October 17, 2024 Student Life Newspaper, Wash U in St. Louis
Student Union Treasury is running out of money
8 weeks into the semester, SU has already allocated 62% of its appeals budget for the full school year.
$475,000 total funding available for appeals
$172,144.83 allocated by Oct. 16
$400,000 total funding available for appeals $252,396.83 allocated by Oct. 16
Last year This year
JACE SLONE CONTRIBUTING WRITER
For the first time in recent memory, Student Union (SU) will not have enough money to support additional funding requests from student organizations for the 2024-25 academic year according to SU leadership, with some Treasury representatives jokingly calling it the “SU Recession.”
Sources in Treasury say this issue came from last year’s Budget Committee over-allocating money to student organizations and clubs requesting more supplemental funds this year.
In a statement on Sept. 30, Vice President of Finance and junior Meris Damjanovic said the Budgets and Appeals account, an account containing all the appeals or supplemental money allotted to student groups for the year, is currently at $190,937.98, compared to the $344,452.38 at this time last year. The remaining budget will likely last until the beginning of next semester.
“That’s [enough for] six-and-a-half sessions, which would get us through the rest of this year and one session in the spring,” Damjanovic said.
These low funds, according to Damjanovic, are partially from how SU Treasury’s Budget Committee restructured its funding this year. On average, student groups were allocated more money for their annual budgets at the start of the semester to minimize additional funding requests.
These requests, also known as appeals, allow clubs to pursue programming beyond regular club meetings, such as attending national tournaments or conferences and
hosting speaker events that would otherwise be out of their budgets. As the semester has progressed, groups have continued to ask for more money than in years prior. Their appeal requests — not including initial money given as part of general budgets — have totalled $382,940.36 this year, compared to $207,244.00 at this time last year. However, SU does not accept all of these requests, with SU having allocated $252,396.83 so far this year, while $172,144.23 was allocated at this time last year.
Because of the expected decrease in appeal requests and additional funds given to Spring WILD, the Budgets and Appeals account started with approximately $400,000 at the beginning of the academic year instead of the usual $480,000, which exacerbated the issue according to Damjanovic.
Despite SU Treasury’s current monetary situation, Treasury approved $28,318.91 in appeals yesterday, including a $10,000 allocation to all SU-funded student organizations to pay for WUGO card check-in swipers to monitor club attendance.
Damjanovic said that if SU runs out of money next semester, student groups will not get any funding through appeals, so clubs should make their appeals as soon as possible to ensure funding for their events.
“Please submit your biggest events now [and] get that money out of the way because come March, April, we may not have that money,” Damjonovic said. “I’m trying to convey this early, because if groups need to start fundraising, that’s something that needs to start happening now.”
As for possible solutions,
No. 1 women’s soccer undefeated
Damjonovic plans to withdraw some funds from SU’s Carry Forward account, the money reserved for future fiscal years, to potentially stretch SU’s budget this year.
“I could fully deplete the Carry Forward account and we would be fine for this year, but that is not my intention. I want everyone to know that I am doing all that I can,” Damjonvic said.
Christine Ling, Speaker of Treasury and a junior, said Treasury is doing the best that they can to remedy SU’s monetary issues.
“I feel like although it is a difficult situation we’re all in, everyone is doing their absolute best to make the available funding stretch as far as possible,” Ling said.
Katie Cho, Budget Committee Chair and a junior, hopes to change how funding is allocated next year.
“I am meeting with the rest of the financial leadership at the end of this semester to create upcoming caps and expectations for the upcoming spring budget cycle,” Cho wrote in a statement to Student Life. “We will fund groups through supplemental appeals closer to the date [of their events] so student groups’ events will run smoothly and SU Treasury will not over-allocate.”
Damjanovic hopes to find a solution to this problem for the student body and clubs affected by SU’s monetary issue.
“There cannot be a vibrant campus community if SU is not allocating funds to student groups,” Damanjovic said. “We are going to take this slowly, we are to take it thoroughly, and next year, this should not be a problem.”
After its first 10 games of the 2024 season, the No. 1 Washington University women’s soccer team was flying high. The Bears were 10-0-1, having outscored opponents 44-3. When the Bears lined up for their first University Athletic Association (UAA) game on Oct. 5, however, they entered with a blank slate: a 0-0 conference record. With two road wins — a 2-1 victory over then-No. 13 Emory University on Oct. 5 and a 1-0 win over No. 20 Brandeis University on Oct. 11 — the Bears passed their first two tests. The Bears are once again establishing themselves as the team to beat in a crowded UAA field, where six out of eight teams are ranked in the national top 25. According to head coach Jim Conlon, the team is approaching UAA play “one game at a time.”
“You know that every game is going to be very good in the UAA…
[I’m] so excited to get today’s win and couple that with last week’s win [to] put us at 2-0,” he said after the win over Brandeis. Against Emory, the Bears were locked in a tight battle from the start.
Thirty-six minutes into the game, however, first-year Olivia Clemons received the ball near the center circle, split two Emory defenders, and unleashed a shot from the edge of the box that nestled into the bottom left corner of the Emory goal to give WashU a first-half lead.
In the 75th minute, after nearly 40 minutes of back-and-forth soccer, WashU finally got a much-needed insurance goal when sophomore Madison Foley tapped in a rebound to double WashU’s lead.
I think the second goal is always big because you have a little bit of a buffer…Madi Foley [was] spot on there on a little bit of a bobble from their goalkeeper. While a lot of those turn in to be harmless, Madi made a great run and was able to capitalize
on an opportunity that presented itself,” Conlon said.
Seven minutes later, however, an Emory strike from outside of the box beat WashU’s All-American goalkeeper, graduate student Sidney Conner, bringing the contest within one goal.
Just two minutes later, the Eagles came inches away from leveling the score at two when a long-range shot ricocheted off the crossbar. From there, the Bears held firm for the last five minutes to clinch the win.
