March 11, 2021 Student Life Newspaper at Washington University in St. Louis

The independent newspaper of Washington University in St. Louis since 1878 THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 2021

VOLUME 142, NO. 17

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CUS SURVEY

SU passes general budget of $3.9 million

The 2021 SU budget:

SU allocates $3.9 million of $4.5 million total requested funds across student groups, campus entities

ORLI SHEFFEY AND TED MOSKAL NEWS EDITORS

TOTAL SU BUDGET ALLOCATION, 2017 - 2021 $4 million

$3.9 million

$3.8 million $3.6 million

$3.75 million $3.5 million $3.3 million

$3.2 million

$3.3 million

$3 million 2017

2018

2019

2020

2021 GRAPHIC BY MIA GOLDBERG

TED MOSKAL SENIOR NEWS EDITOR Student Union unanimously passed a $3.9 million general budget, using a new streamlined process for the second year in a row. SU’s general budget is funded by the student activities fee, which is equal to 1% of the cost of undergraduate tuition. Under the new system, the details of the general budget proposal are hashed out in smaller section meetings composed of both SU Senate and Treasury representatives. Based on these discussions, Vice President of Finance senior Alexa Jochims constructed a budget proposal that approved $3,906,433.23 of the $4,525,244.14 in requested funds. A joint session of the Treasury and Senate took place over Zoom, Feb. 27, to debate and approve some version of this proposal. The largest section in the budget was $1.9 million dedicated to funding student group reserves, an increase from $1.6 million last year. Nearly all student groups on campus receive their funding through this process. A proposal to reduce the budget for student group reserves was raised but quickly dismissed, as many argued that this section of

the budget should not be used as a reserve fund for other initiatives. “In terms of really advocating for the student body from a Treasury perspective, moving from Carly Rae Jepsen to T-Pain is just simply not as important to allowing students to do what they really want to do on campus and actually have their events,” Activities Committee Chair junior Zoe Hancock said. The final budget also allocated $1,020,630 to the Social Programming Board, which is responsible for hosting a variety of events open to the entire student body, the most popular of which are the biannual WILD concerts. Jochims’ initial proposal allocated $125,000 for fall WILD and $100,000 for spring WILD, but Student Union ended up voting 18-17 in favor of adding an additional $10,000 to the budget of spring WILD. “It's been made very clear that this is not enough money to run a suitable WILD,” treasury representative junior Joel Brody said. “The 125 [thousand] for big WILD is fine, but 100 grand for the small one is not going to get us there.” However, Hancock expressed reservations about allocating an additional $10,000 without a clear understanding of how it would

affect the quality of the WILD artist. “Any increase that we do is going to be kind of arbitrary, because we don't have an ability to see which artists we would like to choose between,” she said. “I would also really consider that an increase of $10,000 in WILD talent seems like a small number compared to the rest of it. But $10,000 anywhere else in our budget is a massive, massive chunk.” Before the COVID-19 pandemic, SPB had considered adjusting the annual WILD budget to plan one larger concert and one smaller concert, but this was postponed due to COVID-19. “Previously, we put out a student body vote, and the student body wanted to do a bigger WILD and a smaller WILD,” Vice President of Programming senior Charlotte Pohl said. “But then because of COVID and missing three semesters worth of WILD, we thought it would be better to go back to the medium sized ones and then that can be re-addressed at the end of next year.” One other significant change from previous years was that student groups were unable to petition for block funding, a complex process that requires groups to gather signatures from 15% of

WU reports 117 student COVID-19 violations amid new clusters

the student body in order to be guaranteed full funding. Student groups such as Emergency Support Team (EST), Uncle Joe’s Peer Counseling, the Campus Y and Habitat for Humanity had all petitioned for block funding in previous years, but either failed to gather enough signatures or opted to forgo the process in anticipation of lower engagement related to the pandemic. “EST and Uncle Joe's both said that they wanted to become line items, which is why we saw them in a different spot today,” Jochims said. “Habitat for Humanity a couple days ago said that they would rather just go through the student group budget submission process, instead of using block funding and they pulled out pretty quickly. Then Campus Y and Datamatch ultimately didn't receive enough signatures to go on the March ballot, which is why they also shifted over to student group funding.” Because of the important role that these groups play on campus, SU elected to write them into the budget as line items. However, EST received $49,476.39 of its requested $51,742.39 in funding, while Uncle Joe’s received just $5,625 of its requested $9,105.

SEE SU, PAGE 2

Since the start of the spring semester, three large clusters of COVID-19 cases have been reported by Washington University, and the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards has adjudicated at least 117 student conduct cases related to COVID-19 violations. According to Sheryl Mauricio, associate dean of the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards, her office has adjudicated a total of 649 COVID-19 violations during the 2020-2021 academic year, 117 of which have occurred this semester. These violations range in severity from lack of mask wearing to hosting an unsafe social event. Although no students to date have been suspended or expelled for COVID-19 violations, Mauricio said that “several cases have been referred to the Student Conduct Board for suspension regarding egregious allegations of violation of Wash. U.’s COVID-19 Health and Safety Guidelines.” This comes at a time when COVID-19 cases are rising on campus, with the University reporting three large clusters on the Danforth Campus COVID-19 Dashboard. According to Rob Wild, interim vice chancellor for student affairs, the first cluster from Jan. 28 involved a group of graduate students gathering for dinner. After one attendee reported symptoms the following Monday, a total of 12 students from the gathering tested positive and 29 other students were required to quarantine. The second cluster, which occured from Feb. 4 to Feb. 6., involved five separate off-campus gatherings with many of the same undergraduate students gathering in groups of 10 to 15. As a result, 19 students tested positive and 58 other students were required to quarantine.

SEE COVID-19, PAGE 2

Following decline in use, WU opts to take down South 40 study tent OLIVIA DANNER STAFF REPORTER The South 40 tent, designed to provide students a sheltered, well-ventilated work and dining space, has been taken down after being deemed unnecessary by administrators. According to Kawanna Leggett, interim associate vice chancellor and dean of students, the tent did not receive a high level of use. “When the tent was put up, we were still uncertain of what student needs would be for the fall semester,” Legget wrote in a statement to Student Life. “As we are anticipating warmer weather, we feel the location can be better utilized as an

outdoor gathering space.” According to Leggett, the tent’s materials will either be repurposed or returned. “The material is not being discarded,” Leggett wrote. “The workstations will be resold or donated to local organizations. Most of the HVAC equipment was rented and the lighting will be reused by the University.” She added that information about the total cost of the tent is “not available.” Shreya Patel, a freshman who used the tent, agrees that the tent was unnecessary, citing a lack of use. “When BD was closed, I used to go there to eat my dinner

sometimes, but I never saw a single other person in the tent. Ever,” Patel said. However, Patel was still able to utilize the tent for unconventional purposes. “I did go and scream in the tent a few times. I'm stressed and go in there and just let loose a little bit,” Patel said. Freshman Justin Zhang also failed to see the tent’s utility. “It's less desirable than just being in your dorm room. First of all, it's not a lot of private space, and you're not able to socialize with anyone, so there's not really any specific point to going there,” Zhang said. He also voiced concerns that the

tent was kept in operation until now. “It still has lights on, still has air conditioning, or whatever is going on in there, so there's a lot of costs associated with just keeping it running that probably were not worth it in the long run,” Zhang said. Zhang believes the money spent on the tent could have been used for purposes that better serve students. “They probably should have consulted students before dumping money into this project, because I think the University… needs to focus its funds, its money, into areas that are definitely going to benefit students, for example the Mental Health Fund,” Zhang said. Patel reinforced Zhang’s concern

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about funding, adding that students need extra resources amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. “I think they could have put that money into better things that would have been more useful as students dealt with COVID,” Patel said. Freshman Noah Vermes also attributes the tent’s inutility to a lack of communication between administration and students. “I think that there's just a general disconnect between what the administration sees as the issues that students here face and between the actual issues that students face,” Vermes said. “It’s frankly disheartening to see all that money go towards something that wasn’t very used.”

