistic director for the

organization, choreographing and directing protests, and was cited

by Reverend Billy as the author of the sermon he performed at the event.

Onstage barefoot in a neon pink suit, Reverend Billy said Earth Church has been shifting away from protest performances and is currently focused on providing housing to the recent inf lux of immigrants to New York City, many of whom arrived after Texas Governor Greg Abbott used state funding to f ly immigrants to cities who advertise themselves as welcoming immigration.

He talked about the process of locating food for 100 people and told a story of how a bodega run by immigrants from Yemen generously donated all the food they could to the cause.

“I just got a pile of stuff from these fellow immigrants and I brought it over in big paper bags,” Billy said. “It was just heartbreaking how hungry they were, how they went for the bread. It registered to me that there’s a kind of hunger going on that I’ve never in my life experienced.”

He said the best way to create a bond with the

Earth is to experience nature physically.

“We just have to take the time to slow down and go into a forest,” he said.

“Go into your favorite ecosystem, start talking to the trees, and listen.”

To conclude his sermon, he ran down the seating aisles of the auditorium chanting “Earthalujah” in a calland-response style with the audience.

During the Q&A portion of the event, Savitri D joined Reverend Billy onstage with Schmidt and elaborated on how the climate crisis has led to Earth Church’s shift away from the anti-consumerist protest performances.

“I think things are a lot less funny than they were 10 years ago,” Savitri D said. “I don’t know, can we afford to joke around as much as we used to?”

When asked about why Earth Church chooses to implement costumes and theater into their protest, Savitri D said that part of the performance is a tactic that keeps them from being ignored.

“It’s disarming to people as activists when they don’t know what you are, because the minute you’re a protestor, you don’t matter to people,” she said.

JAMIE NICHOLSON | STUDENT LIFE William Talen, who plays the character of Reverend Billy, discusses his performance activism as part of the speaker series “Reverent Irreverence.”

“They just glaze over you.”

Reverend Billy elaborated on whether the Earth Church is serious or ironic.

“That’s what’s exciting to us about the Earth Church,” he said, “We don’t know what it is, but other people don’t either.”

Junior Taryn Dixon said discerning between what was serious and what was supposed to be a joke was difficult during the event.

“He’s a reverend shouting the ultimate truth, and because of that it felt

a little legitimate,” she said. “It was weird for me to read between the lines of how much of this is real and how much is this just us playing pretend.”

She also talked about how she found the interaction between Savitri D and Reverend Billy surprising considering his role as the actor playing Billy and her role as theatrical director.

“I was surprised by the duality of their activism and how it’s like a play, and she’s more of an artist,” she said. “She was really the one answering the questions.”

Savitri D, when asked about what the role of music is in their activism, said singing is what makes their activism possible.

“I think music is the original technology of democracy,” she said.

“What happens when we sing together takes care of so many of the odious and laborious tasks of having a meeting and doing things like reaching consensus.”

Reverend Billy and Savitri D ended the event by leading the audience in a “Row, Row, Row, Your Boat” sing-along.

Elizabeth Kolbert talks climate change and the Sixth Extinction in Assembly Series lecture VIA POOLOS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

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Award-winning journalist and author Elizabeth Kolbert spoke at Washington University about climate change and the extinction crisis, Feb 12.

Kolbert is the second speaker brought to campus by the newly-reinstated Assembly Speaker series. Her lecture, titled “The Fate of the Earth,” started with an anecdote about a Hawaiian crow, one of the last of the Alala species to her audience, which mostly filled the 750-person capacity Graham Chapel.

The crow’s caretakers, desperate for him to mate to help save his species, would stroke him “in a way that crows are supposed to find very exciting,” Kolbert said. “To me, [this crow] sort of came to sum up this very strange sad situation that we find ourselves in… people are going to fantastic lengths to save the species. They are, in effect, giving hand jobs to crows.”

In the rest of her lecture, around 45 minutes long, Kolbert continued to explain the scope of the climate crisis, focusing on the warming of the atmosphere, the acidity of the oceans, and invasive species.

Kolbert narrowed her lecture on the idea of a “Sixth Extinction” – the first five being over 65 million years ago – and its implications.

One extinction, the Cretaceous-Tertiary, famously involved an asteroid that killed most of the dinosaurs.

The current extinction, however, would involve the rapid loss of many plant and animal species if the climate continues to change.

“Some scientists would say maybe we can still prevent it. And some say we are pretty deep into it already,” Kolbert said. Her book, “The Sixth Extinction,” argues for the latter.

Alongside stories of dying bats, bleached coral reefs, and invasive rat species, Kolbert brought up a handful of statistics to illustrate the depth and breadth of the climate crisis.

“CO2 levels have not been above 300 parts per million for at least the last hundred thousand years, and probably a lot longer. And we are heading very rapidly towards 600 parts per million,” Kolbert said.