“At the end of the day, we just need to be calm, take a deep breath, play what we needed to do to finish out that game,” Conlon said. “Ultimately, we did, but they came at as hard for sure…That four or fiveminute span was definitely Emory running downhill at us.”
Less than 24 hours after WashU defeated Emory, they delivered a 9-0 victory over non-conference opponent Piedmont University in Atlanta, their largest win since 2016.
A week later against Brandeis, the Bears logged their 13th win and
10th clean sheet of the season with a 1-0 victory. With Conner missing the game due to a WashU school program, the Bears backline was led by sophomore goalkeeper Charlotte Shapiro. Shapiro, who missed last season with an injury, made the most of her first start for WashU, holding Brandeis scoreless for all 90 minutes.
“We know she’s a talented keeper, and so she has worked really hard in her rehab and has been working extremely diligently thus far this fall in getting her craft back. And so for her to get the nod, coupled in with her hard work, she’s ready to do a job,” Conlon said.
The game’s sole goal came on a penalty kick from graduate student Ally Hackett 47 minutes into the game. After Clemons was fouled in the box, Hackett’s strike bounced off the hand of the Brandeis University goalkeeper and into the bottom left corner of the goal to give WashU a lead it would never lose.
Hackett, who has been a stalwart of the Bears’ defense, is no stranger to penalty kicks. In the 2023 NCAA
Tournament, Hackett took the penalty kicks that propelled the Bears to their dramatic quarter final and Final Four victories . Despite being a defender, Hackett is the team’s fifthleading scorer this season with four goals, most of which have come off of set-pieces or penalty kicks. The Bears dominated offensively, outshooting Brandeis 18 to seven and recording six corner kicks to the Judges’ two. Clemons, WashU’s leading scorer, had five shots, and junior Grace Ehlert, the team’s second-highest scorer, recorded three shots.
With the wins, the Bears remain undefeated, improving their record on the season to 13-0-1, and keeping their national No. 1 ranking. The Bears will continue UAA play on Oct. 19 in St. Louis against No. 17 New York University. Over the next month, they will compete against four nationally ranked opponents including No. 4 Carnegie Mellon University, the only other undefeated team in conference play.
PHOTOS BY ANNA CALVO, DESIGN BY SYDNEY TRAN
Where does it all go? Behind the scenes of WashU’s recycling
WashU has hundreds or even thousands of recycling bins on its campus that are used by students, faculty, and staff each day. But where does it all go? Most students don’t know.
When asked if WashU’s waste management company was common knowledge, one executive for the Student Sustainability Board (SSB) replied, “not to students.”
Many other students have expressed similar concerns including that they are worried that their recycling ultimately ends up in the landfill. First-year Alexander Silverman-Dultz said that he wanted more assurance that recycling actually ends up being recycled.
“If I knew for a fact that my recycling was actually going to be recycled, I would be way more careful,” SilvermanDultz said.
Student Life looked into the process of recycling at WashU by talking to the Office of Sustainability. Cassandra Hage, Assistant Director of the Office of Sustainability, explained the details behind the process.
When a student chooses to recycle a plastic cup, they are participating in the first level of sorting.
After that, the cup is picked up by Waste Connections, WashU’s waste hauler for all recycling and landfill waste.
“While frequency of collections varies across campus, services are provided to WashU [by Waste Connections] six days a week,” Hage wrote.
According to Hage, another round of sorting takes place once Waste Connections collects the recyclables.
“Haulers visually assess each load for contamination; if contamination is minimal, the materials may be re-sorted to remove contaminants and prevent the load from being rejected,” she wrote.
It is important that the contamination is minimal because a load of recycling making it to the facility does not guarantee that it will be recycled.
“So any recycling center is going to have a threshold on contamination. If they cross a certain threshold of the wrong items, non-recyclable items ending up in that mix, then they’ll just have to dispose of the whole thing,” John Parks, lecturer in Biology and Environmental Studies, said.
Where the recycling ends up after Waste Connections receives it is out of WashU’s
After that, what happens to the plastic cup depends on which recycling bin it was put into. If it was in a University dining hall, then Sodexo, WashU’s dining provider, is responsible for moving it to the dumpster. WashU’s housekeeping contractor, HES, is responsible for ensuring other waste and recycling outside of Residential Life-managed areas.
direct control. However, Hage said that Waste Connections currently contracts Federal Recycling & Waste Solutions in St. Louis to process WashU’s recyclables.
“Waste Connections independently contracts with recovery facilities who process materials… Waste Connections is obligated to haul recyclables to a suitable recycling facility,” Hage wrote.
Parks commented that the current messaging on various recycling bins across campus — in various classrooms, lecture halls, dorms, and other buildings — which states “If in doubt, recycle” may actually lead to higher contamination rates.
According to Hage, the Office of Sustainability has placed updated signage on new containers, but some of the “If in doubt, recycle” messages can still be found on older bins around campus.
“Because there are hundreds, if not thousands, of recycling and landfill containers across campus…we don’t want to re-sign everything and then have to come back and roll out a new design with new messaging because it’s very expensive,” Hage said.
In 2022, the SSB measured contamination levels in recycling bags from many of WashU’s dining halls, finding contamination levels of up to 75% in some cases.
Hage acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic massively disrupted WashU recycling efforts, which might partially explain the results
found by SSB.
“The supply chain was disrupted. So we have lots of different types of materials that didn’t really sync well with our signage and our outreach…we also had to default to disposables, and we also had a different food vendor at that time,” Hage said. “We’ve been kind of rebuilding the systems ever since.”
The Office of Sustainability reported that no bags of recycling were rejected by the recycling facility in 2019 and 2020.
First-year Andrew Press was shocked by the amount of contamination he currently sees in the Bear’s Den dining hall.
“I think because there’s so much non-recyclable stuff in there, it feels like it can’t be being recycled properly,” Press said. “I think sometimes people don’t understand [what to recycle].”
