October 5, 2023 Student Life newspaper, Washington University in St. Louis

“COLLEGE

#3 Women’s soccer preserves shut-out streak

INVESTIGATION INTO IBBY’S Re-opening of Danforth Campus fine dining

(Scene, pg 5)

Student robbed on Pershing Avenue

ALIANA MEDIRATTA JUNIOR NEWS EDITOR

A Washington University student was robbed of his their wallet and phone in an alleyway on Pershing Avenue, Sept. 29. The incident was the first reported robbery involving affecting a Washington University student since 2021, according to the Washington University Police Department (WUPD).

In a security memo sent out to the campus community, WUPD reported that at 5:20 a.m., a student was approached by a man who demanded his wallet and phone, and pushed a hard rounded item into his side, which the victim believed to be a firearm. There were no reported injuries from the incident, which is currently under investigation by the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department (SLMPD).

The suspect was described in the report as a “tall, thin male wearing all black, including a black ski mask.”

delight of the sizable WashU crowd.

entered the match “confident in their preparation,” according to head coach Jim Conlon.

There are 1,893 NCAA men’s and women’s soccer teams. All but one of them have conceded a goal over the last two months. Eight games into its season, the Washington University women’s soccer team is the sole exception: college soccer’s only clean sheet.

On Sunday, the Bears, who are ranked third in Division III, faced the toughest threat to their undefeated start to the season when #25 Emory University visited St. Louis. In the 74th minute of the battle between UAA heavyweights, the Bears’ shutout streak appeared to come to an end.

When a pass was played into the WashU box, senior goalkeeper Sidney Connor came off her line to try to intercept it, but an Emory forward was able to flick it past her into the goal. As soon as the ball hit the net, however, the linesman’s offside flag shot into the air, and the goal was quickly waved off, much to the

Fifteen minutes later, when the referee blew the final whistle, the Bears were on top of their conference rivals with a 2-0 victory, extending their shutout streak to 720 minutes and their record to 8-0-0.

But perhaps more importantly, it gave them a 1-0 start to University Athletic Association (UAA) conference play. WashU has won or tied for eight out of the last 10 conference titles, but lost out on the crown last season for the first time since 2014. Yet again this season, the UAA is the strongest conference in women’s soccer, and has six out of eight teams ranked in the Division III Top 25, including #1 Carnegie Mellon University, which also remains undefeated. Going into the game, the Bears knew that they would need a strong performance to hold off the Eagles. Last season, Emory won the matchup 3-0 and made a run to the NCAA Round of 16. However, despite facing their strongest opponents yet, the squad

“September taught us a lot of lessons, [so] we were able to continue to try and get better as a team and get a really good result against the very talented Emory team,” he said after the match.

The Bears started the game off on the front foot. Just five minutes into the contest, firstyear Sophie Viscovich played a pass to sophomore forward Ella Koleno on the top-left corner of the box. With the ball at her feet, Koleno calmly finished the movement, chipping the ball over the goalkeeper’s head and into the net for an early 1-0 lead. After the strike, which was Koleno’s third time on the scoresheet this season, the Bears never looked back. WashU doubled their lead in the 35th minute. Junior midfielder Sara Giannotti slotted a through ball into the left side of the box for firstyear Regan Cannon. Cannon lofted the ball into the air, and just like the first goal, the goaltender could only watch

as the sphere sailed over her outstretched arms. As the ball crossed the line, the scoreboard changed to 2-0, and Cannon tallied her first career collegiate goal.

“It started with a really awesome double-team with [midfielder graduate student] Sam [McKibben] and [senior midfielder] Jess [Greven], and they won the ball back,” Cannon said after the game. “Sara [Giannotti] in the midfield found a great opening run…played a perfect ball, found me on the run, and then I just kind of saw an opening over the keeper and went for it.”

Though the visiting Eagles went into the halftime break trailing by two goals, they came out of the intermission looking to respond. However, the Bears kept the pressure up, tallying eight shots on-target in the second period, including a 49th-minute header from junior midfielder Gaelen Clayton that forced a sprawling save from the Emory keeper.

WashU technological integration announced as part of Here and Next initiative

WashU’s 10-year strategic plan.

“For every one person that we asked [what is digital transformation?], we will get a different answer,” Payne said.

develop novel ways of using artificial intelligence to improve patient care pathways, to thinking about how we reduce burnout for our trainees, faculty, and staff in the clinical environment,” Payne said.

Washington University announced its intent to more effectively integrate modern technologies into its research and learning curriculum through the Digital Transformation initiative, Oct. 2.

The University is looking to facilitate research and learning for students by implementing tools that are accessible to everyone and providing students with important skills in a job market where technology is becoming increasingly vital.

These efforts will be overseen by the Digital Intelligence & Innovation (DI2) Accelerator and its implementation lead, the Associate Dean and Chief Data Scientist for the School of Medicine, Philip R.O. Payne. Digital Transformation is part of the Here and Next program,

In a statement to Student Life, Provost Beverly Wendland wrote about the specific ways that the Digital Transformation effort will benefit students, faculty, and staff, including making it easier to access data, communicate findings from this data, and harness better computing technologies.

“[Benefits] include ensuring that students have access to a consistent and best-in-class set of digital learning platforms, complementing experiential and hands-on learning that will occur in the classroom and small group settings,” said Wendland.

The Digital Transformation initiative has already begun to take hold in certain corners of the University, such as the School of Medicine.

“We’ve done everything from

Now, the DI2 Accelerator is looking at cloud computing. Wendland wrote that the University is hoping to “[partner] with major cloud computing companies to ensure our community has full access to effectively unlimited computing infrastructure.”

Payne echoed the importance of this aspect of the initiative.

“Computing should not be the limit to our ability to teach or engage in research innovation,” Payne said.

The DI2 Accelerator is additionally promoting its Digital Solutions Studio, which Payne describes as “an internal think tank that helps faculty and staff and students connect with data and software engineering expertise to accelerate their research projects.”

The University also plans

to benefit the greater St. Louis community through Digital Transformation. The St. Louis Data Dashboard, built in collaboration with the Digital Solutions Studio, will allow easy access to data involving local elections, the environment, city and county demographics, and more.

The people behind the DI2 Accelerator initiative hope this transformation will take shape within the decade.

Payne stated “the next three to five years will be absolutely critical” and that “[DI2 Accelerator’s] initial planning time horizon has been 10 years, but digital transformation is a continuous process.”

Payne and the DI2 Accelerator host weekly coffee hours in the Olin Library.

“It’s so important for our students to tell us what their goals and objectives are for digital transformation and make sure we are meeting those needs,” Payne said.