She added that despite the Paris Agreement in 2015 that proposed to hold warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and was signed onto by 175 global parties, we have already surpassed that increase.

Kolbert also said that the odd weather St. Louis has been experiencing — extreme cold to spring-like warmth in just a few weeks – is a result of climate change.

“I think what people need to think about when they say ‘oh it’s great to have a 60 degree day in February’ is what it’s going to be like in July,” she said. “It’s not stopping. [First] it’s a 60 degree day in February and then it will be a 65 degree day in February, and a 70 degree day.”

As for the University, Kolbert said that investing in research and education on climate warming is important, as well as taking direct action in response to their scientific findings.

“I mean, if everyone’s research shows we need to cut carbon emissions, then

universities need to be at the forefront of doing that. I believe that universities need to walk the walk,” she said.

However, Kolbert is skeptical that any one intervention – either biotech innovation or scaling back carbon emissions – can reverse damage to the environment.

“We haven’t shown ourselves inclined to cut back, and at the same time, I don’t have faith that technology is somehow going to save us,” she said.

Kolbert herself makes some small climate-conscious decisions – she has solar panels on her house, and an electric car. But in many ways, Kolbert says that she is like everyone else.

“I did fly here,” she said, referencing how she traveled from her home in upstate New York to St. Louis. “I have the same carbon footprint as everyone else.”

Mostly, Kolbert channels the anxiety she feels about the climate into her writing. She contributes regularly for the New Yorker, and has a new book – “H is for Hope”– coming out in March. But still, she’s nervous about the future.

“I have kids… and I’m very worried about what the world is gonna look like in a couple of decades from now,” Kolbert said.

Despite her dire warnings of global warming, Kolbert said that she doesn’t have a guidebook for what people should do after consuming her climate journalism.

“I believe in the importance of information and facts,” she said. “I hope that it shocks people, and makes them take some form of action, but I don’t have a prescription [for that].”

THURSDAY, FEB 15, 2023

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Review: LNYF 2024, WashU’s sold-out event ELIZABETH GRIEVE STAFF WRITER

On the first Friday of February, as I sat with my friend in Whispers, I planned out my upcoming week. Looking at my weekend, I remembered Washington University’s Lunar New Year Festival, or LNYF, an event my suitemate had insisted I must see.

When I looked at tickets, the Friday show was already sold out, and the Saturday evening show had a single ticket left.

Stunned, I quickly bought the last ticket, and then I texted my suitemate: “Wanna go to the LNYF show together next weekend?”

According to its website, WashU LNYF “is an annual student-run production staged in commemoration and celebration of the Lunar New Year.” While I had heard much about this event before, I had never been to it.

Interestingly, I hadn’t seen any advertisements for the show around campus. I knew that the show was a huge, highly anticipated production — why else would the event have already sold out Edison Theater for three shows and have a perpetual waitlist for tickets? But, why exactly was it so popular every year? How could it have garnered such a reputation? And what was it like to actually go? I set out to answer these questions for myself.

That Saturday evening, my suitemate and I walked to Mallinckrodt Center, where we were greeted by an eager crowd streaming into the theater. Peeking over the railing onto the lower level, we could see a few of the show’s performers finishing up their preparations. Despite the winding down of Mardi Gras festivities across campus and the greater St Louis area, the sold-out audience was anything short of wound down.

Even for the opening act by the Sensasians, the audience could not have been more enthusiastic. With my

suitemate, I sat in the audience and couldn’t help but share the excitement for the show about to come. The energy was unprecedented for closing night on a dreary Saturday evening.

After a quick introduction video of the performers, the show began with the Lion Dance. With percussion in the background, the performers nimbly danced in elaborate, flowy costumes as the audience cheered and gasped with delight.

Only after this opening act did the LNYF student directors introduce themselves and welcome the eager audience to the show. Starting the show with Lion Dance was a great decision on the part of the directing staff. Another decision I enjoyed was the introductory videos before each performance; in addition to the cute theming, it allowed the audience to be acquainted with the very talented performers. As each performer was introduced, there was no shortage of cheers from audience members who came to support a friend — a sweet and spirited manifestation of the audience’s high levels of excitement that persisted throughout the entire show.

The show was an impressively diverse and engaging set of acts ranging from a thrilling Taekwondo performance, to the elegant Watersleeve dance, to the lively Yoyo routine. I feel that the organizers of LNYF were successful in balancing the energy between each performance, which sustained the audience’s interest throughout the two-hour show, leaving the audience wanting more even up to its end. The beauty of the performances and the skill of the performers were unmatched, so much so that I often found myself forgetting that everyone in LNYF was a student, just like me.