The Office of Sustainability also mentioned how there are a variety of challenges with implementing sustainability programs at WashU, both reusable and recycling-based.
“For example, we have been trying diligently to offer a reusable to-go box program for nearly a decade, yet many are hesitant or unwilling to utilize it due to perceived inconvenience,” Hage wrote. “We need both the system and the community participation to successfully implement alternatives to the status quo.”
In regard to the status quo, Silverman-Dultz mentioned that recycling should become the go-to for students.
“We need to try and shift our perception of recycling, not as an extra task but as a default,” Silverman-Dultz said.
“We offer resources and detailed guidance on what materials go where on our website, which has a material guide, FAQs, and a brief recorded tutorial,” Hage wrote. “We are also available to visit offices, student groups, etc. to offer presentations, and we provide training to all new WashU employees through new employee orientation.” SSB executives emphasized that students may not know the specifics about recycling at WashU because they come from a variety of locations across the country that each have different rules about recycling.
“I don’t want it to come across as we’re being hard on the students, because if you don’t know how it works, how do you learn? So that’s why we exist,” an SSB executive said.
Hage explained how the Office of Sustainability educates the WashU community about recycling procedures and where students can find resources.
Many other students have expressed similar concerns including that they are worried that their recycling ultimately ends up in the landfill.
BRI NITSBERG | STUDENT LIFE
WashU deserves better representation than Chancellor Martin’s national op-ed
NICK DOLAN SECOND-YEAR PH.D STUDENT IN ENGLISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE
Chancellor Martin’s obscurantist and condescending op-ed piece (“Gaza war protests: This semester on campus must be different”), published in The Hill on Sept. 4, warrants response. I deeply value the intellectual community I have found at WashU, and am regularly struck with admiration for the students, faculty, and staff who constitute it. That is why it pains me to see our community represented in a national news outlet by such a morally unserious statement. WashU deserves better.
The piece positions Martin as the adult in the room, balancing free expression with community members’ sense of safety, and the right to protest with the enforcement of time, place, and manner restrictions. Martin begins and ends with calls for active listening. Who could possibly object?
I see many problems with the piece, but space allows for discussion of three.
First, it offers yet more evasion on the ethics of WashU’s ties to Boeing. Martin, who is a political scientist, writes: “As a university chancellor,
I can’t affect the course of the war in Gaza or redress its tragic impacts.” In the year since the horrific civilian deaths of Oct. 7, our campus has hosted protests explicitly dedicated to arguing that Chancellor Martin can feasibly affect the course of the war in Gaza, in a modest but meaningful way. He could do so by cutting the University’s extensive ties with Boeing, which builds many of the bombs used in Israeli war crimes in Gaza.
The goal behind cutting ties with companies like Boeing has never been to do serious financial damage to them, or stop the flow of bombs directly. Any conceivable financial loss to Boeing through the actions of WashU, whatever the endowment’s investment status, would be a drop in Boeing’s budgetary bucket. Instead, the strategy is to use peoplepower and the authority of civic institutions to signal civil society’s widespread disapproval of Israeli humanrights abuses abetted with American funding. If done in concert with similar institutions, this would put pressure on the Biden-Harris administration to curtail civilian death in Gaza. The pressure would be exacerbated by the fact that it is an election year.
This goal is urgent because
of the scale of civilian death in Gaza. Conservatively speaking, approximately 1 in 50 Gazans have been killed in the past year. I sincerely hope that I never become desensitized to that number. As the Israeli news outlet Haaretz details, the percentage is comparable to the Syrian civil war, but in that case the deaths accumulated over 13 years, not 10 months.
Perhaps public consciousness and activism will be catalyzed again. I hope they will. But as of now, April and May were the window in which a national wave of divestments and severances could have occurred. To put it gently, Chancellor Martin chose not to facilitate that. His plea of helplessness is disingenuous.
Second, by emphasizing that universities have a legal right to enforce their time, place, and manner restrictions and disruptions policies — a fact I’ve never heard disputed — Martin evades the question of when their enforcement is excessive. This is relevant to our campus in light of the April 27 protest. This article is not the place for a full recounting of the police response to that peaceful demonstration. The example of Steve Tamari will have to suffice. Professor Tamari
teaches at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Tamari attended the protest, and while he stood by recording the arrests of other demonstrators, the police broke nine of his ribs and one of his hands.
The Middle East Studies Association wrote an open letter to WashU condemning Tamari’s “inexcusable ... brutalization.”
Does Chancellor Martin feel the slightest unease about this? Martin writes with attempted eloquence that “[t]he lessons of last school year were forged in a crucible of duress.” As Orwell and others have long observed, gaseous formulations like this are designed to conceal more than to express. When Professor Tamari felt his ribs snap, was he aware that the cause was not the swarm of police on top of him (summoned by University leadership), but was instead a “crucible of duress”? Or did he have to wait for Martin to theorize this for him? We have much to learn from political science.
And what were the “lessons ... forged” on April 27? That it is wrong to put graying professors in the hospital for attending a peaceful protest — even if it is a legally admissible outcome? Or is it that WashU (“Proudly in St.
Louis”) is private property, so he had it coming?
Third: While I have no desire to tone-police or take artificial offense, the cruel irony of one remark by Martin cannot go unnoted.
Martin pronounces that “a university campus is no place for a tent city.” Every single university in Gaza, attended and taught at by our (and the Chancellor’s) academic colleagues, has been destroyed or critically damaged by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).
UN experts put it bluntly: “The persistent, callous attacks on educational infrastructure in Gaza have a devastating long-term impact on the fundamental rights of people to learn and freely express themselves, depriving yet another generation of Palestinians of their future.”
The relevant term is “scholasticide,” defined in the UN’s statement as “the systemic obliteration of education through the arrest, detention or killing of teachers, students and staff, and the destruction of educational infrastructure.”