Chief of WUPD Angela Coonce said that this incident is unusual for her officers, especially given the time of day it occurred.

“We don’t have a lot of robberies, so this was out of the ordinary from the get-go,” Coonce said. “You see a lot of evening robberies kind of late night or early morning, like after midnight, but this was kind of a different scenario just because of the timing of it.”

Although the robbery took place at 5:20 a.m., WUPD was alerted of the crime by the student who was affected at 2:57 p.m., roughly nine-and-a-half hours later. Coonce said that the delay was due to the personal choice of the student.

“I think being a victim of a crime is obviously a difficult thing for anybody,” Coonce said. “We’re thankful that the student did end up calling us even though there was a delay in reporting.”

As a result of the crime, WUPD is increasing their security patrols around the Pershing area and keeping an eye on where resources are needed.

“We certainly want the visibility of our officers to try to deter this from happening again,” Coonce said.

According to the crime statistics publically available on WUPD’s website, there were zero robberies on or off-campus during the 2022 calendar year. During the 2021 calendar year, there were two robberies, both of which occurred on-campus. In the 2020 calendar year, there were four robberies, one on-campus and three off-campus.

Coonce explained that a robbery differs from theft because there is a person present who is being stolen from, as opposed to leaving something unattended and it getting taken.

“If they come up and just threaten you in some manner whether that be physical threat or a firearm or [the threat of] a firearm then that would be robbery because it’s a person-on-person crime,” Coonce said.

Read the rest online:

CLARA RICHARDS | STUDENT LIFE

Junior Gaelen Clayton volleys a shot towards the goal in the team’s Tuesday night matchup. Clayton had one goal and one assist in the game. SEE SOCCER, PAGE 8

PASS MASTER Record breaking receiver Collin Goldberg sat down with Student Life (Sports, pg 8)

RANKINGS DO NOTHING FOR STUDENTS” looking at rankings and privilege (Forum, pg 6)

Q&A with Emily Chen, Student Union President

Emily Chen, current Student Union (SU) President, sat down with Student Life’s Managing News Editor following last Friday’s release of the SU Executive Board’s term-goals document. The discussion ranged from SU’s relationship to student groups to internal changes, advocacy, and goals for the upcoming year. The Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.

Student Life: What has been taking place over the summer in regards to SU?

What has been going on within SU since the start of the school year?

Emily Chen: Our financial team worked hard on regrouping and checking the financial guidelines to make sure all of them made sense.

[Mishka Narasimhan, Vice President of Finance,] has worked really hard with the business staff to make student group spending a little easier and more transparent. They completely updated the Student Union financialbearings Trello board. Our website was hacked and went down last year. We unfortunately lost everything on it. I have started to meet with administrators and [have started] re-forming those connections because

we definitely have lost a lot of relationships with [the] administration.

SL: One of the things that is emphasized in the term goals is identifying disproportionately underfunded cultural and affinity groups. What is the process SU is using to identify these groups, and beyond identifying them, how does SU plan on working with these groups?

Chen: Every group is categorized once they gain SU recognition. There are political groups, specialinterest groups, [and] sports groups, and there are specific cultural diversity and inclusion groups, which we are primarily emphasizing funding for for this year.

Previously, every student group received funding for one non-mission social. Now, if you identify as a cultural diversity or affinity group, your social event can be potentially categorized as a mission event because for these groups, a huge part of their mission is to build that sense of social belonging for students on campus. By making that policy more lenient for those groups, we’re hoping they will be able to do larger group on-campus programming [more frequently] to bring together the community that they represent.

Mishka is going back and searching up which groups are not as active and reaching out to them. A lot of the time, groups don’t appeal because they don’t know how or they have this preconceived notion that because they’re a cultural group, they won’t get money.

SL: You talked a little bit about programming spaces. Are there current spaces that you think are not being used properly or not being used to the best of their abilities?

Chen: Something I am slightly irked by is [that], because of how decentralized this university is, our current space-usage agreement with Student Affairs gives student groups access to Graham Chapel, Homes Lounge, all the rooms in the DUC, and the dance-rehearsal spaces — but Knight Hall facilities all belong to Olin, so we don’t have agreements with them.

Even if you want to use that space as a student, it is the same price as if you were an outside vendor. Same with the Clark-Fox Forum, which is also thousands of dollars for student groups to use. Since the Brown School is separate from Student Affairs, that space belongs to them. In my opinion, it is ridiculous that, as WashU students, we don’t get lower prices to use certain WashU spaces because of the way the University is set up.

$5 million grant awarded to medical school to research lymphoma in pediatric transplant patients

I am interested in looking at the possibility of negotiating space-usage agreements with Olin and Brown so that it’s cheaper for our student groups to use those spaces — or to potentially put together a list of off-campus venues that they can use.

SL: In the document, you discuss the first-generation, low-income (FGLI) student experience. What steps has SU taken to improve that particular student experience? What are the measurable goals?

Chen: The plan is to use more data-driven advocacy and work with the Taylor Family Center directly to learn about their needs. An active project that we are currently working on is providing sustainable laundry sheets. The ultimate goal after they move past the pilot that is running right now is to give FGLI students free access to those sheets. Additionally, [Executive Vice President] Hussein [Amuri] is reaching out to financial aid to see if the work-study amount can be increased.

SL: How have the goals for SU changed from last year to this year?

Chen: Overall, we’re trying to focus on more tangible projects and change. We can try to change an entire

University-wide policy, but we are only here for a year in our Exec roles, and Senators and Treasurers could be involved in SU for an even shorter period of time. We are trying to take advantage of smaller projects to work towards the bigger picture.

In addition to that, we are trying to unify SU as a whole internally. There is a kind of competition and conflict between Senate and Treasury that is always going to be there as a fun little thing, but we can’t let

that conflict turn into actual conflict. We have to work together and stick together. I think that’s something our entire Exec board is trying to work on — everybody should feel like they’re part of one student organization, and

Student Union Treasury funds five student groups and has spirited discussion regarding WU Raas

using SU funds and those already allocated in the club’s budget.

— $167 less than the group initially requested.

Student Union (SU) Treasury heard appeals from five student groups for a total of $16,135.87, deciding to allocate $15,447.87 in funding, bringing the semester total to $96,589.29 on Oct. 3.

Washington University Raas, the University’s premier Indian dance group, requested $1,192.50 for supplies to build the set they will use in competitions throughout the year and at their annual Diwali show.

(PTLD). According to the NIH, this condition occurs in 2-3% of pediatric posttransplant patients.