2 STUDENT LIFE

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theFLIPSIDE FLIPSIDE THU 11

THUNDERSTORMS 64/44

FRI 12

PM RAIN 58/44

SAT 13 RAIN 55/46

TUES 16

MON 15

PARTLY CLOUDY 54/35

SHOWERS 54/35

SUN 14 RAIN 54/43

WED 17

AM SHOWERS 55/38

EVENT CALENDAR THURSDAY 11 A Conversation with David Mandell Virtual Event, 5 p.m. Join the Alumni Association for a conversation with David Mandell, AB ’96, co-founder and former president and CEO of The Bardstown Bourbon Company. During this discussion, David will discuss the world of bourbon, his experiences and the skills he developed during his innovative career path, and how he built the culture and company that has become one of the largest and most sophisticated whiskey distilleries in the United States. Peter Boumgarden, Koch Family Professor of Practice for the Koch Center for Family Business, will moderate this conversation. Interpersonal Relations Across Political Divides: People of Faith Building Bridges from Polarization to Reconciliation Virtual Event, 6 p.m. People of faith in the U.S. today are as politically polarized as other Americans, prompting painful breakdowns in personal relationships and communities. What would it take to accept responsibility for actively healing these political and religious divisions, activating solutions rather than continuing assaults? Join Senator John C. Danforth and Father Matt Malone, two priests from different Christian churches and political parties, for a conversation about bridge building, accountability, and reconciliation.

FRIDAY 12 Medicaid Expansion Research Workshop Virtual Event, 9 a.m. In July of 2021, Missouri will become the 39th state to expand eligibility for its Medicaid program. This workshop, presented by the Center for Health Economics & Policy, is designed to inform researchers on the potential impacts of Medicaid expansion in Missouri, how to incorporate Medicaid expansion into research and how to increase chances of obtaining grant funding. Participants will hear from state and national experts and learn of opportunities for collaboration on research regarding the implementation and impact of the upcoming Medicaid expansion in Missouri. Friends of Music Concerto & Aria Competition Virtual Event, 12 p.m. The Friends of Music Concerto & Aria Competition is open to students of Washington University in St. Louis. As the competition will be virtual this season due to COVID-19 health and wellness protocols, the students will submit unedited videos of their performances to be judged by professional musicians in St. Louis. The winner will perform with the Washington University Symphony Orchestra in the 21-22 season and will receive a Friends of Music $500 merit award. Attend this Facebook premiere comprised of a compilation of the submissions and an announcement of the winner.

SATURDAY 13 Black Anthology 2021: essential(s) Virtual Event, 7 p.m. Watch the 2021 edition of Black Anthology, a cultural show founded in 1989, that showcases the experiences of the Black community on campus and in St. Louis. A post-show discussion will follow at 1 p.m. March 14 via Zoom.

THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 2021

WU launches strategic planning process to define the University’s growth over the next decade our capacity to live them out.” Through the lens of these principles, the plan aims to address several topics, including campus wellness, public health, research and general St. Louis initiatives. Other topics involve sustainability, personal growth and graduate, professional and undergraduate education. “These areas represent not only our highest priorities, but also the places where we feel there is the most potential for us to grow and become even more distinctive as an institution of research and higher learning,” Wendland said. “This is not an exclusive list—we will, of course, also consider other issues of importance to our community throughout the planning process.” The committee’s structure is based on the 1979 Commission on the Future of Washington University, which met over the course

of 28 months and recommended 194 different actions to improve the University. An online form will also be used to solicit feedback from the Washington University community. Planning committees will also host events allowing individuals to personally meet with committee members. From now until September, the steering committee and coordinating committee will meet regularly while working groups will assemble initial drafts for the plan. The working groups will submit their reports to the coordinating committee, who will then work to compile the reports into a comprehensive draft plan by the end of 2021. The steering committee plans to finalize a draft between March and May 2022. The Board of Trustees will then begin the process of implementation.

The entire joint session ended up taking around seven hours, something that Budget Committee Chair junior Fadel Alkilani felt could have been significantly reduced, arguing that going over every single line item was redundant since the same process had already occurred in the smaller section groups. “Almost all of the first half of the session was motion[s] to recommend for the amount that was already balanced and then motion[s] to vote,” Alkilani said. “If you compare the final budget to the budget that was presented, it had very few very marginal changes…If the members of the legislative bodies had actually done what they were supposed to do ahead of the session, then a lot of the discussion

that occurred today would not have needed to have happened.” However, when Alkilani brought up these concerns in the joint session and proposed an earlier vote on the entire budget, the proposal was met with significant opposition. “For the general budget, I spent a lot of time in my section group. I spent a lot of time reading the slides, spent a lot of time looking at different budgets, spent a lot of time in SU finance,” SU Senator sophomore Emmet Klein said. “And I still have questions that I'd like to bring up in different sections. I think there are a lot of firstyear senators who have questions. I think it's just ill-advised to go through the budget really quickly.” Jochims acknowledged that parts of the joint

session could seem redundant, but emphasized that under the old budgetary process, this same meeting had taken up to 27 hours and that the budgetary process can always be further improved. “I think the level of preparation going into the session has improved dramatically,” Jochims said. “I think we tried to fix some of the issues associated with…how you make sure that the people that were experts on their section teams get a good idea of the whole overview of the budget and are well prepared to all sections before heading into the joint session, but it's hard to do that in a virtual format. And so I think, given the cards we were dealt, I think we were able to continue to improve this process a lot.”

have to do the contact tracing for Wash. U. students. What that means is we just do it: We’re faster, and it's working quite efficiently.” While Habif executive director Dr. Cheri LeBlanc expressed confidence in the University’s ability to handle new cases, citing the new staff at Habif dedicated to isolation and quarantine management, she also said she was concerned about the increasing number of clusters and the upward trend

of COVID-19 cases. “This is happening across the nation at universities,” she wrote. “Everyone is tired of COVID restrictions and may be letting down their guard, as it seems that we may be near the end of the pandemic with vaccine rollout, etc. However, we really need to double down on our efforts to be compliant with the public health guidelines through the rest of this semester.” Still, the number of COVID-19 cases has yet

to rise to the levels that it reached at the end of the fall semester, which Wild considers to be a promising sign. “In the three weeks leading up to Thanksgiving we had between 200 and 250 students in quarantine and isolation housing, both on and off campus,” Wild said. “[this spring] we’ve just barely gone over 100… so while I would like to see that number being a lot lower, we’re not to where we were in November.”

NEWS EDITORS Washington University announced an 18-month strategic plan to formulate future objectives, March 10. The planning process will be directed by a 16 member steering committee made up of faculty members. This steering committee will oversee a coordinating committee, which will oversee the progress of nine working groups each working to create a report on a given topic over the course of 2021. The plan will focus on five main principles: inclusion, diversity, equity and access, global perspective, stewardship, community impact and academic distinction. “These guiding principles are at the heart of our process and will be at the core of our plan,” Provost Beverly Wendland told The Source. “The work we do will reflect these principles, and our plan will advance

