The independent newspaper of Washington University in St. Louis since 1878 THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 2024
VOLUME 145, NO. 20
GAME WINNER
WWW.STUDLIFE.COM
OBITUARY
CHANGEMAKER SPOTLIGHT
WashU remembers Amarnath Ghosh. (News, pg 2)
Sit-down interview with point guard Yogi Oliff. (Sports, pg 7)
New Gephardt fellow facilitator John Worth. (Scene, pg 5)
Students stage second protest to demand Prof. Dybvig’s dismissal after sexual misconduct allegations ALIANA MEDIRATTA ALIZA LUBITZ JACOB FISHER
ALAN ZHOU | STUDENT LIFE Students in Simon Hall protest Dybvig’s continued employment on Feb. 29. Nobel Prize,” Churiwal said. Although the protest was scheduled to begin at 3:50 p.m. and continue for the ten minutes in between two sections of Dybvig’s Mathematical Finance course, the classroom was empty. In an email to Student Life, Julie Flory, Vice Chancellor for Marketing and Communications, wrote that the class was not scheduled during the week of the protest. “The course was only scheduled for the first part of the semester and it has concluded,” Flory wrote. Rob Wild, Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Dean of Students, said that Dybvig is not on campus this week. Dybvig did not respond to a request for comment about the scheduling of his class.
Churiwal said that the protest was planned for the entirety of his class. “The class that Dybvig teaches is 1.5 credits, the website reflects that and this week, he normally teaches Tuesday and Thursdays from 4:00 p.m. to 5:20 p.m. in Simon 113,” Churiwal said. “So we’re protesting for the duration of this class outside the classroom.” On Jan. 16, students held a similar protest in Simon to express their discontent with the University’s handling of the allegations against Dybvig. At both protests, MeToo WashU asked students to sign a petition calling for Dybvig to be fired, which has received almost 1,000 signatures. Churiwal said that she hopes the protests continue the conversation
about Dybvig’s employment at the University. “It’s important for us to keep talking about the situation and for students to know that Dybvig is continuing to teach here, despite the fact that national media has reported that he harassed seven students,” she said.
Read the rest online:
“Survive and Advance:” Men’s basketball moves on to Sweet 16 after two dramatic overtime wins JACOB RITHOLZ STAFF WRITER
With 1.8 seconds remaining in overtime, sophomore guard Yogi Oliff stepped up to the free throw line. He needed to hit one shot to keep the Washington University men’s basketball team’s season alive, and two to deliver a win against the Illinois College Blueboys in the second round of the NCAA tournament. It didn’t help that this was the Bears’ second straight game in overtime, or that Oliff had logged 29 minutes the night before in a 71-68 overtime victory against Wisconsin Lutheran College. It also didn’t help that, despite all of his strengths, the point guard has been struggling from the line all season, hitting just above 60% of his attempts. “There’s been times this season that I’ve struggled from the line, it’s not a secret,” Oliff said postgame. “But it’s just about staying confident.” Oliff stayed confident, like the Bears have all year in clutch situations, and sank both shots to give the Bears a 68-67 lead that they would not relinquish. After a failed full-court heave from Illinois College, the rambunctious WashU student section stormed the court as the Bears stamped their ticket to the Sweet Sixteen.