Immunologists at Washington University

Medical School received a

$5.7 million grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) late last month to identify how the Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) can lead to immune cell cancer in pediatric patients who have received organ transplants.

EBV, better known as “mono,” is a virus nearly 90% of the world has been exposed to according to the NIH. After exposure, EBV stays dormant in the body and can be transferred through organ donations.

Pediatric transplant patients have weak immune systems, which makes them vulnerable to the dormant EBV in donated organs.

The resulting EBV infection can cause an immune cell cancer called post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder

Vikas Dharnidharka, a professor of pediatrics and clinical researcher at Washington University School of Medicine, is the principal investigator of this research project. The primary problem with lymphoma research in post-transplant pediatric patients is that there is no way to tell which patients are going to develop the condition, Dharnidharka said. The goal of his research is to develop a novel screening technique that monitors responses in immune cells that can lead to PTLD.

Dharnidharka’s team comes from different fields, including virology and pediatrics, and various institutions across the nation, including Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, the Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Grants are awarded based on how important the question posed by the research project is, how that question is going to get answered, and if the project has access to the right tools and people to be successful, according to Dharnidharka.

“I can’t possibly be an expert in all these different things,” Dharnidkharka said. “But if I get together teams of people who have unique expertise, we can do so much more together than we can do individually.”

The NCI allocated approximately $7.3 billion this fiscal year to cancer research. How this money is distributed determines what knowledge is created by research and, as a result, can help inform how we acknowledge prevalent problems in the future, according to Dharnidharka.

“We will be able to judge who’s going to clear the virus infection versus who’s not going to develop that cancer and then it may also open targets for new therapies.”

Treasury representative and junior Leena Rai noted that some line items for Raas had already been allocated in the general budget submitted last semester. Vice President of Finance, junior Mishka Narasimhan, suggested that representatives should review each line item and recommend the amount that should be funded.

“I feel like this appeal was submitted without taking into account what was already budgeted for because these costs do not seem to be supplementary costs,” Narasimhan said.

Rai also used the opportunity to emphasize the importance of having a consistent policy towards approaching appeals for additional funding to previously budgeted events.

Debate centered around two sets of line items: those already purchased by other student groups

A consensus was reached that no funds should be allocated toward a fog machine, as one had previously been purchased with SU funds and can be lent to other groups.

SU representatives reviewed each line item in the group’s budget individually and recommended the amount that should be allocated for each item.

Some representatives, including sophomore Neil Chavan, grew frustrated with the process after a representative suggested funding a line item for 30 cents.

“I think it is hard not to get a little heated when we have lost so much perspective that we are literally haggling over $10,” Chavan said.

Not all representatives shared Chavan’s sentiment.

“I think just because it’s a lesser amount of money in the situation, doesn’t mean you should fund them more than what they need,” representative sophomore Jonah Satyr said.

As the discussion continued, Rai suggested the representatives return to their original plan to recommend funding through straw polls for each line item.

After the straw poll ended, Treasurers recommended WU Raas be funded for $1,025.50, which is what they ultimately received

Men’s Club Ice Hockey received $1,200 to compete in a tournament at Mizzou from Nov. 17 to 18. The group also requested $5,260 for a tournament in Kansas from Nov. 10 to 11 and was funded for $4,739. The group’s appeal for the Kansas tournament was handled in a manner consistent with the group’s previous appeal on Sept. 19 to compete in the Northwestern Invitational. Treasury subsidized the transportation line item, allocating funds to cover the cost of rental cars, gasoline, and one night at a hotel.

WU Pops Orchestra, an independent student orchestra at the University, appealed for additional funds for instrument rentals, requesting $3,008.97. These funds covered the cost of renting one oboe, six violins, two cellos, and one double bass for the year. The group was funded in full for $3,008.97.

Club Badminton was funded in full for their $4,264.40 appeal to compete in the UIUC Open Tournament.

Mock Trial was funded in full for their $1,150 appeal to compete in the “Mock at the Rock” tournament at Northwestern University.

TANVI GORRE ANUSHKA BHAT VIVIAN ZWEIG CONTRIBUTIING WRITERS

SAM POWERS | STUDENT LIFE

Doctors at WUSM received over $5 million to study lymphoma in pediatric transplant patients.

COURTESY OF EMILY CHEN

Student Union President senior Emily Chen

LEWIS RAND SIA BANSAL CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

AVI HOLZMAN MANAGING NEWS EDITOR

WashU alum Laura Meckler discusses her new book “Dream Town: Shaker Heights and the Quest for Racial Equity”

Former U.S. ambassador reflects on the Oslo Accords at campus event

large.

Daniel C. Kurtzer, former U.S. ambassador to Egypt and Israel, spoke at a conversation titled “The Handshake That Shook the World: A 30 Year Reflection on the Oslo Accords” sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis, Sept. 28.

that the Accords did not firmly establish the ideas of a Palestinian state, Jerusalem’s borders, settlements, or refugees.

Washington University

alum Laura Meckler returned to campus to discuss her new book “Dream Town: Shaker Heights and the Quest for

primarily covers national education. She is a former Editor-in-Chief of Student Life newspaper and has also reported for several other news publications, including the Associated Press and The Wall Street Journal.

like there was more to say and didn’t want to leave the topic.”

Meckler said that, historically, Shaker Heights has been seen as a utopia — a place that represented the gold standard of racial integration efforts

The title references the famous reconciliatory gesture between Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Yasser Arafat, at the signing ceremony of the Oslo Accords, Sept. 13, 1993. The Oslo Accords are a pair of agreements aimed at resolving the ongoing IsraeliPalestinian conflict. The reconciliation was facilitated by President Clinton, under whom Kurtzer served as a diplomat and gained a critical understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Kurtzer said the prolonged process to bring Israeli and Palestinian leaders to the table was marked by a lack of engagement from the U.S. as an intermediary; he believes that the United States should have intervened more forcefully as an intermediate state following the Oslo signing ceremony.

“So many of the problematic issues that were to follow in the years ahead started out on the wrong track without a third-party helpmate, which we should have been during that period,” Kurtzer said.

Kurtzer also discussed the potential for establishing establishment of a Palestinian state after the Accords took place and said that he had foreseen difficulties.

“We organized a

“The signals that [the Palestinians] were sending on the ground were that they’re doing good stuff,” Kurtzer said. “While this is all happening positively in the room, all the signals that the dissident side is sending are terrible. They are setting up checkpoints and roadblocks. [Their] textbooks are inciting people to hate Israel or [engage] in terrorism.”