SU from page 1

COVID-19 from page 1 On March 10, the University posted a third cluster on the dashboard that occurred from Feb. 12-19, involving multiple unmasked gatherings with many of the same students socializing in groups of four to ten. This resulted in 30 positive cases and 48 additional students instructed to quarantine. While those are the only three clusters reported so far, Wild confirmed that he had received reports about an alleged in-person fraternity rush meeting and party. Wild also said that “several [sports] teams have had activity suspended while we’re investigating some COVID cases involving numbers of those programs.” In addition to the alleged fraternity and sports outbreaks, a “spring break party” was hosted by Krueger’s Bar on March 2. The event was reported to have been attended by a number of University students, but those numbers have yet to be updated on the dashboard. Although the rise in COVID-19 cases mirrors the rise in violations of University COVID-19 guidelines, Wild emphasized that the contact tracing process and conduct process remain completely separate. “We don't want the conduct process to interfere

with the work of the health professionals,” Wild said. Mauricio added that the Student Conduct Office will adjudicate cases reported directly or indirectly through the COVID-19 Concerns Portal, Residential Life, WUPD or from other individuals that learn of an incident that potentially violates University policies. However, information shared with the Habif Health and Wellness Center regarding COVID symptoms or contact tracing will not be shared with the Student Conduct Office. “Medical records and contract tracing information remain confidential with the Habif Health and Wellness Center and therefore will not be used for any Conduct proceedings or reporting,” Mauricio wrote. When students are referred to the Office of Student Conduct for allegedly violating COVID-19 guidelines, Mauricio wrote that students receive a Notice of Complaint to request a meeting regarding the allegations. Once a meeting occurs and a determination is made, students receive an outcome letter that shares the decision. While students can receive a COVID-19

warning for initial or lowlevel violations, Mauricio wrote that “if the first violation is a higher-level violation or is a recurring behavior that violates policy, the student would not be issued a COVID-19 warning, but would have a case that needs to be adjudicated and, if found responsible for a Student Conduct violation, issued sanctions that are appropriate for the level of the violation.” Mauricio also noted that individuals who host events that violate COVID-19 guidelines are subject to much stricter penalties than those who attend. “Each conduct case depends on the circumstance of the event and the behaviors in which students are deciding to participate,” she wrote. In order to be more proactive about COVID-19 monitoring, the University has also hired new contact tracers specifically for the Wash. U. student body. “We've hired quite a few more staff, both in nursing and in contact tracing operation, to basically create a mini public health department,” Wild said. “And we've worked it out with the county contact tracing system that we're doing all our own contact tracing; St. Louis County and St. Louis City don't

CURRAN NEENAN | STUDENT LIFE

A tent sat outside Eads Hall in October. Despite warming weather, there have been more COVID cases on campus in recent weeks, in part due to three large clusters of students.

THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 2021

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STUDENT LIFE 3

Professor Mungai Mutonya honored as one of the top 100 Kenyans “They grew up with this hunger for education... and instilled it in us....We studied and we enjoyed it...We tried to get what [my parents] couldn’t get.” Mutonya began applying to Ph.D. programs “left, right and center”––from Australia to Europe to the U.S., where he eventually landed at Michigan State University. Upon his arrival, Mutonya was greeted by Michigan’s worst snowstorm in 40 years. The extreme culture shock of unfamiliar foods and customs was exacerbated by a slight language barrier, though Mutonya credited his past boarding school experiences for allowing him to successfully acclimate. After earning his Ph.D., Mutonya accepted an offer from Washington University to teach Swahili and captain the Kenyan Summer Program, though he anticipated spending no more than two years in St. Louis. Twenty years later, Mutonya has stuck around: “I just fell in love.” Mutonya, whose students call him “Mwalimu,” or teacher in Swahili, offers a range of courses in the African American Studies department, from 400-level Swahili literature to explorations of African linguistics, though Beginning Swahili I is very special to him. “Students will come to my class not knowing a word of the language, and in a year or two...some of them will go to win national scholarships.” Regardless of his shifting course offerings, Mutonya is always pursuing his sociolinguistic research. Africa is an incredibly rich locale for language studies, Mutonya prefaced, explaining “there are over 2,000 languages” spoken across the continent, and “for a country like Kenya...the size of Texas...we have 60 languages,” he said. Mutonya is currently focused on the emerging language of Sheng in Nairobi, which was developed and popularized by the city’s youth. “It’s a hybrid language which borrows from all the 60 languages of Kenya” that began as a playful way for children to temper parental supervision, and is “now a language of the city” used by politicians, advertisers and rap artists. It “very well soon might be the language of the nation.” Mutonya’s research is focused

on how marginalized groups can use words to establish an identity and empower themselves––he has engaged in extensive fieldwork in Nairobi, immersing himself in the city’s impoverished communities, to investigate the powerful sway of language. Spending most of his summers in Kenya, Mutonya tries to gather as much data as he can. When researching Sheng, his process begins by “embedding with members of local organizations...aimed at convincing the homeless to abandon streetlife,” followed by long stretches spent on the streets and in rehabs, “listening to their lingo and asking questions” and “establishing networks of potential respondents.” Regardless of his research project, Mutonya places emphasis on developing a rapport with his correspondents “that allows them to speak naturally.” For 20 years, his network of connections in Kenya has provided students with a fully immersive four-week study abroad experience, who talk with Kenyan professors, politicians and young people and engage in community-building initiatives, like constructing libraries. When he’s not working with students, Mutonya is probably writing. He began putting together Swahili plays while teaching high school in Kenya, and the passion has remained within him. “I find myself waking up in the morning just to write,” he said. He has since transitioned to writing children’s books in Swahili, spreading the language to his nephews, nieces and other immigrant children that are growing up in St. Louis. In 2019, Mutonya was recognized for one of his short stories and received an invitation to attend Goethe Institute’s International Swahili workshop in Tanzania. Mutonya’s lineup of well-deserved honors was recently extended in May 2020, with a fellowship awarded by the Carnegie African Diaspora Program & International Institute of Education. Broadly, Mutonya envisions a “sustainable and universally beneficial” partnership between Wash. U. and the University of Nairobi. This project is something he had always dreamed of, “building that bridge between my alma mater

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IZZY BRUCKMAN CONTRIBUTING WRITER When Mungai Mutonya woke up on Dec. 10, 2020, he thought he was the target of a practical joke. “Everybody was saying ‘Congratulations, congratulations’...I thought it was a wellchoreographed prank...In my family we have some pranksters.” Mutonya, a professor in African and African American studies, was recognized as one of the Top 100 Kenyans in 2020 by Kenyans.co.ke, a top news publication, for his sociolinguistic research and transcontinental community-building. Hours of sustained praise eventually cemented the legitimacy of this honor, though Mutonya remained shocked––he had simply been fulfilling the legacy of his parents. Mutonya gushed over his birthplace in Thika, Kenya, a rural area near Mount Kenya that thrives on coffee and tea production. As one of 13 children, Mutonya spent his childhood picking coffee and tea and attending primary school. At the age of 12, he tested into a boarding school 200 miles away from Thika, where only three other students spoke his mother tongue of Gikuyu. “It was a different culture, a different ethnic group. I had to quickly learn Swahili and English to be able to get along...I became intrigued by language because I couldn’t understand how everyone in Kenya didn’t speak my language!” Relocating once more for secondary school solidified Mutonaya’s affinity for linguistics, and he subsequently picked up majors in Swahili, political science and African literature at the University of Nairobi. “In Kenya, you have to speak a minimum of three languages to get around,” Mutonya professed. He can now confidently switch between Swahili, Gikuyu, Bukusu, Sheng and English. Despite completing his master’s to teach at his alma mater, Mutonya sought another degree. “In my dreams, I wanted to be a university professor, to earn a Ph.D.” In his childhood, Mutonya’s parents placed a heavy emphasis on education: His father was unable to pursue a higher education under British colonial rule, and strict gender laws prohibited his mother from attending school.

COURTESY OF MUNGAI MUTONYA

Professor Mungai Mutonya in the African and African American studies department was named one of the top 100 Kenyans in 2020 by Kenyans.co.ke for his work in sociolinguistic research.

and Wash. U.” to function as an augmented version of the Kenya studyabroad program, “with the potential for research partnerships and collaboration between students.” The University of Nairobi, Wash. U. and Carnegie African Diaspora wwware “three names that can open so many doors,” and Mutonya hopes to begin fostering that collaboration in Kenya this summer. Mutonya modestly provided further context for his achievement as a top 100 Kenyan. He is devout to Thika and the Kenyan community in St. Louis, and recently rendered

services to many organizations during the early COVID-19 lockdown, including “Swahili translations for Missouri Public Health Department... COVID-19 and Census 2020 information videos in Swahili, plus a Swahili mental health awareness website.” Yet, he doesn’t consider his work to be service. From his youth, Mutonya’s parents instilled principles of generosity and reciprocity “My mom used to say ‘good deeds should be done with intention but not for attention.’” He has been working to establish a resource and career center in his

rural community, to help mitigate the pervasiveness of alcoholism, early pregnancy and unemployment; currently, the closest library is 40 miles away. Mutonya didn’t think that anyone around him noticed his service, or at least regarded it as unique. “It took me a long time,” he said, to process the honor, having been listed alongside famous politicians, authors, and athletes. Mutonya expressed reluctance over discussing the award in great depth. “My mom would not have allowed me,” he laughed. “She would say...do good things, then move on!”

