The independent newspaper of Washington University in St. Louis since 1878 THURSDAY, APRIL 13, 2023
VOLUME 144, NO. 21
BRENDA SONG
WWW.STUDLIFE.COM
TAKING HOME A TROPHY
“Suite Life” actress speaks with students on campus (News, pg 2)
WuRaas ranks 13th nationally (Scene, pg 5)
SOFTBALL
Softball wins against Carnegie Mellon before hitting the road. (Sports, pg 7)
Flo Milli announced as artist for Spring WILD AVI HOLZMAN MANAGING NEWS EDITOR On Tuesday, April 11, popular hip-hop artist Flo Milli was announced as the headliner for Spring WILD. The event will take place on Mudd Field on Friday, April 28th, according to the Student Programming Board (SPB). An Instagram video posted by SPB stated that Milli would perform at the 50th anniversary for the semiannual concert. The
announcement comes after last semester’s WILD was canceled due to capacity and crowding concerns. SPB president Miri Goodman said that the group is “really excited. There have been countless hours of hard work done by the WILD team and it seems like the hard work is paying off,” she said. Goodman also addressed past safety concerns about overcrowding, explaining that SPB communicated with campus partners to find a solution.
“Mudd Field ended up being the best option because it is a large field that can hold a lot of people,” she said. At past concerts, students have not been allowed to re-enter the venue once they have exited. To mitigate that from happening on Mudd Field, Goodman said there will be 6-foot-tall fences and bike racks lining the perimeter of the field in addition to extra venue security specifically tasked with preventing students from reentering after they leave. Goodman also said that
wristbands would be passed out as people entered the venue space to keep the event limited to only the WashU campus community. She said that more information about the wristbands would be released in the next ten days. Peggy Hermes, Associate Director of Campus Life, described how this semester, there will be a T-shaped stage, unlike the usual flat-facing stage in Brookings Quadrangle. She said that this is a “considerable adjustment to the stage layout,” but thinks it will help prevent
students from being pressed up against the barriers. Hermes also mentioned that SPB is working with a new security company, which “specializes in crowd control and concert management on college campuses.” Despite the new stage structure and security, Hermes reminded students that they “should make safe and healthy decisions that night especially as it pertains to listening to volunteers and following signage so it can be [a] safe and fun [event] for everyone.”
University plans to open new School of Public Health ZACH TRABITZ JUNIOR NEWS EDITOR
in the conference. Their 21-8 record is a dramatic turnaround from their 12-24 finish last year. Their performance on Saturday was perhaps most impressive, taking both games of the doubleheader. The Bears jumped out to an early lead in the first game after sophomore Brandon Buday drew a walk, advanced to second on a wild pitch, stole third and scored on Pellegrino sac fly. WashU added two more runs in the third, but the Violets tied the score up with a three run sixth inning. In the seventh, Buday struck again, leading off the inning with a solo home homerun. The Bears added five more runs in the final two innings to go up 9-3, while freshman Miles
For the first time in 100 years, Washington University is creating a new school division: the School of Public Health. The School of Public Health will be formed by combining existing aspects of Public Health across the University. The educational programming will include a master’s degree and doctoral program along with a new undergraduate major in public health. The school will have a particular focus on educating students about intersecting factors of public health — such as environmental health factors and racial disparities in healthcare — and developing equitable routes to provide healthcare. The College of Arts and Sciences will be involved in the development of the undergraduate major, and there are tentative plans to house the new major in Arts and Sciences. This plan would avoid the issue of having to create new requirements for an entirely separate undergraduate school while still utilizing the new school’s pooled resources. Faculty, staff, and students are all actively involved in the process of making different key decisions, such as determining how to best coordinate new education programs. Although the University plans to transition some graduate programs to the new School of Public Health, administrators want to ensure continuity in delivering existing programming for master’s and Ph.D. students. The new school is planned to
SEE BASEBALL, PAGE 8
SEE SCHOOL, PAGE 7
CLARA RICHARDS | STUDENT LIFE
Freshman Shane Pellegrino slides towards home plate in the team’s April 1st matchup against the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
With a “top dog” mentality, baseball blows past NYU and sets sights on playoffs IAN HEFT SPORTS EDITOR Freshman Shane Pellegrino had dreamed of this moment for years. Standing on third base with two outs in a 2-2 ballgame, the freshman shortstop was ninety feet from scoring the go-ahead run. With the Statue of Liberty overlooking the field from across New York Bay, the city skyline serving as a backdrop for the Friday evening game and barge horns blaring in the background, Pellegrino darted back and forth as he led off third. “I’ve been thinking about playing college baseball since I was five years old. This was really a dream come true for me,” said Pellegrino after the game. He would ultimately score on
a balk – not exactly a pretty way to take the lead, but giving the Bears a one run advantage in the eighth inning of the game, one of a pivotal series versus New York University (NYU). The Bears would go on to win the first game 4-2 and ultimately take three of four from NYU. One year after narrowly avoiding a home sweep to Violets, WashU looked dominant after making the trek out to Staten Island, New York. “It’s so big to take three out of four on the road at NYU,” said head coach Pat Bloom. “It’s hard — to say the least — to win three out of four against anybody in our league. But on the road, it’s especially difficult.” This season, WashU’s wins haven’t always been pretty, with the team fighting for late leads.