Kurtzer shared an anecdote on the subject matter involving a young Palestinian woman working on the negotiation.

“[She would] go home at night, and [she] would tell [her] mother that [they] made some progress today, and her mother would pull back the curtains and say, ‘they made progress, too,’ pointing at the settlement buildings and blocks built up by dissidents,” Kurtzer said.

“If you want a bottom line for what destroyed this [negotiation] process, it was that actions [speak] much louder than words,” Kurtzer

Shifting the discussion to the United States’ involvement in the conflict, Kurtzer believes the U.S. should have acted more forcefully as an intermediate

Responding to a question from the audience about the purpose of diplomatic engagement, Kurtzer said he believes in the inherent power of engaging in negotiations, no matter the

NINA LASER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

JIMMY HU STAFF WRITER

ALAN ZHOU | STUDENT LIFE

Washington Post reporter and Washington University alum Laura Meckler spoke about her new book “Dream Town: Shaker Heights and the Quest for Racial Equity” on Oct. 2.

SCENE

The fight for Pell Coalitions: improving WashU’s socioeconomic diversity

“WU/FUSED deserves the majority of the credit, along with a few former key administrators, for getting the momentum [for socioeconomic diversity] going,” Scotty Jacobs, Washington University alumni and former Student Representative to the Board of Trustees, said. While most people will remember the WashU Pell Grant problem by the attention it received from the New York Times and other organizations, change has always been pursued by grassroots organizations and protests. Beginning with members of the Board of Trustees, members of the University’s administration, and other student leaders, socioeconomic diversity at WashU was a team effort led by Washington University for Undergraduate Socioeconomic Diversity (WU/FUSED).

“[During my] four years, there was a lot of social agitation on campus around some of the bigger issues WashU was having to grapple with,” Jacobs said. “For example, Fossil Free WashU really started picking up steam, Mike Brown was murdered, and Trump was elected. But

the tinderboxes that got ignited during that time was when the New York Times article came out [that called WashU] the least socioeconomically diverse elite university in America.”

Specifically, in the wake of Chancellor Andrew Martin’s 2019 announcement of a needblind admissions goal, WU/FUSED, the Student Union Senate, and the

Roosevelt Network collaborated to develop a need-blind report that was presented to Chancellor Martin in late 2019.

“So, writing the actual report was very collaborative. We had a group chat where we all drafted different sections of the report,” said Sophie Scott, former Speaker of the Student Union Senate. “We had a couple of meetings to go over

everything and make sure it all seemed cohesive. And then WU/FUSED ended up presenting it to Chancellor Martin in a meeting that they had already scheduled with him. So the process was pretty smooth, aside from a couple of hiccups.”

The hiccups were regarding concerns WU/ FUSED and the Roosevelt Network had about StudLife covering the

collaboration to write the report. According to Scott, the hesitation around the StudLife article concerned WU/FUSED and Roosevelt since they both thought that the SU Senate, an undergraduate studentgovernment body, was only involved in the report to look after its image.

“At the time, I had instituted this structure in the Senate where the different committees would

write reports, and then we would present the reports at general-body meetings to get feedback from the entire Senate body,” said Scott. “When we assembled, we presented the need-blind report initially before it was completely finalized. So then, of course, StudLife wanted to write a story on it. And they wanted to interview me. When I brought that to the group, the group being WU/FUSED and [the] Roosevelt Network, other people were very hesitant about doing a StudLife article.”

“[WU/FUSED and the Roosevelt Network] didn’t want an article published before the meeting with Martin because they didn’t want it to seem like we were trying to blindside Martin, and they thought that we would have a better chance of being effective with the policy changes we wanted if it didn’t seem like we were trying to pull a fast one on Martin. But that was a big source of tension,” Scott said. “Some members believed that SU was only involved because they wanted publicity, rather than a common motive for change.”

Caught in a country at war: remembrances of Yom Kippur in Israel, 1973

MICHAEL L. MILLENSON GUEST AUTHOR

In mid-August 1973, a handful of other Washington University students and I began our Junior Year abroad program at Hebrew University in Jerusalem with two months of language classes (Ulpan). This preceded the regular academic year, set to start in mid-October after the Jewish holidays. Still, my Hebrew remained

fairly rudimentary.

At that time, I lived in dorms in an out-ofthe-way, working-class neighborhood called Kiryat Yovel. For Yom Kippur, traditionally spent in fasting and prayer, I traveled to the main campus to attend services with friends. The dorms were close to the Englishspeaking conservative movement’s seminary.

When I arrived in Israel,

I began keeping a diary.

Below is my lightly edited

record of a traumatic period in Israel’s history that began with the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War on Oct. 6, 1973, and whose “social, political, economic and psychological effects,” in the words of Israeli political scientist Susan Hattis Rolef, are still being felt.

Saturday, Oct. 6, 1973.

Yom Kippur I leave services and go back to the dorms for a nap. At 2 o’clock in the

afternoon, when I am half asleep, I hear the wailing sound of an air-raid siren. I sit up and listen. At 2:10, the siren wails again. There is running in the halls, and people are playing their radios very loudly. I check the location of my pants and resolve to put them on quickly. A while later, an “all-clear” sounds. I make a mental note to find out what the fuss was all about.

[Note: I had no clue that the country, including the radio, goes completely silent during Yom Kippur and that the sirens signaled a national emergency.]

When I get up at 4 p.m. and wander down the hall, I ask a group of American kids gathered around a radio whether anyone knows why the sirens sounded. They stare at me. Egypt and Syria have launched massive tank attacks along the Sinai and the Golan Heights, with heavy battles being fought. Doctors are being called up, and hospitals are being evacuated to

prepare for the wounded. The bus drivers have been ordered back to provide transportation. Yoram, one of the madrichim (resident advisors) has already been called back to his unit.

Signs are up at the dorms telling us where shelters are. At 4:15 p.m., the radio is beeping, then broadcasting names every 15 minutes — code for different reserve units. The radio signal is weak, and Arab music from Jordan can be heard incongruously in the background. The sky has clouded over, and it has grown chilly.

Patti, a friend from WashU; Sondra, Patti’s friend from back home in Dallas; and I can’t understand the Hebrew anyway, so we head for shul. We are anxious, but we make wry jokes, having total confidence in the Israeli military. At 6:45 p.m., we walk back to the dorms in the dark. A barrier is up on the road, along with two parked trucks and an Army tent.

A blackout is in effect for the country. I go to a group gathered near the office, get a candle and matches from madricha Ruti. She informs me that we’re evacuating this dorm and moving up the hill to other dorms that have shelters, and to take food, a blanket, a flashlight, and a candle.