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THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 2021

‘I am here for my relationship with God’: Why Dorian Renne has spent his freshman year converting to Judaism JULIA ROBBINS STAFF EDITOR I first met Dorian Renne over Zoom last semester in a Jewish extracurricular class called the Jewish Learning Fellowship. In one of the first of our 10 classes together, he mentioned to the group that he was in the process of converting to Judaism. I’d never met someone my age who was converting to any religion, so Renne’s story interested me right off the bat. I ended up in a breakout room with him during one of the classes and asked him some questions. One of the most interesting parts of his story to me was that he’s converting to Orthodox Judaism, the most conservative of all the branches in Judaism, and he also mentioned that he’s part of the LGBTQIA* community. Renne hopes that his conversion to Judaism will be over before college ends so that he can go on the Birthright trip to Israel as a college student. And his gender transition, he said, will be an ongoing process throughout life. “I know that it’s not the easiest thing that I could have done,” Renne said through the plexiglass on our table in the Bear’s Den, yarmulke on his head, as it is always when he’s outside. He recognized that the reform or even conservative branches of Judaism “would have been much easier” to join as a trans and gay man. “But I was like, I want to do what feels right for me and what I feel called to do,” he said. “So I just took the jump and I was like, you know what? Screw it.” “If people don’t want to deal with me, that’s their problem, I am here for my relationship with God, my relationship with the culture. I can handle that all by myself.” In an age when it feels like many young people are turning away from religion, sometimes for the very reason that many religious people espouse antiLGBTQIA* rhetoric, I found it quite novel to talk with someone who sees religion not only as non-inhibitive to his identity, but in fact helpful for his transition process. “It’s weird, because a lot of people have looked at those two processes and think that they can’t coincide with each other. But then I’m like, how can you not get how they go together? Because you’re very much changing your lifestyle [and] kind of like assuming this new identity and like leaving your past behind you to do what you feel called to be doing and who you feel called to be.” The interconnectedness of these two journeys has

been intertwined since the beginning of each. Renne was 13 at the time, attending a friend’s Bat Mitzvah––one of the only Jewish people he knew in the small town where he grew up in Indiana. He doesn’t remember much about the service, as he wasn’t particularly interested in Judaism at the time. “But just something about being there and in the community made me feel very connected to myself,” he said. Puberty was hitting and that Bat Mitzvah was one of the only moments where Renne felt obligated to dress in traditionally feminine clothes. “I first realized that I was trans in that synagogue, like at that Bat Mitzvah, which is a weird place to have that realization.” Part of that realization stemmed from feeling uncomfortable dressing up in a feminine way, and part of it came from a newfound connectedness he discovered with his soul. “I felt this weird kind of oneness that I hadn’t felt before,” he said. “Usually I was like, ‘Okay, I am a girl and I’m Christian so I do this, this, this and this,’ but it was the first time that I was like, ‘Oh, I have my own soul with its own things that it needs spiritually and in terms of my identity.’” It took years for the feelings that he first had in that synagogue to manifest into tangible changes in his life. “It scared me,” Renne said, speaking to his feelings in the Temple. “Having the concept of switching religions and the concept of switching gender were both very scary to a 13-year-old living in a Christian household, so I was kind of like, we will think about this later. And that happened for three years.” For most of those three years, Renne kept attending a Methodist Church with his family. He had been raised in the church and believed in certain parts of the faith. He connected with “the idea of God” and to the Old Testament. However, he had never been able to get behind “the Jesus part of the theology” and the idea that God exists as the Holy Trinity. Renne can’t exactly place his finger on why the idea of Jesus doesn’t align with his belief system, but his mind just never spiritually connected with that fundamental part of Christianity. So, at the age of 16 with these thoughts percolating in his mind, Renne stopped attending church services, instead opting to help out with the beverage station at his congregation. But, over the next year, he began to miss the prayer and worship that had become

CURRAN NEENAN | STUDENT LIFE

Dorian Renne is converting to Judaism. “I knew that you could convert to Judaism, but it never clicked that it was something that I could do,” Renne said. “In my mind it was something that other people did and not me, because I was a good Christian and I would never.”

staples in his life after growing up practicing Christianity. “I knew that you could convert to Judaism, but it never clicked that it was something that I could do,” he said. “In my mind it was something that other people did and not me, because I was a good Christian and I would never.” And then quarantine hit. Some people learned to make sourdough starter or play an instrument during lockdown; Renne embarked on a spiritual deep dive into Judaism. For about a month throughout quarantine, Renne said that most of the books he read or video games he played featured at least one Jewish character. It wasn’t that the Jewish character was always pivotal to the plot, but it was the very prevalence of these characters, at a time when he was already struggling with his faith, that drew Renne’s attention. “If you don’t believe in signs, that sounds like some garbage, but for me I was like––this is a weird thing to happen over and over. So I started doing more research about Judaism, cause I was like, ‘Okay if something is being said to me I want to be open to it.’ And Judaism, for me, filled all the gaps that Christianity left for me.” Renne’s belief system agreed with the singular representation of God in Judaism as opposed to the triune Godhead of Christainity. “I thought I was like a weird Christian,” Renne said, “but I was like, no I think my belief system that God gave to me is just a Jewish-like belief system.” And it wasn’t just the theological aspects of Judaism that resonated with Renne but the cultural ones as well. He appreciates how

Orthodox Judaism emphasises honoring its ancestors and patriarchs throughout history. “I love that it’s more of like a family and a culture and peoplehood than Christianity, which is like ‘You believe this one thing, everything else is just like a hot mess.’” After spending a significant amount of his summer quarantine researching Judaism, he decided to jump into the conversion process at the beginning of college. He saw the fresh start that college could provide for him: a new space with new connections. He connected with the Rabbis at Hillel and Chabad, two Jewish organizations on campus, in addition to finding a Rabbi nearby to guide his conversion process. Renne ended up connecting with Rabbi Garth Silberstein at the Bais Abraham Congregation. Bais Abe, as it’s more often called, was the only Orthodox synagogue that Renne found within walking distance to campus, which was a necessary attribute as he can’t ride in vehicles on Shabbat, in accordance with Jewish law. While the rabbis that Renne has been working with are Orthodox, which is the most traditional of the main Jewish denominations, they have all been welcoming of not only his conversion, but also his ongoing gender transition. He recalled one instance of the Chabad rabbi’s support. Renne had fallen down the stairs at Chabad and thought he might have broken his elbow. “People were referring to me as ‘she’ because they thought I was a woman, and the rabbi was correcting them,” he said. “Like this older, married, Orthodox rabbi was correcting the

pronouns that these young EMTs were using for me. That was a very fun moment.” Renne’s elbow was thankfully not broken, and his fall did nothing to slow down the conversion process that has become such a pivotal part of his life. After Renne emailed Silberstein over the summer explaining that he wanted to convert, Silberstein enrolled Renne in a Judaism 101 class through the synagogue. This class is part of the multi-year long period of Jewish learning for Renne before he’ll go through the formal steps that need to be taken to convert. While Renne won’t technically be Jewish until he is vetted and approved by a beit din, a group of three Jewish men, and immersed in a mikvah, a Jewish ritual bath, he is already carrying out many of the daily practices of an Orthodox Jew. He’s eating a Kosher diet, attending Shabbat services and implementing prayer into his life. Renne has enjoyed this period of time where he’s been able to adapt his lifestyle to fit with Orthodox practices. “You can’t take a week and all of a sudden be 100% Kosher and doing all the prayers.” He described this time as a grace period where he’s “not constantly racing against the clock” to suddenly enmesh all the commandments into his daily life. And while Renne will soon be considered fully Jewish, religiously and ethnically, he is conscious of not appropriating a culture with which he can’t yet identify directly. “I always correct them when they call me Jewish because I want to emphasize that I’m not this minority cause it makes me uncomfortable,” he said.

