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The independent newspaper of Washington University in St. Louis since 1878 THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2020

VOLUME 142, NO. 9

PANDEMIC GARDEN

WWW.STUDLIFE.COM

CITY DANCE

COMING TOGETHER

With Zoom and lots of outdoor space, the Burning Kumquat has kept the garden alive (Scene, pg 4)

How WU students are fighting for a better future through dance workshops (Cadenza, pg 9)

Black athletes build community to address isolation and lack of support (Sports, pg 6)

Among calls for abolition, experts weigh costs and As spring benefits of WUPD for the campus and community semester approaches, WU professors must decide class modality CLARA RICHARDS STAFF REPORTER

considered to be one of America’s most dysfunctional police forces. “WUPD is much more progressive than the St. Louis police department and they seem much more invested with community policing and building relationships with people in the immediate vicinity of the University and [with] students,” Gardner said. “They seem more sensitive to use of force issues than what you’ll find…in the St. Louis police department.” One mediating influence on University police forces can be parents, who would be upset if students were arrested by University employees for things such as lowlevel drug use, Gardner added. “Campus police often provide sanctuary in a sense for campus criminal behavior,” Gardner said. “Campuses are very protective of their students…and are disinclined to immediately arrest students for criminal conduct. I’d like to see your normal police department take a similar approach where they use a bit more discretion in deciding to arrest someone.” In recent years, Morton said that WUPD has been more vigilant about taking an active role in the areas around campus. “There was an incident where there was a dine and dash [at IHOP] and ten of our students… were not the ones who dined and dashed, but the police thought they were,” Morton said. “There were police officers involved— it was Richmond Heights and University City—and they did not call WUPD, and normally when students get in trouble they call WUPD so they can come and handle it.” Students have long pointed out racial biases in both WUPD and other St. Louis police departments, claiming that the presence of police officers around campus fails to protect students of color. The students stopped at IHOP were Black. Even if WUPD generally extends more courtesy to students, many proponents of WUPD abolition have highlighted the way that the force treats members of the local community who are not affiliated with the University as one of the problems surrounding it, arguing that it results in the overcriminalization of surrounding neighborhoods.

Professors across Washington University were required to declare by Nov. 6 whether they will conduct their classes online, hybrid or in-person for the spring 2021 semester. This fall, individual schools within the University have planned around their different needs. The College of Arts & Sciences, for example, has conducted around 30% of their classes in a hybrid format, Jen Smith, dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, said. The priority was given to classes that require a particular modality to conduct the course. One limitation is classroom availability: Smith said that there is room for 15% to 25% of normal class capacity in a socially distanced format. This semester, the College of Arts and Sciences did have slightly more classroom capacity than they used, but not by much— Smith said that any increase in in-person classes “won't be dramatic. It won't be more than half in-person.. Conversations between faculty and students have informed the decision-making process for the spring. Kathleen Finneran, a senior writer in residence at the University, for example, will be conducting all of her classes online in the spring because of personal health concerns, in addition to the risk of exposing family members to COVID-19. However, the level of discourse in her MFA nonfiction writing class “exceeds the level of discourse that often happened in person in the classroom,” she said. While her undergraduate class occasionally has more difficulty generating a fluid dialogue, Finneran has made use of resources like the Canvas discussion board. The spring 2020 semester, she said, was a trial-by-fire situation in terms of learning to use Canvas, but during the summer she had access to Canvas training opportunities. Thus, she said she’ll go into the spring 2021 semester with new tools to make her class more engaging, even with the online format. “I [feel] a greater ease on the Canvas website, it's different functions and potential that it presents for presenting material and organizing material,” Finneran said. “Also, having small group discussions and breakout rooms is really helpful, not just in terms of discussing material but also in terms of creating opportunities for the students in class to get to know each other better.”

SEE WUPD, PAGE 2

SEE SPRING, PAGE 3

GRAPHIC BY CHRISTINE WATRIDGE

GABBY HYMAN STAFF REPORTER After a summer of nationwide protests over systemic racism and police brutality, college students across the country have looked to implement calls for racial justice at a local level by demanding the abolition of university police departments. At Washington University, more than 100 students recently marched across campus demanding the abolition of the Washington University Police Department (WUPD). Emily Owens, a professor of Criminology, Law, and Society at the University of California, Irvine, noted that many universities are seriously considering abolishing their police forces, and said that she would not be surprised if Washington University ended up doing the same. “That would mean increased presence from the St. Louis police department,” Owens said. “Whatever the local…law enforcement agency would be, that would now be the agency that would respond to 911 calls.” WUPD is a police force of 66 officers, with a jurisdiction of the areas in and around Washington University’s campus as well as student housing on the Delmar Loop. “[WUPD has] jurisdiction… around campus and around The Loop area because students live over there,” Dr. Kimberly Morton,

director of TRIO Student Support Services, said. “They have partnerships with U[niversity] City police, Clayton police, and the city [St. Louis Metro] police because those are the jurisdictions surrounding the Wash. U. campus and University City is where students live off campus.” Washington University Associate Professor of Law Trevor Gardner said that there was overlap between the jurisdictions of WUPD and St. Louis police departments and there was “often a question of jurisdictional boundaries.” “Over time, [WUPD] has become sort of a real police department where you are protecting 30,000 people,” Morton said. “Wash. U. is a small city. You’ve got 14,000 students and 15,000 faculty and staff—it’s a lot of people they are protecting and serving.” A key difference between general and college police departments, Owens said, is “the relationship between the people who are policed and the person ultimately making the decisions about what the police do.” Most police departments work for an elected official with an interest in re-election, which Owens said added an aspect of accountability. “The mayor and the governor have an interest in getting re-elected, and that is the way