The rooms are fairly big, but hot — the blinds are all closed. Aaron Singer, the head of the One-Year Program, comes around to assure us that people will be here to guide us in the case of an emergency, and if the American Embassy says anything, we’ll be notified. I ask him how things are at Kiryat Yovel. He says he wants to go and find out and offers to take me.

Read the rest online:

GRACE BRUTON | STUDENT LIFE

Student members of Washington University for Undergraduate Socioeconomic Diversity disrupted the Wrightonpalooza — Chancellor Wrighton’s going-away party — with a rally to raise awareness for socioeconomic diversity.

PELL from page 4

Despite the strain, the report still ended up being written, and StudLife covered it. Overall, it was an 18-page report detailing the issue of need-blind admissions and how peer institutions achieved it. But beyond that information, the most important aspect of the report included recommendations for the school to take. These recommendations ranged from the creation of a Student Need-blind Task Force to a need-blind working group that had students at the center.

But it wasn’t just student groups — the Board of Trustees was also involved in conversations through interactions with their Student Representatives.

“At the board level, there were a few really transformational board members who we knew [cared about socioeconomic diversity],” Jacobs said. “One of them was Maxine Clarke, founder of Build-A-Bear. [There was also] Larry Thomas. David Kemper was sort of a very behindthe-scenes advocate. John Dean was the other.”

Knowing that they had the ears and the support of the Board, Jacobs and his colleague Shyam Akula would begin their broader pitch of socioeconomic diversity. Their projects mainly focused on building the infrastructure needed to support low-income students on campus. Their work would eventually help the creation of the Office of Student Success, which eventually became the Taylor Family Center for Student Success.

“We sort of started the conversation to say, you know, ‘What do you think about this as board

Investigative news journalists check out

the new Ibby’s

members?’” Jacobs said.

“We started to lay out the roadmap of what it would take to make something like building what is now the Taylor Family office.”

“Shyam and I take no credit for the [roadmap],” Jacobs continued. “We were in the right place at the right time to take a lot of the groundwork that WU/ FUSED laid, [with former Associate Dean] Harvey Fields in place, and certain other administrators [put it all together] in a package that the Board [could] get excited about.”

But beyond the student representatives to the Board of Trustees, WU/ FUSED continued to make waves on campus, holding rallies, town halls, and protests.

Most famously, they protested Wrightonpalooza, an event that celebrated Chancellor Wrighton’s retirement after 24 years of service to WashU. That celebration took the form of a festival. They also protested several Tuition Forums between 2015 and 2020.

WU/FUSED also rallied the second Presidential Debate between Hillary Clinton and former President Donald Trump, carrying an eight-foot-tall black ball and chain around campus to raise awareness of the burden of student debt on college students and the economy.

Read the rest online:

To the shock and horror of many excited first-years and returning students, Ibby’s was closed when Washington University returned for the 2023 school year. The restaurant was undergoing recently finished renovations, with a revamped space and menu. But what is it cooking up? What does it look like now?

Luckily for you, two inquisitive investigative reporters (and their managing editor Avi) decided to check out the new restaurant on a fateful Tuesday night. Here’s the review that everyone asked for.

Renovations:

Ibby’s is known for its “traditional” fancyrestaurant vibe that was perfect for a celebratory occasion, a nice catch-up with a friend, or even splurging on a date (have you ever paid for

PUZZLE PUZZLE Mania

someone else’s food using meal points on a date?). However, this has been completely overhauled. The chairs, walls, and other decor fit a brightblue theme, and a butterfly motif has also been added to the restaurant. The floor is now wooden with some stone parts supporting the tables. The plates and bowls are now blue, and the overall vibe is cuter and much more upbeat.

Menu:

The greatest moment of our Ibby’s experience, excluding the joy of quality time with friends, was the complementary bread. No feeling is as exhilarating as when a waiter brings out a basket full of warm, yeasty treats. The excitement was delightful. The bread was pretty good, too.

After indulging in our bread and butter, we examined the new menu. It’s smaller than it used to be, featuring a few salad options, a few small plates, and a handful of entrees. The prices are also fairly

SPONSORED BY:

steep, so we agreed that Ibby’s can’t be a staple in our meal rotations but that it can be fun for special occasions. There are a handful of vegetarian options across the menu, especially if you count the salads and small plates. However, the entrees are largely centered around meat.

Addendum: It seems that the menu we got on the first day was a smaller version of the current menu (as of the date that this article was published). There are now more handhelds and vegetarian options, along with more options on the menu in general.

Food Reviews:

I (Lily) got the salad with arugula, beets, cheese, and pepitas (which are essentially pumpkin seeds). Points for fancy seeds. It was fairly small, but quite tasty. I’m not sure where else on campus I would be able to get beets, so more points for

a niche, special-occasion ingredient. I (Zach) got the seared scallops, which were a basic but good entree. Like Lily mentioned, I don’t know where else I would be able to get scallops on campus, and the risotto underneath the scallops was also quite good. It wasn’t a huge portion, so getting a side to split with a friend is a good idea if you’re looking for a big meal.

To finish our nice dinner, we shared the flourless chocolate cake. It was served with blueberries and a dollop of bourbon creme. The cake had a consistency similar to a brownie, which pleasantly surprised us. There was not a crumb nor a drop left on this plate (thank you, Avi).

The Consensus: Would we go again? Maybe. Probably. Depends on who’s paying (this time, it was Zach). Go try it for yourself!

Crossword by Alex

Homeward Bound

ACROSS

1 "The Spirit of St. Louis" is an example of this air-based

LILY TAYLOR | STUDENT LIFE

Ibby’s, a fine dining restaurant in the DUC, reopened on Sept. 26 after undergoing renovations.

LILY TAYLOR ZACH TRABITZ JUNIOR NEWS EDITORS

“Midterm Season” Answer Key

Sidechat was spiteful.

Full of a bear’s venom. The students of the college knew it, and so did the faculty. Throughout the day, I overheard bits of conversations that echoed the words “24” and “rank.” I saw multiple groups of students huddled around individual phones like campers around a campfire, but — in the age of TikToks and Instagram Reels — I had no reason to question their behavior. Later, in one of my studio classes, I found myself in their position when my friend showed me memes and rants regarding WashU’s descent from the Top 20. The screen reflected my furrowed brow. I didn’t know that U.S. News had published their 2024 college rankings. Nor was I aware that I should give a damn.

Back home, the only people that ever kept up with college rankings, who were nearly nonexistent in my low-income, predominately Black district, were the students that had faith that they could get into highly ranked institutions. So, the transition to WashU — where many students prioritized colleges’ rankings during their application process — came with a culture shock.