He added that once he’s done with the conversion process, he will feel comfortable with people calling him Jewish. “But when I’m not yet, it feels like appropriation.” Renne’s friends have been supportive of his conversion process in addition to his transition. He noted that first telling people about his gender transition was a stressful undertaking, even though his friends were supportive. “You really have to muster this like amazing courage for like 10 seconds to say it, and then just deal with the fallout of it.” Renne said talking about the gender transition first to his friends made it easier for him to discuss converting to Judaism because he recognized that life continues even after these announcements have been made. “It won’t kill you and the world won’t explode, and things move on. Because it seems like the end of the world when you’re saying it, at first. And then it’s like a week later, and you’re just hanging out in your room watching Netflix and you’re like, ‘Oh, life is still happening. Life is still continuing, and it’s normal.’” And more than life just staying normal, life got better for Renne in certain ways. Now, thinking back to those books and video games in quarantine, he still isn’t sure whether they were a sign from God, but he does appreciate their presence nonetheless. “I probably won’t get confirmation if it ever was [a sign] or not,” Renne said. “But the fact that this funny little coincidence led to the best thing that’s happened in my life––I think there might have been like a little something more going on.”

THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 2021

SPORTS

DORIAN DEBOSE & JOSH SHAPIRO | SENIOR SPORTS EDITORS | SPORTS@STUDLIFE.COM

STUDENT LIFE 5

How WU baseball prepped one Bear to work for Cori Bush CLARA RICHARDS STAFF REPORTER As I talked to Jack Besser, I learned something new: the importance of raking baseball’s pitcher’s mounds. There’s an art to it, he told me, one he perfected over four years on the Washington University baseball team. There’s a huge variety of mounds across the Division III teams that he played, but he diligently maintained his own pitcher’s mound so that it holds up for nine innings. That attention to detail and dedication to the team is a trait that has helped Besser in many places, from his contributions to the team as a freshman to his work with U.S. Representative Cori Bush. In many ways, Besser’s story at the University is one of adapting—of pivoting. As a high school senior, Besser attended a Wash. U. fall prospect camp. There, head coach Pat Bloom told him that he wasn’t at a level that the coaching staff thought was recruitable, but he gave him tips and feedback. As a freshman, Besser showed up to fall tryouts. “He had really gotten into better shape,” Bloom said. “You could tell he worked very hard.” After a semester-long tryout period, Besser became an official member of the team. As a left-handed pitcher, he worked to refine his game and taught himself new

pitches, also working on his pickoff move. Without an incredibly high throwing velocity, he rounded himself out as a pitcher to be a valuable asset for the team. Besser found ways to be impactful without a lot of playing time, working on charts and scouting with Bloom. While he got to pitch the first game of the season, he didn’t get any other opportunities. But that did not get him down. “A lot of guys, they want to play college baseball, but they want to actually be out there on the field playing. And when that doesn’t happen your freshman year, you can always see how people deal with that,” said Thomas Gardner, Besser’s teammate of four years. “Instead of moping or pouting, Jack leaned into the things that he could contribute to the team.” From there, his trajectory was only upward. “He was a real contributor on the field—it was great to see someone went from being a walk-on and charting to being a real contributor on the mound,” said Kenny Dorian, the team’s student manager during much of Besser’s career. The ultimate pivot, of course, occurred when COVID-19 canceled Besser’s senior season. Just weeks earlier, the Bears were the top-ranked team in Division III, a particularly significant accomplishment since the seniors were Bloom’s first

recruiting class. News of the cancelation reached the team while the Bears were competing in Florida. The coaching staff gathered all 30 players on the team into one cramped hotel room. Shoulder-to-shoulder, the team got the news. “I’ll never forget sharing the news with them in our condo,” Bloom said. “Man, that was tough. It’s something that you never forget.” The virus didn’t just derail Besser’s final season, though. It also destroyed his job prospects, as the pandemic led to the prompt cancelation of his upcoming internship with USA Baseball. Fortunately though, he approached his post-graduation career search with a similar mentality to his baseball career: going all in. Sitting in his parents’ house trying to find a job, he saw a video of Missouri primary candidate Cori Bush and was immediately inspired by her devotion to her community. He drove out to Missouri, volunteered on the campaign and was hired as a staffer. In many ways, Besser said, election night was like a baseball game. The campaign staff sat in a parking lot behind their office on that warm August night, refreshing Twitter and the New York Times ballot returns. Pundits had predicted a close race and many expected Bush’s opponent, Lacy Clay, to prevail. It was a come-from-behind narrative not dissimilar from

Besser’s own entrance to Wash. U. baseball. “Politics and sports, it has a lot of overlap,” he said, “and that’s the kind of hustle that [I have] become obsessed with. It’s very addicting.” Besser was soon hired as Bush’s legislative correspondent and press assistant. After the election, he relocated to Washington, D.C. His rapid ascension did not shock those who know him. Associate Director of Athletics for External Operations Chelsea Petersen, Besser’s supervisor in his position as an athletics marketing assistant, was unsurprised at his position in politics. “It wasn’t a question of whether someone like Jack would find an opportunity—this was a given,” she wrote in an email to Student Life. “It was being in the right place at the right time and alignment.” Gardner also saw a continuity between Besser’s baseball career and his entrance into politics. “It was a similar kind of thing—Jack fit well with the campaign’s mentality because nothing was given, nothing was taking for granted, and everything was earned,” he said. Petersen had high praise for Besser’s legacy at the University. “A feature can never adequately capture the commitment Jack made to Wash. U. athletics, the university, and to our operations,” she wrote. Maybe

COURTESY OF THOMAS GARDNER

Jack Besser (right) and teammate Thomas Gardner jog together across Kelly Field. Gardner admired Thomas’s willpower. “Instead of moping or pouting, Jack leaned into the things that he could contribute to the team,” he said.

that is true. A 1000-word article can never really capture commitment, dedication, or the relationships made. But the words of those closest to him in the athletic department can come close. What stuck out to Gardner were memories of Besser from the team bus. The pair would lead karaoke, and Gardner recalled Besser’s “admirable” performance of Beyonce’s “Halo” freshman year. “His songs are fresh,” Gardner laughed. “Jack and I were like the MCs—we were the ones putting in little jokes and stuff in between. And so you could just always see, he has the ability to entertain in a meaningful way and to connect with people as a result.” Bloom, too, had fond recollections of Besser’s days on the team. “He sat

on a bucket next to me for every game—he would help chart the pitches and he would talk through, you know, strategy, right?” he said. “I feel like my relationship with Jack in terms of baseball is always going to be tight. Because he loves the game, and he loves it in a way that a coach loves it.” And what did Besser have to say for himself? While I talked to him, he kept glancing to the bottom of his zoom screen. Finally, he laughed a little and told me, “Sorry, I’m just looking at my glove.” Even in an apartment in Washington, D.C.—so far removed from Wash. U.’s Kelly Field—his baseball glove stays in eyesight. “Maybe a local men’s league will need a ninth or something,” he said. “I’ll be ready.”