Following the presentation of LNYF’s philanthropic recipient, Prison Performing Arts (an organization running performing arts programs for

ISABELLA DIAZ-MIRA | STUDENT LIFE Contemporary Chinese dancers graced the stage at the 2024 Lunar New Year Festival. incarcerated people), and a brief intermission, the show continued with just as much energy and excitement as the first half. The two-hour show seemed to go by in the blink of an eye, inspiring nonstop awe and wonder in the audience.

The final bows of each group were met with thunderous applause from the audience.

Coming into the show, I found the fanfare around the show to be somewhat unexpected. However, after seeing LNYF, I can confidently say that the excitement is well deserved. Each group’s choreography was well done, and the differences between each performance added to the appeal of the show rather than seeming cacophonous.

I am still wonderstruck by how incredibly talented the performers were and how coordinated each group was.

It’s no wonder that this event is so popular.

Each act brought something new and impressive to the table. Personally, I had never seen most of these performances before, so they were all new and fascinating to me. The costuming

congruency further added to the professionalism of the whole show. While LNYF had something for everyone, my favorite act was the Standing Drums performance in the second act, as it was particularly well-choreographed and fun to watch. My suitemate’s favorite act was the Juggling, especially when they brought out the light-up juggling balls and continued the routine in the dark. Other favorites of ours were Tinikling, which is always very entertaining to watch, and Korean Fan, which was aesthetically stunning.

As a first-timer, after going to LNYF myself, I would advise any WashU student who has not yet seen it to go and see the show next year.

Just remember to snag a ticket before it’s too late!

ISABELLA DIAZ-MIRA | STUDENT LIFE WashU Juggling passes rings, among other items, back and forth to each other in the second act.

ISABELLA DIAZ-MIRA | STUDENT LIFE Korean Fan’s synchronization and choreography dazzled viewers .

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THURSDAY, FEB 15, 2023

The St. Louis Mardi Gras Parade: A Cinderella Story ELLE SU SENIOR PHOTO EDITOR

Mardi Gras: the one day where people are proud to be in St. Louis. The day where people are no longer in Misery, USA, but in an alternate dimension full of colors, excitement, and celebration.

Instead of ball gowns, there are carefully curated green and purple pants with loud

prints. Instead of a pumpkin carriage, there is the MetroLink. Instead of a pair of glass slippers, there are cheap, shiny beads that are haphazardly flung into the crowds from the top of the parade floats. That is the more PG way of obtaining beads, at least.

My day started the same way that any Mardi Grasgoers’ day would–early in the morning, surrounded

by people who were already a few shots in. Armed with creatively named BORGs, we headed to the St. Louis MetroLink, which was blocked by security checking for metro passes instead of the usual non-existent turnstiles and open platform.

The Metro finally screeched in around fifteen minutes after the scheduled time. Of course, the parade had to fall on the coldest day of the

week, so seeing any enclosed space was a relief.

The relief was shortlived, as the doors swung to reveal people trying not to tumble out of the car, something I never thought I would see outside of a big city like New York. Despite having paid for a ticket and successfully squeezing into the car, we were promptly kicked off one stop later at Central West End after the train had

The Journey

stalled for fifteen minutes.

We rushed off the metro to beat the surge pricing and waited on the curb for our Uber to arrive.

Then came our fairy godmother: the “Superman.”

Since no words can do it justice and a picture is worth a thousand words, I will let the photos speak for themselves.

The Superman could only seat six, which was one less than the number of people

we had. To respect the Superman and also the driver who had dictated where each of us were allowed to sit based on our heights, we wasted the capacity of the UberXL and split into two groups. The car ride was nothing short of a fever dream, but I will save some of the mystery for if you ever happen to be lucky enough to be matched with this Uber in St. Louis.

The Parade

My personal nightmare — the MetroLink on Mardi Gras.

I am pretty sure she caught it.

The inside of the Superman. I will give you one guess as to what the driver’s favorite franchise is.

The North Star in the distance.

The End At around one in the afternoon, the clock of my social battery struck midnight. I said my goodbyes, headed home, and curled up on the f loor of my room to nap as the buzzing streets quieted, the MetroLink emptied, and the sidewalks were cleaned of littered beads, resetting for next year’s Mardi Gras.

One of the most unforgiving, cutthroat places — the port-a-potty at Mardi Gras. I can only assume that the aggression comes from people fighting to not break the seal.

A perfect representation of how overwhelmed I felt.

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STUDENT LIFE 5

Women’s basketball extends conference win streak to seven ELAHEH KHAZI JUNIOR SPORTS EDITOR “Our goal has been the same all season, and that is to get better every day.

It is important for us to see each game as an opportunity to get better,” said Jessica Brooks, a senior guard on the Washington University women’s basketball team.

Over the last month, Brooks and her teammates’ goals have come to life. WashU started conference play in the competitive University Athletic Association (UAA) 1-3, including home losses to Emory University and the University of Rochester.