One of the destroyed universities is the Islamic University of Gaza. You can find videos online of the IDF blowing it up. Professor Kamalain Shaath, the former president of the university, said in February: “We have
the will and faith in our ability to resume the educational process immediately after the war ends, and we have done so before. ... I was at the Islamic University (at its founding in 1978), and we started there from tents, and we can return from tents again.”
Indeed, as of February, a small amount of university coursework was being conducted from the “tent city” where the Islamic University of Gaza once stood. This resilience, a testament to the human spirit, reflects the Palestinian people’s oftobserved high literacy rates and pride in education.
One wonders what Chancellor Martin would make of this mixing of tents and schooling. On the one hand, it would be good of the Chancellor to inform Gaza’s educators of their “error” in blending the two. But this is unlikely to happen: As he has already explained, Chancellor Martin is unable to affect what happens in Gaza.
WashU deserves a leader who is not so cynical — cynical, that is, about the capacity of collective action to effect change, and about the WashU community’s ability to recognize euphemism and self-exculpation.
Commenting through chaos: How will social media platforms tell us what to think?
NORA SILVERGLEID
Before watching a man backflip into a shallow lake, an ASMR restock video, or Nara Smith crafting what are essentially pharmaceuticals, one click makes a white block consume three-quarters of your TikTok “For You” page. From that point on, your every action, every thought, every notion of what is good or bad is skewed by the well-liked comments that present themselves in front of you.
“I laughed so hard I cried” — you laugh.
“OMG, I need that top” — you become fixated on a lavender corset (even though you hate lavender).
“That is actually a very insensitive thing to say,” “relax, she is just having fun,” and 12 iterations of
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this argument. Oh no, you think, there is no consensus; I guess you’ll have to weigh the pros and cons (count the number of likes each pro or con comment received).
I can guarantee nearly every member of our generation has experienced this comment obsession. I am thus inclined to think that we are so inherently unsure of our own skills, wittiness, and perspectives that we instantly seek the counsel of others. However, beyond just receiving advice, we abandon any nascent ruminations or opinions that might have been boiling within and accept what society says (or rather, types). What has contributed to this generational uncertainty? Is it more reasonable to blame society or the individual?
The answers are far
from black and white. Rather, society provides individuals with the tools to perpetuate this generational insecurity, even without them realizing they are doing so.
The tendency for popular comments to form an individual’s opinion in this manner is largely rooted in generational insecurity. They can be accredited to the social frameworks that permit unmitigated opinions and standards, ultimately leading to groupthink.
One tool of destruction is a small heart: the like button. I am not against love, I should clarify. I am against the tool with which individuals convey their approval on a comment. Especially because the comments themselves either approve or disapprove of the content of the post — it is somewhat
absurd, if you think about it. In any case, this little symbol is relevant to many applications beyond TikTok comments, including Instagram posts, X tweets, and Facebook announcements. In doing so, the “like” format allows users to contribute even more to the comment-obsessed cycle that I have already touched upon, and lends itself to boundless physical, social, or mental comparison.
For example, many individuals coming across an Instagram model whose “it girl” outfit has garnered 80,000 likes almost instantaneously goes online to purchase that very same outfit. This process recreates itself when a TikTok comment with 80,000 likes (make it 80,001) leads us to accept a viewpoint.
Some may argue that individuals like others’
comments and accept them as their own opinions because they are simply funny, or that they like the Instagram model’s outfit because it is pretty. They will argue that even if comments or posts had no likes on them, an individual would be able to decide whether or not to accept it as their own opinion or desired style.
Yet, by affixing a certain number of likes to a comment or post, our peers tell us what to accept, whether that’s an opinion, body image, fashion sense, or something else. Society has removed yet another layer of individuality and expression, offering so many choices then immediately telling us which to accept.
While I wish that we had the individual capacity to decide what is good for us independent of the
like-button, that is not the reality. In order to move forward, individuals must wrench themselves from this cycle through critical dialogue and thinking. We must realize that by instantly swiping up to read the comments or take in the number of likes, we are rooting ourselves in dynamics that may never change. It will require a concerted effort to consider what you personally think about a video or to realize that you look amazing; in the end, there will always be another model whose post is growing in likes. Indeed, it is by truly being one’s unique self that we come across original videos on TikTok, have conversations that are entirely removed from social media, or even write an article like this one.
Being a fan of an artist’s music does not mean you know them
ELIJAH LECKERMAN
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
As a kid, I dreamed of becoming a famous actor or singer; being a celebrity seemed to be the pinnacle of success and happiness. But, after seeing how popular artists are treated these days, becoming famous has become my worst fear. Fan culture has reached a point of (almost) no return. Many fans don’t view artists as real people or, on the contrary, view artists as their close friends. We as fans must reevaluate the relationship between artist and fan to ensure the happiness of both.
It is no surprise that people have parasocial relationships with celebrities. The term “parasocial interaction” was created in the 1950s, so it is clearly not a new phenomenon. Parasocial relationships can be healthy in some circumstances, but most times can be damaging to both parties.
Musical artists get the worst of these relationships because of their unique job requirements. Film and television actors get paid by production teams after filming and have commercials and trailers that advertise for them. Visual artists sell their pieces directly. Music artists, however, have to rely on several unreliable sources of income to make a living. Artists have to rely heavily on self-promotion (even with labels) and touring because streaming and physical sales are not enough to make a living. This causes musical artists to interact with their
fans more intimately, which creates stronger parasocial relationships than those with actors or visual artists.
An obvious current example of inappropriate fan behavior is the case of
Chappell Roan, the midwestern pop star whose popularity skyrocketed this summer with songs like “Good Luck, Babe!” and “HOT TO GO!”. Roan has fallen victim to severe misinterpretation, unobtainable expectations, and even stalking. Across many social media platforms, “fans” and haters scrutinize her every move, from her rightful complaints about fan behavior to her nuanced critiques of the government. Consequently, Roan dropped out of a recent festival to preserve her mental health, continuing to be vocal about her boundaries.