VIA POOLOS
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
JUNIOR NEWS EDITOR STAFF WRITER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
About thirty students protested outside Olin Professor Phillip Dybvig’s classroom in Simon Hall and demanded his termination following allegations of sexual misconduct in 2022 and 2023. The protest was intended to occur between two successive sections of a course Dybvig teaches, but the class did not meet the day of the protest, Thurs, Feb. 29th. Dybvig has been accused of sexual harassment by seven former students since receiving the Economic Sciences Nobel Prize in 2022. During the protest, students marched through the halls of Simon while chanting slogans like “Hear us loud, hear us clear, Dybvig isn’t welcome here,” and held signs with messages such as “A perpetrator teaches here.” After rallying, they staged a sit-in outside Dybvig’s classroom, which lasted for over an hour. The protest was organized by students affiliated with a range of clubs including MeToo WashU and Asians and Pacific Islanders Demanding Justice. It also received endorsements from six student organizations, including Student Union Senate, Abolish Greek Life, and Girls Excelling in Math and Science. Sophomore Sonal Churiwal, one of the organizers, said that students plan to continue protesting until Dybvig is terminated from the University. “We can’t say that we accept the presence of a perpetrator teaching on our campus just because he has a
Student Life Q&A with the Chancellor, 2024
Now, the Bears will look forward to playing the Trine University Thunder next weekend, marking the first time WashU has played past the second round since it won the National Championship in 2009. While the Bears also won their first two tournament games in the 2019-20 season, their third round contest, and the remainder of the tournament, were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
First round: WashU v. Wisconsin Lutheran College
The Bears tipped off their March Madness journey with a 71-68 overtime victory over the Wisconsin Lutheran College Warriors. The Bears took an early lead, starting the game on a 10-0 run, but the Warriors stayed within touching distance for the entire game. With 11 seconds left in regulation, a Wisconsin Lutheran jumper completed the team’s comeback, forcing an extra period of play to decide the contest. In overtime, it was the Warriors who seemed to be in control, stopping the Bears on consecutive possessions to secure a three-point lead. With the shot clock winding down and junior guard Hayden Doyle bottled up in the paint, junior guard Kyle Beedon broke loose on the right wing, finding just enough space to loft an offbalance, catch-and-shoot three as
the shot clock expired. “The last one I hit, it was kind of off balance, but I hit those all the time,” Beedon said in a postgame press conference. “If you practice making tough shots, you’ll feel confident in making them.” After Beedon’s shot swished through the net, the Bears locked in, taking a lead with 46 seconds remaining and holding on for a 71-68 win after four free throws from Doyle, who scored his 1000th career point, sealed the victory. Like they have all season, the Bears faced adversity, and yet again, persevered for a win. “In the tournament, it’s all
about surviving and advancing,” said head coach Pat Juckem. “They don’t ask how, they ask if.” Oliff excelled in the win, hauling in 16 rebounds to lead all players, contributing to WashU winning the rebound battle 53-42. Beedon and sophomore center Calvin Kapral led the team with 17 points each, while Kapral also grabbed six rebounds. Alongside first-year center Jake Davis, Kapral held two-time NACC Player of the Year Ryan Broeckel, who averages over 17 points per game, to just seven points in 45 minutes.
SEE BASKETBALL, PAGE 7
ELLE SU | STUDENT LIFE Hayden Doyle celebrates the team’s first second-round win in the fieldhouse in 17 years.
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Washington University Chancellor Andrew Martin sat down for an interview with Student Life on March 5, nearly a year after his last Q&A in April 2023. Martin spoke about recent student activism on campus, the state of the endowment, the University’s recent and future property purchases, and where he buys his glasses. The Q&A has been edited for length and clarity. Student Life: How would you describe the past academic year in one word? Andrew Martin: Complicated. SL: Can you expand on that at all? AM: This academic year has put a great deal of stress on so many members of our community. I think the most salient issue has to do with the tragic events of Oct. 7 and the aftermath, which has affected so many members of this community in so many different ways and at times, sort of pitted members of the community against one another, or at least [created] the perception that members of our community are pitted against one another. And that’s made for a really complicated time. SL: You’ve taken a stance on some instances of labeling some speech as hateful, [specifically] saying that ‘to the river to the sea’ was ‘well beneath the dignity of every member of our community.’ How do you decide when to weigh in on speech on campus? AM: In this particular case, this was language that was being used on our campus that was deeply hurtful and intimidating to some members of our community. And in that particular blog post, in partnership with the chairman of the board, we decided that we’re not banning that phrase, but we’re calling it what it is, which is something that was deeply, deeply troubling and offensive to many members of our community. SL: And sort of on the same topic, there’s an unofficial WashU group known as Resist WashU that has been pretty persistently calling for the university to divest or unaffiliate with Boeing due to claims about the company supplying missiles to Israel. What is your response to this call? And would this divestment or unaffiliation ever happen? AM: No. SL: Do you have a particular response to this call and why [unaffliation] wouldn’t happen? AM: No. SL: There have also been calls from [student] groups to divest from fossil fuels. Last year, you said that the University does not positively or negatively screen investments, meaning look at ESG ratings. Why does the University not look at ESG ratings? AM: I certainly appreciate the enthusiasm of some members of the community who are advocating for divestment from fossil fuels. We’ve made the decision that the purpose of the endowment is to generate as much return as possible. We do so in a socially responsible way. That’s all detailed in our annual report and available on the endowment website. Why do we care about endowment return? Because endowment return is our biggest source of funds for scholarships, and funds our faculty research, and so that’s why we’ve made that decision.
SEE CHANCELLOR, PAGE 3