Since them, however, the Bears had rattled off five straight wins before their trip to Atlanta and New York, catapulting them up the UAA standings and reviving their chances of an at-large NCAA tournament berth.

This past weekend, the team had a chance to show off their improvement.

They took full advantage of it, dominating No. 19 Emory and Rochester on Feb. 9 and 11, avenging their close losses from earlier this season.

The two victories spurred on their sevengame winning streak, moving the team into a tie with the University of Chicago for second place in the UAA. The Bears and Maroons trail only No.1

New York University, the top-ranked team in the nation, who will travel to St. Louis this weekend with a 22-0 record.

WashU v. Emory On Friday evening in Atlanta, the game kicked off with much energy.

Both teams played neckand-neck throughout the first quarter, and the teams were tied at 17 in the final minute. First-year guard Sidney Rogers made a layup with two seconds left, giving the Bears a two-point lead to end the quarter.

To start the second quarter, WashU went on a 14-2 run to take a 33-19 lead. After Emory scored a few baskets, Brooks, who led the team with 18 points in the game, scored six straight, spurring the Bears. The half ended with WashU leading at a score of 41-27.

“I think all of us are getting more comfortable and confident playing with and for each other which has shown up in big wins for us,” Brooks said.

At the beginning of the second half, the Eagles went on a seven-point run.

Though the Bears’ offense got going as first-year center Lexy Harris scored five, the Eagles narrowed the gap throughout the quarter. With two minutes remaining in the period, the Bears’ lead was down to just 49-47. The Bears

SAM POWERS | STUDENT LIFE

Sidney Rogers, first year guard, scored 15 against Emory in Friday’s game.

scored the last five points of the quarter, giving them momentum heading into the final ten minutes.

Brooks led the Bears in the game’s final quarter, scoring six additional points to gain a 62-49 lead with 5:30 remaining.

Emory scored some late baskets, but the Bears held on for a 72-61 victory.

Brooks, Rogers, and Harris all earned doubledigit scoring totals, with 18, 16, and 15 points respectively, leading the Bears to their sixth straight win in UAA competition and head coach Randi Henderson’s 100th victory at WashU. Henderson praised her team after the milestone accomplishment.

“I believe our team

played really well defensively. We guarded and rebounded extremely well, and we stayed the course through the highs and lows of the game and, most importantly, never gave up.

We stuck together.”

WashU v. Rochester On Sunday, the Bears continued their UAA campaign in upstate New York against the Rochester University Yellowjackets.

The game started slowly for the Bears, as they only hit three shots in the first quarter. Despite the quarter ending with WashU seven points behind at 13-6, the Bears did not give up.

After Rochester extended their lead to 11 points, the Bears

dominated the rest of the second quarter. Harris and first-year guard Sidney Starks led a 14-3 run, giving the Bears a 28-20 lead with 1:35 left. WashU went into halftime up 30-24.

In the second half, WashU maintained their dominant offense. The Yellowjackets tried to catch up, but to no avail, as the Bears ended the third quarter at 55-39.

Though Rochester attempted to go on a scoring run in the fourth quarter, the Bears responded with a run of their own and strong defense, ending the matchup with a score of 70-55 in favor of WashU. Led by Harris, who finished with 14 points and six rebounds, WashU

outscored Rochester 42-20 in the paint. The Bears also shot 8/18 from beyond the three-point arc, led by pairs of threes from Brooks and Starks.

Brooks finished with 20 points, tallying at least 20 for the fifth time this season. Goodwin finished with 11 total points in addition to a game-high five assists, while Starks and fellow first-year Alyssa Hughes scored eight and seven, respectively, off the bench.

“Our team is focused on getting better each week.

Our players are being intentional in our practices and with their extra work [for future games],” Henderson said at the end of the weekend.

Their improvement will be put to the test, as they battle against the No.1 team in the UAA and country, NYU, in their return to home court on Feb. 16 to celebrate Black History Month. They will then take on Brandeis University on Sunday, Feb. 18.

“NYU is a great team, but we are also a great team. It is exciting to host them this [upcoming] weekend, and we as a team are ready for another opportunity to stack our habits and goals we have been working towards all season,” Brooks said in anticipation of the matchup.

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6 STUDENT LIFE

Men’s basketball earns crucial win to snap six-game road losing streak RILEY HERRON MANAGING SPORTS EDITOR After a disappointing loss to Emory University in Atlanta on Feb. 9, the Washington University men’s basketball team had less than 48 hours to regroup before their next game 960 miles away against the University of Rochester. The loss had been the team’s third in a row, as well as their sixth consecutive road defeat, and saw their chances to make the NCAA tournament fall from 59% to 48% according to D3 Bubble Watch, a website that projects the NCAA DIII tournament field. If the Bears lost to Rochester, their projected chances would fall to just 30%.