Chappell Roan’s mere existence as an outspoken artist seems to have created a divide between fans who sympathize with the celebrity experience and those who think artists should be grateful for the fans who “made” their success. I am part of the first group because I’ve seen how vicious fans can be online, and I can only imagine how that translates in person.
When performing live, artists have to maintain a balance of friendliness and professionalism when talking to their audience, all while putting on a good show. The complications of parasocial relationships can be very present in concert settings because the artist and fans are physically in the same room. There is minimal
separation between the two parties, so fans often feel comfortable shouting whatever comes to mind.
During singer beabadoobee’s current tour, several audience members have shouted hateful, explicit phrases about the singer’s ex-boyfriend. While beabadoobee is performing — a sad and personal song nonetheless — people take it upon themselves to ruin the moment for one second of attention. At concerts, especially, fans must separate artists’ personal lives from their artistry.
Creating art is often very personal and emotional.
Artists grace us with their art, and once it is out in the world, the art takes on a new life out of their control. Because of this phenomenon, it is understandable that fans will develop their interpretations of, and relationships to, an artist’s work. However, the relationships need to be focused on the art and artist persona. Music is not merely a gateway into a singer’s personal diary, so fan relationships should focus on the art as its own entity. Yes, of course, artists should get credit for their work, but after release, the work really becomes attached to the artist’s branded persona, not the individual who was in a studio creating it.
All artists take on personas to promote and perform their music, no matter how much they intentionally buy into them. Whether this takes the form of stage names, such as Lady Gaga or Bruno Mars, or by building a brand image like Taylor Swift, all of the
most popular current artists carefully craft the personality and image they show their fans. We don’t know them, and they definitely don’t know us. The rise of social media has only made parasocial relationships worse. Posting on social media has become essential to marketing one’s music, to the point of artists practically becoming influencers. Many artists post almost daily, and it isn’t always about their music. Some share photos from
vacations, pictures of meals, or personal stories, which can give insight into their personal lives. Still, fans have to respect that artists specifically choose what to reveal on social media and never fully share their identity. As fans, we have to respect this separation of the fan and the artist and be appreciative of any glimpse into artists’ personal lives that they choose to share with us. We can admire artists from afar and definitely love their music,
but we must recognize our place as fans and not friends. Artists do not owe fans anything, not even their art. I’m not saying that I fully pity famous artists; many of these singers are extremely successful and wealthy. I think we need to give them some grace, though, because they are human beings who choose to share their music with the world. I still want to be part of the music industry myself, but only once fans understand the humanity of artists.
ILLUSTRATION BY CHARLIE WANG
SCENE
Inside “Design Agendas”: the newest exhibition at the Kemper Art Museum
were removed.”
The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum has unveiled its newest exhibit, titled “Design Agendas: Modern Architecture in St. Louis, 1930s-1970s.”
This exhibit, which will run until January 2025, features multimedia pieces highlighting St. Louis architecture, through the context of social and spatial changes in a postWorld War II society.
The exhibit was curated by Eric Mumford, The Rebbecca and John Foyles Professor of Architecture, and Michael Willis, a visiting professor at WashU. Both shared their inspiration behind this exhibition, what they hope viewers will take away, and their intended impact on changing perceptions about St. Louis architecture. Their ultimate goal is to pave the way for better urban design strategies in the future.
Willis began his architectural journey in high school, drawing inspiration from the 1965 construction of the St. Louis arch, but more significantly, from his upbringing in the Pruit-Igoe community and its later demolition. Pruit-Igoe was a failed government-subsidized
housing project which racially segregated families. Its destruction served as an example for Willis about using failed architectural plans to inform a more robust construction style.
“I was in school [when] it got blown up, knocked down, and [this] basically put the coda on it as a failure in public housing. It was a failure…I try to use those lessons in my own architectural projects, especially when it involves public housing and neighborhoods,” Willis said.
Mumford, a St. Louis architectural historian, specializes in combining architectural and historical relics to encourage public engagement in regard to urban design. He emphasized the consequences of poor design constructions and how this exhibit will teach about them to foster positive changes.
“Some people do not know about Pruit-Igoe and the whole failure of urban clearance, which was massive here and super destructive,” Mumford said. “[Its destruction] kind of shaped a lot of outcomes — the highways that were cut through the city, displacing a lot of people, most of them Black, and lots of neighborhoods around downtown that
PUZZLE PUZZLE Mania
In addition to the exhibition, the museum and the Sam Fox School of Design will host a public outreach symposium on Oct. 25 and 26 about minimizing the impact on individuals living in neighborhoods that are being rejuvenated and pushing the boundaries of architecture and design.
The exhibit is divided into two galleries and features three sections: Modern Architecture Appears In St. Louis (1930s-1950s), New Architecture For The Public, and Seeking A Racially Integrated Society Through Design.
Both Mumford and Willis appreciated the exhibition's amount of visual footage.
“One of my [favorite pieces] is archival footage of the opening of the former Mendelssohn Synagogue that actually has Mendelssohn himself in the film. [The film contains a] lot of footage [depicting] the original use of the first modern religious building in the United States,” Mumford said. “[The synagogue] inspired a lot of churches right after that.”
Willis specifically highlighted his adoration for Charles Fleming's film of his house, taken before his
passing.
“Charles Fleming's neighborhood comprehensive care center, finished in ‘74, is still the strongest piece of architecture on that street. It really says to you, even though this was in North St. Louis, the design was every bit as consequential as if it were being developed in downtown St Louis, Ladue, anywhere,” Willis said.
In addition to the visual footage elements, Mumford and Willis emphasized the material works in the exhibition. Mumford mentioned that the rendering of the arch and model of the Krauss
house, with its architectural gentleness, are standout pieces for viewers. Willis recommended that all museum-goers spend time checking out the 2-D paper prints of the neighborhood gardens in North St. Louis because of their connection to the greater world context of the 1920s and 1930s.