The next day brought miscellaneous conversation about our school’s new rank. In one conversation, two of my peers were appalled by the fact that the University of Michigan ranked above us. In another conversation between one of my suitemates and another student on our floor, both of them agreed that, despite WashU no longer repping a Top 20 status, WashU students are still getting a “Top 20 education.”

To me, these conversations were coated in a pretentiousness that only swelled within this university’s privileged echochamber.

Recognizing students’ high regard for college rankings, I started to ask questions: what is the validity of these rankings, and do they uphold privilege within academia?

In the beginning, there was U.S. News

The U.S. News & World

A talk about rankings and privilege

Report has not always been the definitive college bible it is today. The publication started out as two separate magazines — United States News and World Report — both founded by journalist and publisher David Lawrence in 1933 and 1946. The two functioned as respective outlets for national and international news until Lawrence merged them into the U.S. News & World Report in 1948. Unlike its primary competitors Time and Newsweek, the new and upcoming magazine was notably more conservative and focused more on educational and political matters rather than sports and pop culture.

Over the span of its publishing, U.S. News & World Report has become known for its numerous rankings: Best States, Best Cars, Best Hospitals, Best Global Universities, and — most renowned — Best Colleges. U.S. News’ Best Colleges list was first published in 1983 and only considered school reputation as a criteria for its ranking. Though the formula for the publication’s college rankings has become much more meticulous over the years — a new formula was introduced within the past year — U.S. News and universities around the country have found themselves in scandals regarding the publication’s rankings.

Cheater, cheater, pumpkin-eater

While high-school students around the country flock to the yearly college rankings as gospel, there are guidance counselors and universities that criticize the lists.

In 1995, Reed College pulled out of the U.S. News rankings because of the college’s belief that U.S. News’ methodology was flawed, and it has proven to be so with universities themselves at fault. In 2022, Michael Thaddeas, a mathematics professor at Columbia University, released an analysis exposing Columbia for falsifying data regarding the institution’s finances. Within the next year, Columbia dropped out of the U.S. News’ undergraduate rankings. In the years before Columbia was put on blast, Temple University and the University of Oklahoma were exposed for falsifying data submitted to

U.S. News. In 2016, the University of South Florida and Sam Houston State University over-reported their expenditures to U.S. News by millions (14.4 million in the case of USF and roughly 5.3 million in the case of SHSU).

Along with lying about numbers, universities have also used persuasion tactics to boost their rankings.

In an interview with Olivia B. Waxman of Time Magazine, Adam Nguyen — who formerly reviewed student applications for Columbia — revealed that “because part of the U.S. News methodology includes a survey of how colleges are viewed by officials at other schools, colleges would wine-and-dine the survey voters.” Furthermore, in order to take advantage of the metric that values small class size, universities would schedule their small lecture classes to be in the fall semester “in time for rankings that come out in the beginning of the academic year.”

Considering the lengths that institutions go to in order to maintain or bolster their rankings, these rankings have to mean something, right?

Siri, play “Nothing Really Matters” by Lauryn Hill

When engaging in conversation about college rankings, the central phrase that members of that conversation throw around is prestige, but what we come to know as “prestige” is, in reality, quite arbitrary. First, focusing on semantics, Oxford Dictionary defines prestige as “widespread respect and admiration felt for someone or something on the basis of a perception of their achievements or quality.” The inclusion of “perception” in this definition is appropriate since “prestige” derives from the Latin term “praestigiae” which translates to “conjuring tricks.” A later Latin term of the same derivative — “praestigium” — translates to “illusion.” So, in the context of definition, prestige isn’t really winning. Our current understanding of prestige is also undermined by the history of the Ivy League itself.

The Ivy League was born from an article by Stanley Woodward published by the New York Herald Tribune in 1933. In this article,

Woodward coined the phrase “ivy colleges” to describe the common sports programs of the modern-day Ivy League institutions: Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth University, Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and Yale University. Students from these schools published an editorial in student newspapers pushing for the establishment of a league of these ivy colleges. In 1954, a formal league — now known as the Ivy League — was founded as a division for athletic competition, and this league has developed beyond the context of athletics, bleeding into philosophy regarding education. But the prestige of the Ivy League does not necessarily come from a long history of academic rigor. Rather, it stems from privilege.

Along with being historically prestigious, schools within the Ivy League are historically expensive, so the only people that could attend the universities were wealthy. These wealthy students usually went to highly competitive private schools with close ties to the League. Furthermore, women were not admitted into the Ivy League until 1968, with Columbia being the last Ivy League to admit women in 1983. The Ivy League also did not fully integrate until the 1950s and 1960s. With the Ivies having such a small applicant pool of the most historically cherished group — rich, white men — it becomes obvious that the prestige of the Ivy League has been fostered from intricate systems of oppression. U.S. News’ college rankings do nothing but accentuate this arbitrary prestige by circulating Ivy League universities throughout the Top 10 rankings.

Shoutout to my HBCUs

On the topic of privilege and oppression, U.S. News does not pay proper homage to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). In U.S. News’ most recent rankings of national universities, no HBCU broke the Top 100, with Howard University and Florida A&M University being the only HBCUs to break the Top 200. In the case of Spelman University, it

ranked #1 on the rankings of HBCUs and #39 on the rankings of national liberal arts colleges, but other HBCUs have not been given that same grace. Xavier University in Louisiana, Tuskegee University, Claflin University, Fisk University, Dillard University, and several other HBCUs are not listed in any rankings besides that for historically Black universities. The exclusion of these institutions allows predominately white institutions to overshadow fully worthy HBCUs.

According to United Negro College Fund, a nonprofit that funds scholarships for black students and general scholarships for 37 private HBCUs, “25% of African American graduates with STEM degrees come from HBCUs. Eight HBCUs were among the Top 20 institutions to award the most science and engineering bachelor’s degrees to Black graduates from 2008-2012.”

Furthermore, Black students report feeling more financially stable at historically Black institutions — a fact that should help their rankings since borrower debt and financial resources per student weigh 5% and 8%, respectively, in U.S. News’ new formula. College rankings do nothing for students. Though U.S.