As a result, the Bears found themselves in a must-win situationt to ensure their chances at qualifying for postseason play stayed within grasp.

“It was a huge game, and we knew that,” junior guard Hayden Doyle said. “It’s no secret that we’ve got to win some games down the stretch if we want to potentially make the tournament, so there’s definitely a sense of urgency right now.”

After making the flight from Atlanta to upstate New York, the Bears showed up ready to play on Sunday, Feb. 11.

From the opening tipoff to the final whistle, the Bears put on a clinic, riding a 15-0 start, a rebounding performance for the history books, and lockdown defense to a 75-61 victory.

“We all viewed today as a must-win, we all want[ed] to give 110%,” junior guard Kyle Beedon said after the game.

“If you weren’t tired as a dog after this one, there’s something wrong… This game was

huge, we hadn’t won on the road yet, we needed this one.

So I’m really glad that we were able to pull it out.”

WashU v. Emory The Bears looked ready to compete from the start against Emory on Friday night.

Sophomore Will Grudzinski scored seven points in the first five minutes, putting the Bears ahead 11-4 early. Though the Bears jumped out to a 20-11 lead three minutes later, the Eagles stayed close behind, narrowing the lead to just one point after a quick run.

After the Bears found themselves ahead 31-29 with just over five minutes remaining in the first half, a 7-0 run put them up 38-29 with 2:52 to go.

The Eagles swooped back in, however, scoring the last five points of the half to bring the score to 40-36 at the break.

After halftime, the Eagles continued their hot streak. A 12-2 run by Emory gave them a 78-61 lead with 5:54 left on the clock, and the Eagles finished the game up 89-76 to hand WashU their third straight loss.

Though the Bears won the battle on the low blocks — outrebounding Emory 33-27 and outscoring them 36-32 in the paint — the Eagles’ sharp three-point shooting (hitting a season-high 50% of their 20 shots from beyond the arc) and impressive play by sophomore guards Ben Pearce (32 points) and Jair Knight (26 points) proved to be too much for the Bears to stop.

When asked about what went wrong in the second half, Doyle credited Emory’s ability to hit difficult shots.

“I really think Emory just played a really, really good

game. I think they made a lot of tough shots that were contested and that are the ones that we’re willing to give up and they just made a lot of them… They’re very good, and they showed that in the second half.”

Beedon added that the Eagles changed up their defense in the second half, switching from zone defense to a man-to-man look that the Bears were not prepared to face. “They had our number while we were on offense,” he said.

Head coach Pat Juckem pointed out the fact that the Bears gave up 27 free throws, 23 of which the Eagles hit, while the Bears only made it to the charity stripe ten times.

“Anytime you’ve got a margin like that from the free throw line, that’s significant… we weren’t as disciplined with our feet, … and we were not sound and not fundamental there,” Juckem said.

WashU v. Rochester Though Friday’s loss stung the Bears, Juckem reminded his team of a phrase he has been telling them all season: “Championships are won on Sundays.”

“You don’t typically have quite the crowd and maybe not quite the energy in the building at noon on Sunday, but it counts the same and you have to create your [own] energy,” he explained.

The Bears created their own energy quickly in Sunday’s matchup, jumping out to a 15-0 lead within the first four minutes. Seven early points from Beedon, who ended the day shooting 3/6 from three and scoring 18 points, led the charge.

“We always want to be the team that punches first,” the guard said after the game.

“It’s crucial for us to have an advantage early. We really try to push the tempo and just get out a lot faster, [which] gave us momentum going forward.”

Though the Yellowjackets attempted to close the gap, the Bears utilized their early momentum throughout the half. They took a 31-19 lead into halftime and rode a pretty even (44-42) second half to a 75-61 victory.

The biggest success for WashU came on the boards, where they outrebounded Rochester 63-42. The 63 rebounds put the Bears one shy of the UAA record, which Emory set against Carnegie Mellon in 2002, and were more than any WashU team has tallied in over a decade.

“It starts with our bigs, Calvin Kapral and Jake Davis,” Doyle said after the game. “They’re really physical guys and they do a really good job of boxing out and keeping the other team’s big men off the glass.”

Kapral had his first-career double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds — 8 of which were offensive boards — in just 17 minutes. Davis, a first-year center, added 8 points and 7 rebounds off the bench, while sophomore guard Yogi Oliff also had a career-high 11 rebounds.

“It was a big point of emphasis coming off our Case and Carnegie weekend to really lock in on rebounding because that can be a really big strength for our team…

Rebounding is such a huge piece of what makes us good and we need to stick to that,” Doyle added.