“They built all those same things [in the gardens] that you would see in Europe,” Mumford said. “[It] was really dynamically placed brick in terms of the design…You can see balconies. You can see places that make it a place that you want to live, and
it is being used today as a residence, just like some of those examples that I saw in Germany are still being used as housing.”
Whether you want to learn more about St. Louis, have 30 minutes to spare between classes, want something to do on a laidback Saturday afternoon, or need a place to take your family during parents’ weekend, check out “Design Agendas.” The exhibition artfully combines inquiry, innovation, and entertainment and will teach you more about St. Louis and its history.
SPONSORED BY:
SAM POWERS | STUDENT LIFE
Kemper’s newest exhibit features multimedia pieces that viewers can interact with.
Celebrating a century of William H. Gass
On July 30, 1924, widely esteemed novelist, short story writer, essayist, mentor, friend, and Washington University Professor Emeritus William H. Gass was born — 100 years later, WashU honored his life, legacy, and impact with a commemorative centenary celebration.
On Thursday, Oct. 3, former colleagues, friends, and students of Gass gathered in WashU’s Holmes Lounge for a series of programs aimed at carrying on his influence.
Thanks to the Department of Special Collections, Olin Library is host to a new exhibition titled “William H. Gass: Fifty New Acquisitions,” which consists of 50 items (e.g. drafts, manuscripts, correspondence, artwork, etc.) that WashU has acquired. Joel Minor, Curator of the Modern Literature Collection and manuscripts in Special Collections, presented the Centenary Celebration and curated this Gass exhibition.
“The reason for doing the celebration, you know, was to…try to get people here who were very positively influenced by him, either as a student, as a colleague, or as a fellow writer, editor, that kind of thing,” Minor said.
To kick off the event, there was a discussion panel moderated by fiction writer, poet, publisher, lecturer at Lindenwood University, and longtime scholar of Gass, Ted Morrissey. With introductions chock-full of accolades courtesy of Morrissey, each panelist was given the opportunity to speak about the personal impact Gass had on them.
Poet, critic, reviewer, and founder of Unbound Edition Press Patrick Davis, took to the podium first, sharing his testimony of working alongside Gass from 1990-1997 during his graduate studies at WashU. In 1986, Davis was pursuing an undergraduate
degree at Stetson University in Florida when, during an assigned reading of Gass’ “In the Heart of the Heart of the Country” (an early collection of short fiction), he came across a “single sentence that redirected [his] life.”
He read it aloud: “It’s true, there are moments — foolish moments, ecstasy on a tree stump — when I’m all but gone, scattered I like to think like seed, for I’m the sort now in the fool’s position of having love left over which I’d like to lose; what good is it now to me, candy ungiven after Halloween?”
That afternoon, struck with the profundity and prowess of Gass’ literary craft, Davis changed his major from Economics to English.
“If that’s what language could do, then I was all in,” Davis said.
He set his graduate study sights on WashU, where Gass served as a David May Distinguished University Professor Emeritus in the Humanities from 1979-2000 (and formerly a professor in Philosophy from 196978). Under the guidance of Gass, Davis spent eight years on his doctoral research in American literature.
Michelle Komie, art, architecture, and urban history publisher at Princeton University Press and WashU alum, followed Davis with her own testimony. For three years, Komie worked at the now-defunct International Writers Center (IWC), a directory for writers and writing programs that was founded in 1990 and led by Gass. Despite being rooted in WashU, the IWC stretched far into the world of literature, bringing many recognizable names to St. Louis, including David Foster Wallace, William Gaddis, and Jennifer Bartlett.
Komie first encountered Gass when he introduced William Gaddis at a conference organized by the IWC in 1994. The memory of Gass reading his own work has remained with Komie
Former colleagues, friends, and students of Gass gathered to examine some of his key
over the last 30 years.
“[I have] never heard anything like William Gass reading aloud from a text he’d written,” she said.
Moved by the gravity of Gass’ words, Komie began working for him at the IWC and did so until his retirement in July 2001. She referred to this period as a “three-year brush with brilliance.”
The final panelist at this event was Gerhild Scholz Williams, WashU’s newly-retired Barbara Schaps Thomas & David M. Thomas Professor in the Humanities. Williams is a prolific translator and publisher who has focused, for much of her career, on translation theory and the development of German and French language and culture. Alongside Gass and others, Williams helped found the IWC.
During her speech, Williams spoke of Gass’ “linguistic brilliance, courage, and acerbic sense of humor” as well as the efforts he took in ensuring academic freedom. She made note of how, in 2001, he urged the University to bring novelist Salman Rushdie to campus. Rushdie had recently become the subject of a
fatwa calling for his assassination due to the depiction of Muhammed in his novel “The Satanic Verses.” On bringing Rushdie to campus, Gass made his views explicit: “Nothing, nothing, nothing outweighs academic freedom.”
Williams also spoke to Gass’ generosity. When called upon to speak to students in her translation seminars, Gass provided invaluable input from his experience in translating Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke, an endeavor culminating in his book “Reading Rilke: Reflections on the Problems of Translation.”
After the panel concluded, WashU’s Martin Riker, a professor in English and director of the English department’s new Publishing concentration, held a conversation with Bradford Morrow, novelist, founder and editor of the literary magazine Conjunctions, and longtime colleague of Gass. Morrow spoke of his personal and professional relationship with Gass throughout his many years in publishing and academia. Of Conjunctions’ 83 biannual volumes, Gass’ work has been included in 20.
Describing himself and
Gass as “biblio-maniacs,”
Morrow recalled a time when they were each living in New York City; he told of their ventures through bookstores, giving “harmonious” thanks to their shared love of — rather, obsession with — writing. Bradford, equipped with a stack of papers, read from their correspondences.
Following the panel and discussion, a reception and exhibition viewing was held at Olin Library.
Mary Gass, William H. Gass’ wife and distinguished architect, generously supplied many of the pieces included in this exhibition over the years and was in attendance for the celebration.
“[Mary] did a lot of work in the last year gathering some things...which I could use for this exhibit, including a lot of great audio recordings as well as artwork and things that are in the exhibit,” Minor said.