Yet with a scrappy, next-man-up mentality, the team has gotten runs across the board at the right time. Led by veteran poise and the emergence of an impressive underclassmen class, the squad has hit its stride as it heads into the home stretch of the season. “Guys who aren’t on board, they’re just not going to play,” said catcher and senior captain Hunter Goldberg on the team’s playstyle. “For lack of better words, we’re just being dogs. You know, not letting anyone take us off the field. We’re the top dogs on the field. That’s how we want to play.” WashU has been the top dogs as of late, winning nine of their last thirteen games. They currently sit at second in the University Athletic Association (UAA) but have the best composite record of any team
Constitutional Council rules Treasury denial of College Republican speaker unconstitutional ALIANA MEDIRATTA JUNIOR NEWS EDITOR Student Union’s (SU) Constitutional Council determined that SU Treasury demonstrated political bias when representatives chose not to fund a speaker appeal from the Washington University College Republicans (WUCR), a violation of SU’s Constitution, in a unanimous opinion released on April 5. WUCR requested nearly $7,000 from Treasury to bring conservative economist Dr. Arthur Laffer to campus. After deliberation by Treasury representatives, they
decided not to fund the event. After attending the Treasury meeting, freshman Tim Mellman brought the issue to Constitutional Council, SU’s judicial body composed of five undergraduate students. The Council accepted his request and ruled in their nineteenpage opinion that Treasury violated Article 14, which states, “All constituents shall be given equal opportunity and equal treatment under the rules, regulations, law and Constitution of Student Union.” A day after the opinion was released, the constitution was amended by a vote from the student body during the SU election,
changing Article 14 so that it is now framed around equity as opposed to equality. The article now reads: “All constituents shall be given equitable treatment under the rules, regulations, law, and Constitution of Student Union.” Freshman Meris Damjanovic, a Treasury representative who testified at the Council’s hearing, stated that he was interested to see how the opinion would be impacted by the fact that the Article it cited was substantially changed. “I understand how they came to their conclusion based on the constitution as it stood at the time, but obviously, it has changed,” he
said. “A large part of this was based on Article 14, which was the equality clause and is now the equity clause.” The council’s opinion began with a summary of why Treasury was in violation of Article 14 and noted that moving forward, the Council will be able to use their ruling on the WUCR appeal as precedent to help inform other interpretations of the constitution. “As a matter of constitutionality, Treasury cannot deny funding for an event on the basis of political discrimination pursuant to the equality clause of the constitution,” the opinion reads. “In this case, the Council finds that Treasury’s
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decision created a differential outcome and contained pervasive malice, negligence, or other unusual circumstances.” In his request, Mellman wrote the assumption made by treasurers that Laffer would potentially say something racist or bigoted could constitute discrimination on the basis of political leaning, which he believed could violate the constitution. While the opinion ruled that Treasury had engaged in political discrimination, it did not outline a standard for what constitutes
SEE CONSTITUTION, PAGE 3