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6 STUDENT LIFE

THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 2021

DORIAN DEBOSE & JOSH SHAPIRO | SENIOR SPORTS EDITORS | SPORTS@STUDLIFE.COM

DORIAN DEBOSE SENIOR SPORTS EDITOR

As tennis season heats up, what’s it like competing again? Across her first two seasons on the Washington University women’s tennis team, junior Hannah Johnston posted a 6-1 record in singles. Now, after winning her first match of the year in the Bears’ victory over Northern Iowa Feb. 27, she’s looking to add to that record. I talked to Hannah about life since the pandemic started, her family’s tennis proclivity and her hopes for the rest of the season. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. STUDENT LIFE: How’s your semester been? HANNAH JOHNSTON: It’s been good. I feel like I’ve gotten a little bit too used to COVID school, so we’ll see what it’s like next year. But yeah, classes are good, tennis is good. What about you, how’s your semester been going so far? SL: I’ve not at all gotten used to COVID school and obviously for me, tennis is not going well either. But I can’t really complain. When did you start playing tennis? HJ: I started playing tennis competitively when I was 11. SL: That sounds pretty early. Were you involved in other things in high school or was it mostly tennis and school? HJ: I guess, it was largely just tennis and school. In high school, my junior and senior year I also did cross country. But yeah, most of my life was

just: get to school, play tennis, do homework, repeat. SL: What drew you to Wash. U.? HJ: I mean it was the combination of the academics and athletics. I was excited about the classes. I was excited to be in an academic environment where I felt like I would be pushing myself and surrounded by other people that also wanted to push themselves. And the opportunity to play tennis on such a good D3 team was really exciting for me. SL: Since the start of the pandemic, have you been home that often or have you been mostly still in St. Louis? HJ: I went home over the summer, and then at the start of the semester, I came back a couple weeks early so I could quarantine and just get used to being in St. Louis again. And then I went home for winter break as well. It’s been pretty evenly split between home and here. SL: Are you an avid music listener? HJ: Yeah, I would probably describe myself that way. SL: What album was the most important to you in 2020? HJ: Let’s see. So much happened in 2020. Oh, I feel like I went back to AJR’s “Neotheater,” which I listened to in 2019. During COVID, weirdly enough, I listened

to less music than I’ve ever listened to. But AJR’s “Neotheater,” probably. SL: Would you recommend that album? HJ: I would recommend that album! SL: I’ll give it a spin then, I’ve never heard it. I also think it’s fair about people not listening to music at the start of the quarantine. I used to listen to music on the way to things. Like I’d be walking to class, or going places. HJ: Exactly. Suddenly I had nowhere to go, so it’s hard to listen to music at all. SL: You’re from the Houston area, correct? HJ: Correct. SL: I know they’ve gotten some pretty bad weather down there recently. Is your family doing alright? HJ: Yeah. They lost power for a while. Several days I think. Luckily enough, their pipes didn’t burst. They had enough food. Everybody ended up okay. SL: Great to hear. By any chance do you have a little sister? HJ: I do. I have a younger sister who’s a freshman on the team. SL: What’s it been like having her around the team?

GRAPHIC BY CHRISTINE WATRIDGE

HJ: It’s been great. I think in juniors, everything is super individual and it’s very competitive and everything is stressful. Being on the team with her now is just so nice. Getting to enjoy the sport that we love together has been really wonderful. SL: Were y’all competitive growing up? HJ: We were always in different age divisions, so to a certain extent we couldn’t be competitive because we were never going to play each other in tournaments, but we always practiced together and that was very competitive. SL: I reckon that steel sharpens steel in that situation. Always being able to practice against somebody else who’s also pretty good at tennis. HJ: Yeah, it’s nice to always have someone that you can hit with to warm you up

before a match. SL: At the tennis home opener this season, you and your sister both won your matches. How long had it been since you had a match at Wash. U. before that? HJ: Oh wow. I’m trying to think. Last season, we didn’t have any matches at home, because it was too cold, and in the fall, we don’t play at home. So would have been the spring of my freshman year. So almost two years, I think. SL: Wow. HJ: Yeah. It had been a while. SL: What was it like being able to compete at home? HJ: Oh, it’s so nice. There’s something about being at Wash. U., that just feels very motivating. It’s never more clear to me than when I’m playing at the Tao Tennis

Center that I’m representing Wash. U., which is really an exciting opportunity, and I enjoy the moments where I get to really feel like we are Wash. U. and we’re coming together and just representing the school well. I feel like playing at Wash. U. really facilitates that feeling. It’s so nice. SL: What do you hope the rest of the season looks like for you and the rest of the Wash. U. tennis team? HJ: I just hope we get to keep competing and keep representing Wash. U., keep giving it all on the court and seeing what we’re capable of .I think it’s been really unexpected that we got to do this so soon, and I think we’re all super grateful for the opportunity. So, yeah, just getting to continue to compete, whether that ends up being just in practice or in matches, getting to continue doing that is my hope for the season.

Softball bounces back JOSH SHAPIRO SENIOR SPORTS EDITOR The Washington University women’s softball team resumed competitive play Friday, falling in both games of its season opening double-header against Transylvania University. The next day, though, the Bears rebounded to defeat Buena Vista University 9-2. The contests were the team’s first since March 8 of last year. In the games against Transylvania, Washington University struggled to keep the Pioneers off the scoreboard. Despite putting up nine runs—including six in the second contest—the Bears allowed the Pioneers to manufacture 26 runs over the course of the two-game series. After getting blown out 15-3 in their first game back, the Bears lost by a more modest 11-6 score in the nightcap. The game against Buena Vista was an entirely different story. Bears pitchers juniors Holly Stoner and Madison Denton tossed a complete game while only allowing two runs. Denton delivered five quality innings, giving up only one earned run and striking out three Beavers hitters. On the offensive end, the Bears finally burst out the gates. After jumping out to a 4-0 lead against Buena Vista thanks to two two-run frames in the opening innings, Wash. U. sophomore Tami Wong cracked a triple to blow the game open and give the Bears a 6-0 edge. The Bears never relinquished the lead. Wash. U. hitters seemed to warm up over the course of the three-game opening set. By the end of the weekend, nearly every player had reached base at least once. The Bears offense was bolstered by senior captain Natasha Ramakrishnan—who recorded a hit in all three contests—and first baseman junior Nicole Hay,

COURTESY OF MELANIE SCHAEFER

Holly Stoner pitches during the Bears’ opening weekend.

who knocked in three runs while maintaining a .400 batting average. The Bears’ general approach at the plate encouraged Hay. “We were able to string hits together, so the majority of time we were getting runs, we were scoring two, three, or even four runs [in an inning],” she said. “It’s nice to give our pitchers a little more breathing room on the mound.” Head coach Michelle Venturella was also happy with the efforts from her squad. She was especially proud of the team’s resilient play on Saturday. “I was really pleased to see them kind of bounce back and score the first on day two and continue to put the pressure on after [Buena Vista] just came off of a big win,” Venturella said. “[Buena Vista] just had a seven-run inning in their seventh inning in a game just prior, and then 20 minutes later, they’re starting our game. I thought we did a great job of just playing our game that day.” The Bears had faced a number of hurdles before play resumed. It’s hard enough to jump right back into competition after almost a year off, but Wash. U. players also had to contend with the fact that their field hadn’t been in good enough shape to play on for months because of poor weather conditions. Nevertheless, the players were incredibly excited to finally get back to playing softball. “The first day, our first

few games 100% felt surreal,” Hay said. “All of us were just like, ‘This is crazy. How are we playing right now?’ But by the second day, we were all kind of like, ‘This is a real thing.’ And I think [by] game three, we were all focused and in it and felt like old times for sure.” Venturella was also proud of the steady leadership of the team’s captains, who have helped guide the Bears through the uncertain times. In addition to Ramakrishnan, senior Kendall Schwartz and junior Kirsten Drabek are team captains. “I cannot tell you how proud I am for the job they’ve done so far with this team as captains, and I know they have made a difference, I’m sure in some ways that I don’t even know,” Venturella said. Looking forward, Wash. U will compete in up to five games in the upcoming days. The Bears split two contests against Westminster College yesterday afternoon and plan for a three-game series at home this weekend against Wartburg College. Weather may again be a factor; with some rain expected, Venturella isn’t sure whether the Bears will be able to fit in the full weekend series. Nevertheless, Bears players and coaches are learning to embrace the uncertainty. “We know nothing’s guaranteed,” Venturella said. “When we do have the opportunity, we’re just really looking to take advantage of that and leave it on the field.”

THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 2021

FORUM KYA VAUGHN | SENIOR FORUM EDITOR | FORUM@STUDLIFE.COM

STUDENT LIFE 7

STAFF EDITORIAL

A public safety committee is one thing, but action is another

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ecently, Washington University’s public safety committee released a report detailing a number of actions the administration can take to better support the safety and needs of its students and the Wash. U. community. The committee—which was formed following the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many others at the hands of police—seeks to make changes regarding how the University conducts public safety while recognizing systemic inequalities. Wash. U. has long had a knack for ignoring students’ opinions, a reality that has rung especially true for the

many minority students who have continuously voiced their discomfort with Washington University’s police department and student services to no avail. For example, in a recent survey conducted by the committee, it was reported that only approximately 44% and 48% of Black and Hispanic/ Latino students, respectively, felt as though the presence of WUPD on and around campus made them feel safe, a very low number that should signal to the administration that action is needed on behalf of the University. In this regard, it’s encouraging that students have finally been given an outlet to have

their experiences and ideas heard. It’s also a positive notion that the administration seems openly steadfast towards acting on the committee’s work. Henry S. Webber, who serves as the executive Vice Chancellor for civic affairs and strategic planning, publicly applauded the committee’s work in The Source. Even more importantly, he noted that the university was “fully committed to implementing the recommendations outlined in the report.” Unfortunately, we’ve been too numbed by prior efforts to celebrate just yet. All too often, it feels like the

committees that are formed and submit proposals are at first acknowledged only to be met by dead silence in the end. Either they are forgotten, becoming a distant memory once the flames have died down, or they are met with minor attempts for real change. That lack of accountability is an insult not only to the committee, but also to the numerous different voices it represents. It’s simple enough to understand why the formed committees often fizzle out. In general, it’s far too easy for the university to escape accountability; most students will only be on campus for four years, a short period

of time that affords the administration the ability to renege on its promises. When one class graduates, it seems like the incoming group of individuals is forced to start all over again. But these are systemic issues that will only be solved with systematic solutions. No committee will solve the identified problems unless long term practices are put into place and the University once and for all acknowledges that it has to change. It’s time that the Wash. U. administration listens and acts on the list of recommendations that the public safety committee has made.The committee— which takes input from a

variety of students, faculty, and staff—has made three reasonable proposals.The group calls for shifting the school’s mental health response mechanism from WUPD officers to more specialized personnel, creating an improved feedback loop to hold the administration accountable, and bettering the university’s overall communication with regards to public safety. All three of these suggestions seem both beneficial to the Wash. U. community, and achievable, so it’s time to get to work and prove that the University really is committed fully to listening and responding to its student’s needs.

Party once, shame on you; party twice, still shame on you OLIVIA POOLOS STAFF WRITER

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crolling through social media, I’m seeing a relatively new phenomenon pop up: pictures of people at bars and big parties, masks off and arms encircling their similarly mask-less friends. Confused, I checked the comment sections underneath the photos: heart-eye emojis, ‘omg so cute…’ and no trace of the righteous indignation that surrounded these superspreader events just a few months back. Even more blatant are the Snapchat stories that advertise these gatherings, complete with links to an Eventbrite website with ticket sales. ‘Maybe,’ I think,

‘they’ve all been vaccinated.’ The CDC did just come out with new guidance that allows fully vaccinated adults to gather, mask-less, in small groups. But no—hardly a fraction of college-aged kids have received the vaccine this early and the online advertisements for the parties mention nothing about immunity being required. So here’s my question: When did it become okay to go out again? How did the Washington University student culture shift so dramatically from shaming to apathy, even encouragement towards those who choose to risk public health to party hard? I’m not just being petty here—I’m genuinely

puzzled. In an NPR article from the beginning of the year, administrators and students shifted blame back and forth. Is it simply in a college kid’s DNA that they have to go out and drink at bars and fraternity parties? Did administrators “tempt fate” by allowing everyone back on campus this semester? I believe the answer lies somewhere in between, in the gray area of cultural norms. I don’t think that college kids are programmed to party. I don’t think the administration made an irresponsible choice in bringing kids back on campus. I do think, however, that young adults are likely to test boundaries

and push past limits set by those in authority. They’re also finely tuned to the criticism and approval from their peers. Simply put, college kids are partying because other college kids have decided it’s okay, or are too afraid to push back when they see it happening. I get it—it’s not easy to criticize someone’s Friday night activity, and I think everyone is at least a little scared of the social repercussions of becoming known as a snitch. Yet countless people I’ve talked with confided that they were uncomfortable when friends went to bars, or were actively avoiding those who acted recklessly over the past weekend. Others referenced

grandparents that they wanted to keep safe, immunocompromised friends or were simply terrified for their own health. I, for one, am petrified at the idea of going back into isolation housing, a place I resided in for Thanksgiving last semester. Believe me, you could go from sipping a cocktail at a bar to drinking dozens of isolation-famous boxed waters real fast. Let’s bring back a little bit of the early-pandemic shame that was attached to attending or throwing massive parties or bar-hopping. We’re all sick and tired of having this halfcollege experience, but as a community, I believe in our ability to hold on just a little longer.

If you’re participating in college culture, I hope the knowledge that other students are scared and judgmental will slow you down a little. Even if people aren’t telling it to your face, a murmur of indignation has been running through campus. And if you’re a friend of someone who’s been off celebrating “tiki Thursday,” I’d advise setting aside your poker face and expressing that you’re upset. Tell them why you’re ignoring their invitations to lunch, or if you’re brave, approach them directly to confess that you’re uncomfortable. To roughly quote High School Musical, we’re all in this together, so please don’t mess it up.

Why do people insist on building their identity around bigotry? ISABELLA NEUBAUER SENIOR EDITOR

M

y high school history teacher was a staunch Republican. He to this day starts Facebook posts with ‘Biden voters, explain…” This meant that a lot of how he taught history had a distinctly Republican slant. But there was one thing I remember him saying that stuck with me. It was a paraphrase of a Supreme Court case from a century or more ago, and my teacher said the following: “Everyone has the right to swing their fist, but that right stops when it meets someone else’s face.” This doesn’t just apply to swinging a fist—it’s pretty applicable to everything, really. People can do and say what they want up to the point that it hurts someone else. If the man who once told me that feminism was pointless and shouldn’t exist can grasp this, it shocks me that nearly half of our

representatives in the federal government fail to do the same. One week ago, Dr. Rachel Levine faced what the New York Times generously called an “emotional debate” over transgender rights during her nomination hearing for the assistant secretary of health position. Dr. Levine, who was confirmed, is now the first openly transgender official confirmed by the Senate. This “debate,” in which senators including Rand Paul attacked Dr. Levine over so-called “genital mutilation,” was not the only instance in which transgender and other LGBTQIA* rights were discussed on Capitol Hill that day. The House passed, for the second time, the Equality Act, a bill extending the protections of the Civil Rights Act to explicitly include LGBTQIA* individuals. The bill did not pass the Senate in 2019, and it is not expected to this time. I am not transgender. But I am queer, and I am tired.