EDITORIAL COMIC

News’ lists have been utilized by many students and highschool faculty alike over the past few decades, college rankings are mostly an ego boost for universities. High school students should not look towards these rankings as a beacon of light to make their direction more clear. They should, rather, look at specific programs that specific colleges offer in their desired field or major; look for student reviews of the school to get a feel of campus life; and take in-person or virtual tours of the campus. No school should be ruled out solely for its ranking. Sure, employers and graduate schools will look at the school you went to, but there is no point in marketing yourself as a Washington University in St. Louis graduate and a recipient of a “Top 20 education” if your work is crap. Also, it makes very little sense for students that already attend a college to keep up with college rankings since the rankings are utilized as a shortcut during the college application process. With that being said, it makes even less sense to be angry over those rankings. We already go here, y’all. Be so for real.

ILLUSTRATION BY DION HINES

ILLUSTRATION BY EILEEN KIM

COMIC BY ADEL CYNOLTER

SPORTS

Football undefeated Defense, special teams shine as football bests North Park 41-7

MATT EISNER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

After the Washington University football team conceded a game-tying touchdown late in the first half, junior receiver Collin Goldberg stood at the ready to receive the kickoff from North Park University. Lined up behind his lead man, Goldberg caught the ball, found a lapse in the Vikings’ defensive coverage, blinked, and found himself in the end zone with a record-setting 97-yard touchdown return.

“It’s cool stuff,” Goldberg said with a laugh. “Obviously,

it’s not what I’m thinking about on the field. But to break the record and have done it while we won? It’s always cool to hear.”

From there, the Bears did not look back. WashU football (4-0) continued their undefeated season with a convincing victory over North Park University (2-2) on Saturday, dominating 41-7.

From the start, North Park immediately looked to threaten the Bears’ defense.

On the game’s first play, North Park quarterback Matt Eck launched a 54-yard pass attempt that deflected off of a Vikings receiver perfectly

into the hands of WashU freshman defensive back Emmanuel Jenkins. As the WashU-faithful breathed a collective sigh of relief for Jenkins’ first collegiate interception, the Bears marched down the field, culminating in a 36-yard touchdown reception for senior receiver Collin Hoyhtya.

North Park equalized with a late-half touchdown, though the score was not without its controversy. A flag was thrown before the play, penalizing North Park for an illegal formation. North Park was awarded the touchdown after a referee huddle, the

Vikings’ pleas audible from the stands. The game was tied for just 13 game seconds, as Goldberg’s return instantly put WashU back on top. A week after breaking the record for the longest-scoring play in program history — coincidentally, a 97-yard touchdown reception against Carthage University — Goldberg broke the 28-year-long marker for the longest kickoff return in WashU football history.

For the rest of the game, the Bears ran circles around the Vikings’ defense. Running backs Kenneth Hamilton and Kenvorris Campbell both found the end zone with

rushing touchdowns; freshman kicker Ross Muchnick converted two field goals, including a career-long 45-yard try; and junior cornerback Andrew Dotson returned an interception for a touchdown. In total, the WashU defensive backs recorded five interceptions, the Bears’ defense taking advantage of the opportunities stemming from North Park’s unfortunate play.

The Bears will next travel to Bloomington, Illinois to face the Illinois Wesleyan University Titans on Saturday, Oct. 6 in another important conference game

Men’s soccer loses UAA opener against Emory

In a thrilling showdown this past weekend, the Washington University men’s soccer team (4-4-1) took on the formidable #5 Emory University Eagles in its inaugural University Athletic Association (UAA) conference match. The Francis Field stadium buzzed with anticipation as eager students and parents poured in to witness the Bears’ UAA opener at home.

Both teams radiated confidence as they stepped onto the field, ready to infuse the match with much zeal and excitement. The Bears came out swinging in the first half, generating numerous scoring opportunities despite Emory’s dominance in ball possession. Senior Owen Culver ignited the offense, launching three shots within the first 12 minutes of the

game. Furthermore, sophomore Zach Susee threatened the Eagles’ goal with two impressive attempts, but Emory’s goalkeeper managed to block the shots. Corner kick after corner kick, the Bears pressed on relentlessly but could not find the back of the net in the first 45 minutes.

“We just need to capitalize more on the chances we get to score. It is important to be relentless, and we just gotta follow through,” junior Landon Green, who played all 90 minutes, said after the match.

The Eagles, too, unleashed their offensive prowess in the first half, but the Bears’ defense was unbreakable.

Freshman goalkeeper Owen Ross demonstrated his mettle, making two incredible saves, defending WashU’s goal. Despite the season’s goalie rotation, Ross earned the starting position for the third time.

However, after halftime ended and both teams

regrouped for the second half, the match took a challenging turn for the Bears. After a scoreless first half, Emory managed to break the deadlock, capitalizing on a poorly defended corner in the 64th minute.

Undeterred, WashU continued to fight, creating numerous opportunities to level the score, but to no avail.

In the 82nd minute, a lifeline appeared as Emory’s Jaden Emoghene received a second yellow card for a dangerous tackle, reducing the Eagles to 10 players. But the Bears were unable to exploit the advantage. In a dramatic twist, Bears freshman defender Carter Sasser received a straight-red card, leaving both teams with 10 players on the field. Moments later, WashU conceded a foul on the edge of the box, offering Emory a dangerous free-kick opportunity. Colton Myers of Emory secured a goal with less than five minutes left in the game.

Despite the disappointing

loss, the Bears remain steadfast in their pursuit of excellence in the UAA. Head Coach Joe Clarke emphasized, “I’m really happy with how the guys played… there were tons of positives in today’s game from our team.”

Echoing this sentiment,

Green affirmed, “we always talk about becoming the best team in the country, and we want to win the UAA. This will be one of the best teams to play, but every UAA team will be good, so it definitely will not be easy.”

The Bears reversed their losing streak on Wednesday

CLARA RICHARDS | STUDENT LIFE-

for WashU. Compared to their 2022 campaign, WashU has had a carbon-copy start to their season against a slate of identical opponents. Ahead of the second half of their conference season and two critical matchups against DIII powerhouses North Central College and Wheaton College, WashU football feels confident that it can improve on last year’s results.

“We’re focusing on one game at a time, and as Coach Keen likes to say, ‘Getting the job done,’” Goldberg said. “But we’re starting to pick up the energy, starting to pick up the pace. We feel good.”

in a non-conference matchup with Webster University, winning 2-0 with goals from junior forward Joseph Hipskind and sophomore forward Zach Susse. Their next conference game is against Brandeis University.

ELIAS KOKINOS ELAHEH KHAZI SPORTS EDITOR CONTRIBUTING WRITER

ELLA GIERE | STUDENT LIFE

Men’s Soccer fell 0-2 to Emory University on Sunday in their first conference match.

Sophomore Ryan Schmadtke returns an interception, one of five for the Bears defense in the victory over North Park.