This exhibition will be on display until Jan. 31, 2025 in Special Collections in Olin Library; anyone interested in Gass’ work, legacy, or art is strongly encouraged to visit.
“I’m kind of hoping to show the variety of things that come into, not only
Gass’ archive, but others,” Minor said. Either before or after viewing this exhibition, it is encouraged that people get acquainted with Gass’ work. Some of Gass’ work is notoriously difficult — “The Tunnel” is often muttered in the same breath as Joyce’s “Ulysses” for being a complex masterpiece; however, for eager readers, there are many entry points. Minor recommends that readers looking for a rich introduction to the breadth of Gass’ work read the posthumous publication “The William H. Gass Reader” (2018), a cross-section of Gass’ six decades of writing. Davis recommends two pieces for new readers: “On Being Blue,” calling it a “perfect intersection between philosophy and essay,” and “In the Heart of the Heart of the Country,” the same book that so memorably changed his life. Access to Special Collections is available on weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.. More information about this exhibition and many, many others can be found on the WashU Libraries website.
Highlighting the obscured: WashU and banned books
As a child, awardwinning author Carmen Maria Machado was drawn to her library’s banned books display. The simple fact that they were banned compelled her — she wanted to read every single one. Eventually, her fascination grew so strong that she had to be reminded not to borrow the entire display. The paradoxical effect of highlighting art that has been removed from the public’s view is a powerful one. In the
2022-23 school year, Missouri had 333 book bans, becoming the state with the fourth-highest rate of book banning. Faced with these challenges of forced obscurity, authors, professors, and students have come together at WashU during Banned Books Week to bring
these works to light and amplify their authors’ voices. Extending this dialogue to an academic program, WashU also offers a Banned Books Undergraduate Research Fellowship, where students can become involved in conversations about book banning in the spring.
During Banned Books Week, Olin Library displayed banned books, and the Center for the Literary Arts held a reading in Holmes Lounge featuring Machado. Machado is the bestselling author of her memoir “In the Dream House,” as well as the award-winning short story collection, “Her Body and Other Parties.” Her memoir has been banned in some schools and libraries, reflecting a broader trend of queer representative narratives being challenged in educational settings.
Senior Jordan Spector is the President of Creative Writing Cafe (CWC). He attended the Machado reading with other CWC members and sat down to reflect on a few memorable moments from the event.
“It was just really… visceral to hear her read. And I was, you know, both terrified and also just, like, in awe of the quality of the
writing,” Spector said.
As an aspiring author, Spector expressed concern about the implications of book banning.
“It’s a really terrifying thing when books, which are pretty much just forms of expression and art, and are the basis for…conversation and the literary world, [are] banned. It’s very unfortunate, and not only…an individual risk, but like an existential risk of democracy,” Spector said.
It’s precisely in response to these risks that WashU has taken action through initiatives like the Banned Books Undergraduate Research Fellowship. Through the fellowship, students are empowered to actively engage in the fight against book banning and join the larger conversation about the practice. Dr. Meredith Kelling, Assistant Director of Student Research and Engagement at the Center for the Humanities, which offers the program, elaborated on what this looks like.
“First, it starts by having an opportunity to interface directly with key people in [the] fight against book banning, from librarians and advocates to litigators
and legislators. From there, students are encouraged to pursue research that connects them with people directly working on or impacted by book banning,” Kelling said. Kelling’s researchers have worked to contextualize the information they’ve found and present findings in the fight against book banning. They’ve done so through interviewing booksellers, researching money spent on school board elections, and talking to members of local education boards. The fellowship addresses this specific need, and aims to make positive change in today’s issues.
“It’s clear to us that many undergraduate students would like the opportunity to pursue research in humanistic ways, so this fellowship is a part of those efforts,” Kelling said. “People often wrongly think that the humanities are subject material published and settled long ago, but book bans, which disproportionately target books by and about sexuality, race/ethnicity, and gender show us how hotly contested and urgent humanities questions truly are.”
MARCO ZHANG | STUDENT LIFE
works.
SPORTS
No. 8 volleyball goes 3-0, remains undefeated at home
In the University Athletic Association (UAA), the volleyball regular season is centered around three key weekends. These round-robins take place in September and October, as all eight teams travel to the same school and play two or three division opponents. Last weekend, the No. 8 Bears ventured to New York, where they struggled against elite UAA competition, dropping close matches to ranked Emory University and Case Western Reserve University before defeating the University of Rochester.
This weekend, however, it was a different story. Playing at home, and making their return to the WashU Field House after a pipe burst forced the team to play matches on the Sumers Recreation Center and Varsity Gym courts, the Bears were able to flip the script, defeating Brandeis University and No. 23 New York University on Sunday, Oct. 13, both in four sets.
The two wins came after a midweek matchup versus Westminster College (MO), where the Bears also secured a 3-1 victory. The three wins bring the Bears
to a perfect 11-0 at home, a strong 18-4 on the season, and a 3-2 record in UAA play, putting them on a clear trajectory for a playoff berth.
“I think the team did a good job of sticking together and having a short memory on our errors,” head coach Vanessa Walby wrote in a statement to Student Life. “We tried to learn quickckly] from our mistakes and compete hard together as a group.”
The next-play mentality was evident early on Sunday, as the Bears were able to respond to an early Brandeis lead in the first set. In a back-and-forth battle that featured 12 ties, the two squads were knotted at 18 before WashU pulled off a dominant run, led by key kills from senior Jasmine Sells and junior Sam Buckley, to cap off a 25-18 victory. The Bears were more dominant throughout the second set, securing a 25-17 win.
WashU could not pull off a win in straight sets, as the Judges battled back from 18-14 and 23-21 deficits in the third set to win 25-23. The Bears made eight errors in the third set, compared to three total in the rest of the match. However, WashU was able to bounce back and win the
match after a wire-to-wire 25-15 victory in the fourth set. Sells led the Bears with 18 kills, in one of her stronger statistical performances of the season.