I was tired in 2016, when North Carolina introduced their ‘bathroom bill,’ preventing trans people from using any bathroom other than the one corresponding to the sex they were assigned at birth. It was repealed a year later, but knowing that the bill passed revealed a deep-seated discomfort with trans people that is still, somehow, an acceptable platform to have. I was tired in 2018, when the Supreme Court sided with the bakers who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex wedding. I remember that day; I, too, worked at a bakery, and the minute the decision came out, my local Pride Alliance called me and asked for the biggest, most rainbow cake possible in protest. To me, 18 years old and mostly ignorant of the news, the decision was a shock. Why would religious freedom mean a license to discriminate? Why did the simple existence of people different from the bakers make them uncomfortable

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enough to take the case to the Supreme Court? It hasn’t even been three years, and I’ve only grown more tired. Currently, lawmakers are using the thin veil of the defense of women’s sports to attack the rights of transgender people. Last week, Marjorie Taylor Greene hung a sign outside her office proclaiming “There are only two genders.” A mere three of the House’s 209 Republicans voted for the Equality Act. Let me make this clear—I don’t want to split this down party lines. I’m sure there are Republicans who aren’t blatantly transphobic/queerphobic, and I’m sure there are Democrats who are. The issue here is the sheer number of people who don’t see this as a problem, who are so hurt by other people’s identity that they attack them over it. When I say “attack,” I don’t only mean physically. Make no mistake, what Dr. Levine experienced last week was an attack. The passage and enforcement of the

bathroom bill was an attack. The current claims about the impending doom of women’s sports are an attack. They’re convenient arguments to hide behind in an attempt to scare trans people out of existence. These actions operate in the same way that the wedding cake case of 2018—and its successor in 2019—and the actions of Kim Jones, a Kentucky clerk who in 2015 refused to issue marriage licenses to same sex weddings, attempting to get rid of gay marriage by making it inordinately difficult. Jones was still attempting to argue her case until October of last year. But what we’re seeing in our government is more insidious than even those—it’s an attempt to define people out of existence. These actions have definitely passed the point of hurting others. Saying that is an understatement—every day, the atmosphere of transphobia and other forms of queerphobia that are so prevalent and, apparently,

YOUR VOICE: SUBMISSIONS We welcome letters to the editor and op-ed submissions from our readers. Submissions may be sent to letters@studlife. com and must include the writer’s name, class and phone number for verification. Letters should be no longer than 350 words in length, and readers may

acceptable in this country are hurting people. Lack of acceptance and constant exposure to discrimination drives trans people to attempt suicide at disproportionately high rates. This discrimination isn’t just something we see in legislatures and courts. It’s omniprescient. It’s not only something Trump says at the CPAC, it’s in people’s homes and on campus—Wash. U. professor Jonathan Katz especially has not been silent about LGBTQIA* issues. Listening to and allowing space for hateful views isn’t “hearing out both sides.” It’s creating an unsafe environment. The lack of backlash against Rand Paul and Marjorie Taylor Greene’s words and actions alone terrifies me. It is not the place of lawmakers to tell people how they can or cannot identify. It’s not anyone’s place. Queer people exist. Transgender and nonbinary people exist. Deal with it, and stop building an identity around trying to people out of existence.

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8 STUDENT LIFE

CADENZA ISABELLA NEUBAUER & SABRINA SPENCE | SENIOR CADENZA EDITORS | CADENZA@STUDLIFE.COM

THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 2021

Black Anthology navigates COVID restrictions in return to Edison ISABELA LLEVAT CONTRIBUTING WRITER Black Anthology, a student-run cultural group, is showcasing their first production since COVID-19 took center stage on Saturday, March 13, at 7 p.m. The production is “a cultural show that allows for a spotlight to be presented on issues that are of importance to Black students, using mediums of acting and dance to convey those themes,” show producer senior Sophia Kamanzi explained. This is the second year Kamanzi is producing Black Anthology. Having been a part of the executive team since freshman year, Kamanzi has experienced many memorable performances, but perhaps none as unique as this year’s. Black Anthology will be the first cultural show to broadcast a performance virtually from Edison Theatre, where the performance normally would’ve taken place

in-person this past February. Kamanzi said there were some parts of the production experience that were more difficult to convert to the virtual setting than others. “I was definitely less worried about things translating to the audience and more about the actors, because I feel like a lot of performance is feeding off the audience’s energy and that’s not what they were able to do,” she said. Yet the production team was able to navigate these restrictions by clapping off-camera for one another to allow for some feeling of normalcy. Although this year’s production was anything but normal, Kamanzi feels the experience is just as authentic as it would be in-person. While there were various obstacles regarding the University’s COVID restrictions, senior Julia Stewart, the Black Anthology choreographer for the past three years, is also optimistic about

the outcome. “I think, in terms of dance, because we filmed off-campus then filmed dancers one at a time to make sure there was no COVID transmission, they will definitely look different,” Stewart said, “but I think the different settings that we got actually might add to the production, which is not something we can do in Edison, so hopefully that’ll be one plus that came with re-navigating.” With the show selling out its last two productions, Kamanzi expects there to be a large turnout. She explained that their audience reaches beyond the Wash. U. campus and into the St. Louis community as a whole. Regardless of the particular theme they choose for that year, Kamanzi said, “We want the audience to leave with kind of a new perspective on it and maybe hoping that we portray the issue in a way that allows them to think about it in a

way they weren’t thinking about it previously, or at least get them asking questions.” Stewart said that because the production is completely student-run, the central themes and subthemes tend to be based on the lived experiences of both Black students and the Black community as a whole. Yet Kamanzi still emphasized the value in the production for all members of their audience. “For people who are not Black and [for whom] this isn’t their lived experience,” she said, the show is about “allowing them to see, learn and hear our stories through our voices.” To further unpack the themes that will be presented, Black Anthology will host a post-show discussion Sunday, March 14, at 1 p.m. After registering for the show on a Google forms link found on their Instagram page (@bawustl) as well as on their Facebook page (Black Anthology), viewers will be

COURTESY OF BLACK ANTHOLOGY, DESIGNED BY BREAD LEE

able to access the show on Vimeo for free. They will then receive a follow-up link for the post-show panel discussion the next day.

Editor’s Note: Senior Cadenza Editor Sabrina Spence is the stage manager for Black Anthology. She was not involved with the production of this article.

New MCU content should learn from WandaVision’s originality ISABELLA NEUBAUER SENIOR CADENZA EDITOR Note: The following article contains spoilers for every episode of “WandaVision.” Read at your own risk. Every Friday for the past two months, I have opened up Disney+ to watch the new episode of “WandaVision.”

The limited series just finished its run, with its ninth and final episode dropping last Friday, March 5, but the MCU is far from done. In two weeks, “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” will begin and “Loki” will follow it in June. Looking ahead to this lineup of MCU TV shows, I feel the same way I did when Marvel dropped their Phase 4 movie plan at The San Diego Comic Convention (SDCC) 2019—excited and absolutely terrified. For those of you who don’t know, I am a longtime, hardcore MCU fan. We’re talking been-committedto-the-franchise-ten-years, seen-every-movie-openingnight type of fan. But the movies of the last several years have jaded me. My reason for

this largely rests on my criteria of what makes a good movie: enjoyable throughout, doesn’t fall apart under questioning. By and large, “WandaVision” falls into those two categories. If you haven’t seen the show and are reading this anyway, “WandaVision” is split in two parts: a television show documenting Wanda and Vision’s suburban life, with each episode styled to match sitcoms from different decades, and the so-called “real world” of the MCU. The sitcom episodes are funny, well-styled and thoroughly enjoyable. Even when I hadn’t seen the show “WandaVision” was spoofing off of (for example, I have never watched an episode of “The Dick Van Dyke Show”), I loved it, though there were a

couple of lines that made me cringe. The real world episodes did not work nearly as well. You see, I have this problem where I like things to make sense. My suspension of disbelief is incredibly high, but I shouldn’t be able to find inconsistencies in a show’s own logic, especially if I’m not even looking for them. And that’s where the final two episodes of “WandaVision” lost me. I accepted the episodelong fight between white Vision and hex Vision. I’ll even go along with suddenly introducing the idea of different kinds of witches (general term for magic practitioners) who wield different kinds of magic, even if the Salem scene from episode 8 was one of the worst written and most poorly acted scenes I’ve seen recently. But I

couldn’t take the inconsistent retroactive continuation of Wanda and Pietro’s powers. I am aware that more of the worldbuilding around witches will be explained in 2022’s “Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness,” in which Wanda has a central role, but I don’t think I should have to wait over a year for another movie to explain plot points introduced in a miniseries. If anyone can explain to me how Pietro and fake Pietro got superspeed, please tell me, because I can’t figure it out. (Was Pietro a witch? Is superspeed a spell?) For all these problems, though, I truly did enjoy “WandaVision.” I would recommend it to anyone with even a passing interest in watching it, and probably to

people without that interest, too. The meta aspect worked well, the side characters were engaging and I’m still grooving to Agatha’s villain reveal song. The final two episodes weren’t the show’s strongest, and I was disappointed by the resolution of the Evan Peters cameo, but they weren’t weak enough to make me lose interest.

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