Athlete of the Week: Inside Kyle Puckett’s 100-mile-a-week training LEWIS RAND JUNIOR SPORTS EDITOR Washington University senior Kyle Puckett has run over 500 miles since the start of 2024. So far this season, the Houston native has already set three personal records (PR), including a 5,000 meter PR of 14:50.37 that he set at the Midwest ELITE Invitational on Feb. 10. Student Life sat down with Puckett to discuss his intense training regimen, passion for mechanical engineering, and plans for the future.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Student Life: How did you get into the sport of track and field?

Kyle Puckett: It all started in elementary school. I didn’t grow up running, I hated running, I wasn’t playing any sports, and I kind of just played video games and sat in my room. My parents had me try every sport, and I wasn’t good at them. On top of that, I wasn’t super active, so they just had me running on a treadmill and doing exercises with them, and I figured out that I liked running. I ran the Mississippi state meet for high school as an eighth grader, and I ran a 5k and placed 12th in my division, which was pretty cool. When I moved to Texas [from Louisiana], I looked at cross country and track and ran my first track races as a freshman in high school.

SL: When did you decide you wanted to run in college?

KP: I’m a huge running nerd — I love running. It’s one of my favorite things outside of school. But I

THURSDAY, FEB 15 2024

RILEY HERRON | MANAGING SPORTS EDITOR | SPORTS@STUDLIFE.COM

wasn’t really fast enough to run in college going into my senior year of high school.

I didn’t have the best PRs. I talked to a few schools, but there was nothing where anyone was like “this kid’s a recruit,” most schools were just like, ‘Yeah, you’ll have to try out or do the run club or something.” And that was fine with me as long as I kept running.

SL: How did you end up competing at WashU? KP: After a few good cross country races and having a good senior year, I verbally committed to go to Rice [University]. But later in the year, I decided I didn’t want to go to Rice and that WashU was the school I had academically been looking at the entire time. The last meet of my high school career was right before COVID hit, and I ran two seconds off of the standards to get on the WashU team. After that, I kept training because the world was shut down and I was doing Zoom school.

I actually went out one day before class and had two of my friends from high school pace me, and I set an unofficial school record. Then I contacted [WashU head coach Jeffrey] Stiles and was like “Hey, I just did this.”

And he called me and was like, “I respect that. You kept trying when track races stopped,’ and so I was given a spot in May 2020 and came in the fall.

SL: You’ve run over 500 miles since the start of this year. That is a pretty heavy load. Can you walk me through what a week of your training looks like?

KP: It’ll depend on if I’m racing or not, although I tend to train through races and don’t cut as much as a

Softball Preview

CLARA RICHARDS | STUDENT LIFE

RISHI CHINIGA STAFF WRITER After an up-and-down season, the Washington University softball team is ready to compete in 2024. Despite finishing with a 20-18 record (1010 in UAA play) and concluding with two wins against the University of Chicago, the team missed the playoffs for just the fourth time in the last 20 years. However, aside from a 7-game losing streak at the end of March to begin UAA play, the team looked strong throughout the rest of the season under firstyear head coach Casey Cromwell. With a blank slate ahead of them and the fire to return to the

postseason like two years ago, the Bears appear poised for a bounce-back.

“Bringing in a new coach, there is an adjustment to figuring out what values and team culture this team wants to build its foundation on,” senior Emily Talkow said.

Now, ahead of Cromwell’s second season at the helm, the team is laying down the foundations for an exciting season. With a number of new pieces this year, communication has been crucial and continued to be emphasized throughout the offseason, and celebrating the little wins has brought the team much closer.

Baseball Preview

CLARA RICHARDS | STUDENT LIFE

IAN HEFT MATT EISNER SENIOR SPORTS EDITOR STAFF WRITER

PHOTO COURTESY OF KYLE PUCKETT

Puckett, left, runs alongside teammate Micah Benson.

lot of people. Right now, I’m averaging anywhere from 14 to 17 [miles] a day and I like doing all my training in six days. I tend to run twice a day, four days a week. Two of those days are workouts, two of those days are easy days. And then I’ll have one medium-long run and a long run for most of our standard weeks. I really love it; every day I get to wake up and be with people who I love and get to run with, and that’s really special to me. The mileage overall can range from mid-to-high 90s to 100.

It depends on the week or if I’m racing or how I’m feeling, but yeah, I mean, like you said I’m over 500 [miles] for 2024 already, and that’s been kind of cool.

SL: You have run three personal bests this season in the mile, 3,000 meter, and 5,000 meter. What do these results show you about your

training so far during a heavy load?

KP: I think it’s showing that for me, it personally works. One of the things I love about our program is that Coach Stiles really identifies what people’s strengths are and what their weaknesses are. He likes playing to people’s strengths. We know our weaknesses. For me, I think it’s showing that lots of aerobic work and easy miles is setting me up to run well, not only now but in the future.

Read the rest online:

Baseball is a streaky and superstitious sport – sometimes, all a team needs to improve off of a previous season’s results is a chip on their shoulder.