Collin Goldberg talks Atlanta upbringing, facing NFL talent, and team chemistry

probably my first football memory.

to see. Even though we’re a smaller school, kids will still come out just to see football.

Junior wide receiver Collin Goldberg has been central to the Washington University football team’s perfect start. Only four games into the season, Goldberg has broken two of the WashU Bears’ program records with a 97-yard touchdown reception and 97-yard kickoff return. In addition, Goldberg leads the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) — WashU’s football conference — in receiving touchdowns (6) and kickoffreturn yards (234), and sits third in conference for receiving yards (356). Student Life sat down with Goldberg to talk about his remarkable start to the season, his Atlanta upbringing, and this season’s outlook for the Bears football team.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

Student Life: So, first question: walk us through your first-ever football memory.

Collin Goldberg: So, the first football memory I really remember [is] playing a couple years of youth football — probably seven or eight. I was the quarterback at the time — I’m obviously not a quarterback anymore. But I just remember playing with my friends. I mean, it’s hard to pick one memory, but I remember I was on the Tar Heels, and that was fun. And then we won one game that season. So I remember that one went pretty well. That’s

SL: Obviously you cannot talk about Atlanta without recognizing its culture from a football standpoint. In what ways has your hometown influenced your love for the game, and in what ways does Atlanta show up in football for you?

CG: I love Atlanta — I love where I’m from. The football culture there is amazing. I mean, the competition in high school was absurd. I played against guys that are in the NFL right now. I still stay in touch with some guys who are on some big college teams, like Nick Jackson, a linebacker at Iowa State University. He is a dude that I look up to a lot and has been a big role model to me. He was a senior when I was a sophomore. It’s the first year that I really played. So that was great.

SL: Going off of that, talk to us about that transition: coming from a big city like Atlanta to playing football in St. Louis.

CG: The transition for me was fairly smooth. I was lucky enough to play my freshman year too, which helps. And you know, the St. Louis team, we have the Battlehawks now, which is awesome. I went to a game last year, and I will say that the St. Louis community does love foot ball like that. The game was awesome. But I mean, it was pretty smooth. I love the city of St. Louis. Last year, we did something where a youth football team came in at halftime, which was really cool

SOCCER from page 1

As the clock wound down, the Eagles attempted to mount a comeback. When the ball hit the net in the 74th minute, they appeared to be right back in the game, but the offside flag dampened their hopes of a resurgence. Over the course of the second half, the WashU backline proved that they were up to the test of the attacking Eagles. Senior goalkeeper Connor had her busiest

day of the season, making a season-high five saves.

When asked about his squad’s defense, Conlon accredited it with the team’s effort. “I think they’re just working well off each other. I think they know what each other’s gifts are and are playing to their strengths,” he said.

Cannon agreed, stating that “everybody has their role on the team, and it’s up to you to fulfill that role.

I think we’ve done that

I think our crowds are bigger this year. We have more people involved who want it to be better, and I think Coach Keen does a fantastic job of promoting us.

records and the team is undefeated. What have these performances been like for you?

CG: The season has been good so far. But there’s always room for improvement. I mean, we’re not playing perfect

for me, this is the first year where it’s not like I’m trying to learn the plays or understand coverages. It is the first year where I understand everything, and now I’m just playing football, so that’s really fun. Me and [graduate quarterback Matt] Rush have fantastic chemistry on the deep ball and quick-short routes now — to where I’m catching the ball quickly out of the break and he’s hitting me in stride.

SL: You just mentioned Rush there. Can you talk to me a little bit about your relationship with him? In what ways is your chemistry on display during games?

CG: Last spring, he left WashU to train with Oregon football. So this summer, when he was coming back, he called me. We talked, and luckily enough, I was about to start an internship in Chicago, which is where he’s from. So we were able to build up connection and chemistry while being in the same place. When I started playing as a freshman, I didn’t really have the voice or the confidence. I was still kind of figuring some stuff out going into this year. So yeah, it’s been awesome. I mean, it’s super fun. I love Rush.

SL: Last year, there were talks about making the playoffs and challenging for the championship. Does the team still have this mindset going into this new season, where you retained many core guys on the roster from last year?

CG: We talk a lot about how it’s ourselves playing the

game. Our opponent obviously matters, but in general, we try to play our best football on a week-to-week basis.

North Park [University] was last week. We try not to look too far ahead to North Central or Wheaton, which are obviously two of the better teams in the conference, but really focusing on ourselves and our own game plan. Secondly, there’s a lapse in effort or something from a backside player. So when we really focus on that stuff, we have ourselves being the best going into these big games.

I personally think we’re the best team in our conference. Of course, I’m going to say that. North Central is a fantastic team. Wheaton is a fantastic team. There are other great teams in our conference. But I look at ourselves, our own players. We focus on ourselves more than the other team, and then we’ll plan for the other team after that. That’s really our mindset.

SL: And final question, which is a StudLife tradition that we are bringing back this year. We ask each athlete of the week: Would you rather have fish for hands or adopt a child every time you hear Bohemian Rhapsody?

CG: I mean, the financially right decision is probably fish for hands, but I mean, I kind of need my hands to play receiver. So, I’ll probably just have to have a lot of kids. Maybe I’ll plug my ears…so I’d probably say, adopt a kid every time I hear Bohemian Rhapsody.

this game — we’ve done that all season. People are giving everything [they’ve] got, making certain tackles and slides on defense… really just doing their jobs and working for each other on the field.”

One key strength in the defense has been the play of center back graduate transfer Ally Hackett, who came to WashU after two seasons at University of North Carolina-Greensboro.

Hackett joined Connor as the only Bears to play all 90 minutes on Sunday, an impressive feat in the 85º Missouri heat. The centerback has been everywhere for the Bears, making a number of key plays once again in Sunday’s win. Though the Bears have national aspirations, they have their eyes set on the UAA at the moment. “[You’ve] got to win the conference if you want to give yourself a chance at

something bigger. So for us, I think we’re just taking it one step at a time right now,” Conlon said after the victory.

Cannon echoed Conlon’s message after the game. “We’re trusting the process, and we’re seeing the results of that — and just, of course, everybody was so excited about the win, but also just wanting to use that momentum to keep moving forward.”

The next step for the

Bears include two more matchups this week. The Bears won against Webster University 3-0 on Tuesday in a non-conference matchup, and they will be welcoming Brandeis University to St. Louis for the next leg of their UAA journey. The squad will end the weekend with its second game in two days, traveling down Big Bend Boulevard to take on neighbor Fontbonne University on Sunday.

dine. play.

CLARA RICHARDS | STUDENT LIFE