Throughout the weekend, home-field advantage was a big factor for the Bears.
“Being in a familiar place you practice in every day, sleeping in your own bed, staying in routine and playing in front of our home fans is always the best atmosphere,” Walby wrote.
The Bears got off to a bumpy start in their Sunday afternoon matchup versus NYU, falling behind 9-2 in the first set. However, they were able to fight back to pull off a tight 25-23 win.
In the second set, the Bears were again strong, led by three consecutive kills by senior Lucy Davis, two big blocks from senior middle blocker Zoe Foster, and the dominant play of Sells and Buckley, winning 25-17.
Again, the third set proved troublesome, as the Bears fell 25-16 after
winning several consecutive points. But they were again able to come back and secure the matchclinching 25-23 victory in the following game, led by four more kills from Foster.
The back-and-forth win over NYU was the team’s fourth over a nationallyranked opponent. However, Walby says the team’s preparation doesn’t change, even against ranked foes.
“We try to treat every opponent the same and work to improve and learn in every set we play,” she
wrote. The Bears will look to continue their win streak against Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology on Wednesday, Oct. 16 and will host the WashU Tri on Saturday, Oct. 19, facing off against North Park University and the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point. They will travel to Pittsburgh the following weekend for the final UAA round-robin, playing the University of Chicago and Carnegie Mellon University.
Run game shines in football’s 65-16 crushing of Carthage
Fred Ware had been waiting for his opportunity for a long time.
The junior halfback from Carrollton, Texas has sat behind senior back Kenneth Hamilton for his entire collegiate career. With Hamilton out due to an injury, Ware was given the opportunity to shine. He took advantage of it, running for two touchdowns of more than 60 yards each and accumulating 221 rushing yards, his highest total yardage at WashU.
“You know, when I get the ball, I get a rush of adrenaline. I just feel blessed to go out there and do my job,” Ware said.
Ware’s breakout performance helped lead the WashU football team to a 65-16 win over Carthage College on Oct. 12. WashU’s running backs combined for 469 rushing yards and six touchdowns in their blowout victory.
“The [running] backs did a great job of exposing their defense, taking that space, and then finishing them off and getting points. It’s fun to watch that,” head coach Aaron Keen said.
The win came one week after the Bears defeated Illinois Wesleyan University 33-23 on Oct. 5. Despite the victory, WashU did not leave Bloomington unscathed. Hamilton, who has been a dominant force in the WashU backfield all season, missed both games with an injury. WashU was also without sophomore quarterback Levi Moore against Illinois Wesleyan and Carthage.
On the opening drive against Carthage, the Bears found themselves down. WashU struggled to keep
the ball in their hands, and just five plays into the game, a Carthage defender intercepted a WashU pass attempt. It took three plays for the Firebirds to find the end zone, putting WashU behind early.
In the following drive, Ware immediately changed the tone of the game. The drive kickoff went for a touchback, setting up a first down at the 25-yard line. Ten seconds later, the game was tied. Ware ran for a career-long 75-yard touchdown.
On the Bears’ next possession, it was senior running back Kenvorris Campbell who dominated the scoresheet. After drawing a flag on a third down, Campbell ran through the Carthage defense for a 63-yard touchdown. As the game transitioned into the second quarter, Campbell led with another rushing touchdown, combining with Ware for the majority of WashU’s forward progress on the drive. On the next Bears drive,
senior quarterback Clark Stephens found sophomore receiver Makael Carter for a 62-yard touchdown reception across the middle of the field. After forcing a Carthage punt, Stephens connected with senior wideout Taidhgin Trost for another touchdown. By halftime, WashU’s offense had scored 35 points.
“I mean, at halftime, we’re sitting with two backs over 100 yards, and so the challenge was to come back and have that similar type in the second half,” Keen said. From there on, WashU dominated the Firebirds.
With the loss, Carthage fell to 0-5 on the season, having only scored 33 points throughout the entire year. Throughout the game, WashU’s defense held Carthage to only 61 rushing yards and forced Carthage’s offense to punt nine times, while WashU’s junior punter Andrew Grisack did not have one attempt all game.
Keen credits his team for being able to put together a complete performance while being short-handed.
“I saw our guys show a lot of resiliency at practice, and coming back and playing the way they’re capable of playing,” he said. “We had what we termed a ‘Get Right’ week last week, and this was one where we just wanted to make sure we’re controlling what we can control and play[ing] great football.”
WASHU ALUMS
While Carthage added a field goal at the end of the second quarter and another touchdown in the third, WashU was able to keep their control over the game.
“We have three to six dudes who all love each other, all want to compete together, and all want to see each other win,” Ware said about the team’s running backs. “So it doesn’t matter who’s on the field — we’re all supporting each other.”
With Stephens recovering from an injury, the Bears have been relying on their running backs more as the season has progressed.
“One of our strengths has always been adaptability,” Keen said. “If a team has taken aspects of our offense away, or if we’re a little banged up at quarterback, it’s good to have a run game to settle things down.”
The Bears will travel to Elmhurst University next weekend. Although WashU dominated Elmhurst for a 66-0 victory last season, the Bears aren’t taking any game for granted.
“We take it one game at a time, we don’t take no team lightly, we want to go play our best football as a team,” Ware said. “Coach [Keen] has been talking all year about trying to put our best foot forward every game so we can make the playoffs.”
The Bears opened the scoring in the second half with an 18-yard touchdown reception by graduate tight end Grant Hajicek. The run game closed out their dominant performance with rushing touchdowns from Ware and sophomores Cal Newell and Matthew Kinoshita. Kinoshita recorded his first touchdown with WashU in the win.
WashU held Carthage
YIWEN ZHA | STUDENT LIFE
IAN HEFT SENIOR SPORTS EDITOR
Senior McKenzie Washington goes up for a spike in the Bears first match back in the Fieldhouse.