Last year, the Washington University baseball team made a strong argument for a return to the NCAA baseball tournament for the first time since their 2021 College World Series appearance. After winning 10 of 11 crucial games towards the end of the regular season, WashU traveled to Atlanta to face Emory University. Win the series, and the Bears have a real shot at being considered for an at-large tournament bid. Lose, and

the season is over.

Emory, and subsequent opponents Webster and Dubuque, got the best of the Bears. WashU missed the tournament for a second consecutive year.

“We lost too many games last year,” sophomore shortstop Shane Pellegrino said, bluntly.

“And I really don’t like that.”

While WashU missed the postseason, the building blocks for a sustainable winning future seemed to be in place. Led in the stat sheet by sophomore Shane Pellegrino and junior Brandon Buday at the plate, and juniors Will Henkel and Sebastian Guzman on the mound, plus an influx of young arms, WashU baseball is young and hungry this season.

FORUM

THURSDAY, FEB 15. 2024

STUDENT LIFE 7

REILLY BRADY | MANAGING FORUM EDITOR | FORUM@STUDLIFE.COM

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

There is no room for anti-Blackness in arts and entertainment journalism SABRINA SPENCE FORMER CADENZA AND SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR, CLASS OF 2022 The theme for Black History Month 2024 is “African Americans and the Arts,” and it goes without saying that Black Anthology, for the past 35 years, has cemented itself as the premier and only avenue for the expression of Black art on the campus of Washington University.

I found Black Anthology in my freshman year of college, and it quickly became one of my favorite organizations on campus. I still have fond memories of calling the show all four years as its first fouryear stage manager. Given my relationship with the organization and my understanding of its legacy as the University’s oldest cultural show, that does not mean I’m saying it’s perfect. Nothing

is perfect. That being said, I don’t see a need to critique and call the work that it’s doing to uplift the voices of Black creatives on campus “unfortunate” when it doesn’t quite meet the expectations of one individual. Apparently, the paper that I also called home for four years does. And I find that utterly disappointing.

It makes me wonder how many people on staff actually saw the production. How many people cared enough to buy a ticket even if they didn’t use it? Was there someone who read the review prior to late-night checks and asked themself, “Maybe, just maybe, we shouldn’t publish this?” And if that was the case, then why didn’t anyone listen? During my time on the paper, I saw articles tossed because the staff made the executive decision they shouldn’t be published

because they were just plain insensitive and/or incendiary. What happened here?

Why didn’t anyone think, “Maybe calling the year-long project, the only established avenue for Black students on campus to express themselves on the University’s main stage, ‘bad’ and ‘unfortunate’ during Black History Month is a bad idea.”

While a student at WashU, not only did I stage manage Black Anthology, I also served as two-term coeditor of Cadenza, the arts and entertainment section of the paper that has since been dissolved and absorbed

by Scene, as well as threeterm Social Media Editor. I was upset with the decision to dissolve Cadenza because I poured my heart and soul into that section, and I hated to see it disappear. If this isn’t a case to bring it back, then I don’t know what is.

Culturally competent reporters are important to have on staff at any institution, and it is clear that StudLife has decided to ignore that fact.

Having trained arts reporters who understand how to navigate writing reviews of culturally significant projects and events on campus is important.

My relationship to Black Anthology aside, if I had seen that article come through my inbox from one of my writers, staff or contributing, I would have said something. If your writer is not trained or culturally competent enough to cover something, then don’t have them cover it. If you haven’t put forth the time and the effort to provide that training to them, then why are you as an editor trying to do something your staff isn’t prepared to do? Your staff is only as good as the training you provide them. This isn’t

to say you can’t have opinions or you can’t have thoughts on what an organization should have done or didn’t do enough of, but to say that “Black Anthology [is] more about supporting the artists than the art itself” minimizes the work that the executive board, cast, and dancers put into making this show what it is. Black Anthology does not start in August. Black Anthology starts the moment the curtain on the previous show closes in February. To print that line paints a picture that fails to recognize that when everyone else is on break for summer, Black Anthology is working to bring a show to campus that highlights the experience of Black people with the University’s Black students in mind.

Maybe if someone on staff had an understanding of how Black Anthology worked, this wouldn’t happen. Maybe if

Cadenza came back and there were arts reporters trained to cover the varying cultural shows on campus, this wouldn’t happen. Maybe, just maybe, if someone looked at the calendar and recognized that printing something with this tone, during Black History Month, is tone-deaf, unnecessary, and “unfortunate,” this wouldn’t happen.

Maybe, instead of pointing the finger at the students who are trying their best to do a beautiful and necessary thing, the finger should be pointed at those who provide the funding or lack thereof.

Maybe, calling for Student Union (SU) to increase funding to cultural shows so that the unspoken expectations of this journalistic body can be met is a better avenue to take your pen down, rather than labeling the hard work of students, your peers, as “unfortunate.”

STAFF EDITORIAL

Expanding on Student Love This week, we published our 20th edition of Student Love (colloquially known as our “sex edition”). Student Love has been a campus staple since 2005 and has survived almost two decades of evolving conversations on sex.

Despite the changing culture, two things have remained in each issue since its initial publication: 1) pictures of naked ultimate frisbee players and 2) our purpose for publishing this

special edition.

Student Love was conceived to normalize the conversation around sex in a fun way — and yes, to raise some eyebrows. But normalizing the conversation around sex is about more than cartoon aliens and hookup horror stories. Healthy discourse involves many perspectives and is inclusive of various genders and sexualities.

Healthy discourse around

sex also includes students of all experience levels. It can be easy to compare oneself to statistics we publish, but they do not tell the whole story, and neither does a Rice Purity Score, a game of Never Have I Ever, or a late-night conversation with your first-year roommates. If you’re not a part of the 73.19% of Washington University students who have had sex (or the 76.76% of McKelvey students, which

Love is patient, love is kind... and also respectful...

Know how to stay safe!

SEEK SUPPORT There are important steps you should follow as closely as possible after a sexual assault.

If possible leave the scene as is, get to a safe place IMMEDIATELY, and contact someone who you trust.

WHAT TO DO NEXT Contact WUPD or the RSVP Center.

Seek medical attention right away.

Do not eat, drink, shower, wash your hands, comb your hair, brush your teeth or change your clothes.

Record everything you can remember.

we still find hard to believe), Student Love is not an encouragement for you to “catch up,” unless it is on your own terms.

Beyond that, know that the data we publish is limited. Selection bias is a factor, and those who are sexually active are more inclined to fill out our survey. Additionally, male-identifying people tend to overplay their sexual experience, while female-identifying people tend to do the opposite, in alignment with restrictive societal norms. Our data isn’t 100% accurate, and even if it was, it should not change how you feel about yourself.

Talking about sex works toward eliminating stigma and shame around student experiences. Beyond that, it opens doors to important conversations surrounding consent and safe sex, which have far-reaching implications.

While we want Student Love to be a fun, stigma-free discussion on sex, we also want to emphasize the importance of freely given consent.

This is a balance that we acknowledge we have not yet reached.

Informed and freely given consent is essential to every sexual encounter.

While we might not spell out “F.R.I.E.S.” within Student Love’s pages (it stands for Freely Given, Reversible, Informed, Enthusiastic, and Specific, F.Y.I.), we do say that “consent is sexy.” However, saying that alone is not enough of a discussion on consent and is only a part of the broader conversation on sexual violence prevention.

Washington University has resources for students to receive services and/or make a report following a nonconsensual sexual encounter, including S.A.R.A.H. and the RSVP Center. The University also has resources available to students to make having safe sex easier, including contraceptive methods and STI/ STD testing.

In our short issue, we also cannot encapsulate all student experiences, answer all questions, or explore all societal structures in relation to sex, as much as we would like to.

Understand Student Love not as a complete informational

guide to sex, but rather, as a jumping-off point for further exploration and deeper conversation.

Yes, Student Love is fun.

But it’s not about the statistics, the sexy photos, or even the tradition. It’s about creating conversation. And it’s for you.

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.

Mia Burkholder, Chief of Copy Amelia Raden, Junior Forum Editor Reilly Brady, Managing Forum Editor Sylvie Richards, Senior Forum Editor Clara Richards, Editor in Chief Via Poolos, Editor in Chief Will Rosenblum, Senior Scene Editor Ian Heft, Senior Sports Editor Riley Herron, Managing Sports Editor

Caption this! Enter this week’s contest Scan the QR code to enter your submission by 11:59 pm on Monday.

WUPD COMMITMENT If you feel you are a victim of a sexual assault on campus, WUPD guarantees to provide you with care, dignity, understanding, and professionalism, while remaining non-judgmental and confidential.

We have trained and specialized female and male officers to assist you.

HERE TO HELP

ILLUSTRATION BY MANUEL LOPEZ

02/15 WINNERS

First place I didn’t know TAs were paid that much!

Cristina Sabando Alvarez, Current WashU Student

WUPD works closely with the RSVP Center, EST, and other campus and community resources.

WUPD has a Comfort Dog Program if you desire their sweet demeanors, time, and attention!

Second place He made a mistake on the equation for love — he left out chemistry!

Debbie Rabinovich, Current WashU Student

wupddogs@wustl.edu

314-935-5555 ILLUSTRATION BY ANAELDA RAMOS

Third place Gross, didn’t he wear the same outfit yesterday?

Darren Jacobs, WashU Parent

8 STUDENT LIFE

HUSSEIN AMURI | MANAGING SPORTS EDITOR | SPORTS@STUDLIFE.COM

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