that many police departments change: There is pressure from that elected official who wants to ultimately satisfy the people who are policed,” Owens said. Although private departments such as WUPD are directly responsible to the University’s administration, the groups being policed by these departments, which include students as well as residents of neighborhoods with lots of student housing, have no direct influence over them. “In the case of private university police forces, the…police report to the president of the university,… [who] is not elected by the student body,” Owens added. “The [president’s incentives] are not the same as someone who is directly elected by the student body. So if you’re thinking about policies that a private university police choose to engage in, you need to think about what does the president want to happen, which is different than what a mayor or governor might want to happen because there isn’t an elected link.” Gardner was skeptical about the potential benefits of WUPD abolition, arguing that the alternative of inviting outside police departments from the city and surrounding municipalities could potentially have dangerous consequences. In recent years, the St. Louis Police Department has perpetrated racism, brutality and corruption, and is widely

HOLDEN HINDES | STUDENT LIFE

Students carry a sign reading “WUPD protects property, not people” during an Oct. 24 protest on the South 40.

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EVENT CALENDAR THURSDAY 12 On the Cusp of a Tear: Arc-Continent Collision in the Banda Arc Virtual Event, 4 p.m. Meghan Miller, of Australian National University, will present this lecture. Eastward along the Sunda-Banda arc, convergence transitions from subduction of oceanic lithosphere to arc-continent collision. This region of eastern Indonesia and Timor-Leste provides an opportunity for unraveling the processes that occur during collision between a continent and a volcanic arc, and can be viewed as the temporal transition of the process of continental collision along strike. We have collected a range of geological, geodetic, seismic, and geomorphic data to place constraints on the geometry and history of subduction.

FRIDAY 13 Holocaust Museum Houston Virtual Tour: ‘Bearing Witness: A Community Remembers’ Virtual Event, 12 p.m. Explore the history of the Holocaust through historical artifacts, photographs and personal stories featured throughout the gallery at the Holocaust Museum Houston. The gallery is personalized with testimony of Holocaust survivors who later settled in the Houston area. The gallery features artifacts donated by the Holocaust survivors, their descendants, liberators and other collectors.

SATURDAY 14 Multidirectional Memories, Implicated Subjects and the Possibilities of Art Virtual Event, 12 p.m. In this lecture and conversation Michael Rothberg, the 1939 Society Samuel Goetz Chair in Holocaust Studies and professor of English and comparative literature at the University of California, Los Angeles, will discuss his books “Multidirectional Memory” and “The Implicated Subject” with a focus on contemporary artworks and possibilities for critical curatorial practices in museums. Following the lecture Rothberg will join Washington University professors Anika Walke (history) and Geoff Ward (African and African-American Studies) in conversation about Memory for the Future, a Washington University initiative that combines critical memory studies with curatorial and public education projects.

MONDAY 16 Lecture: ‘The Architecture of James Stirling’ Virtual Event, 6 p.m. Architect Robert Kahn will deliver an online lecture titled “The Architecture of James Stirling,” presenting the work of the individual considered by many to be the greatest architect of the second half of the 20th century. Freed of the dogma of rejecting what came before, all of history—from the high to the vernacular—was his to use. Stirling’s gift was not simply to quote those sources but to manipulate them, void them of their original meaning, and intentionally misuse them in an effort to extend the modernist project. It is a view of Modernism that isn’t defined by “style” or ideology but rather by ideas and principles that extend from the ancient to the present day.

TUESDAY 17 Nuclear Energy in the Middle East: Israeli and Iranian Perspectives Virtual Event, 10 a.m. Elai Rettig, Israel Institute Teaching Fellow, facilitates an exciting panel of experts to examine the role of nuclear energy (not just weapons) in the future of the Middle East following the elections in the US and in Iran. As part of Rettig’s “Israeli Foreign Policy” course, this panel includes Israel’s former ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

WEDNESDAY 18 Twentieth Anniversary Virtual Gala & World Peace Through Law Award Virtual Event, 1:30 p.m. The Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute celebrates twenty years of academic excellence in November 2020. Founded in 2000 as the Washington University School of Law “Institute for Global Legal Studies,” the Institute was renamed in 2002 in honor and recognition of Whitney R. Harris’ lifelong achievements in the field of international justice, and his support of legal education and research.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2020

Accounting professor known for student engagement, unique teaching style to leave WU next fall TED MOSKAL SENIOR NEWS EDITOR Michael McLaughlin, an accounting lecturer known for his unconventional teaching methods and strong bonds with his students, will leave Washington University for Illinois Wesleyan University next year. Due to the COVID19 hiring freeze, the University did not initially extend his contract, causing McLaughlin to seek employment elsewhere. “When I was on the verge of receiving an offer from Illinois Wesleyan University (IWU), Wash. U. approached me about staying,” McLaughlin said. “But at that point I felt it would not be right to turn down IWU, which offered me the contract I had been seeking. My new position is also tenure-track, which offers additional stability.” McLaughlin joined the University as a lecturer in 2015, but most students first heard his name last fall, when his decision to treat his Principles of Managerial Accounting class to a juggling performance went viral, gathering over 800,000 views on the popular Instagram account 5thyear. However, using unconventional methods to keep his students entertained was already a specialty of McLaughlin’s. “From my vantage point, [inviting the jugglers] really wasn’t anything new,” McLaughlin said. “I’ve been doing stuff like that since I began teaching, particularly undergrads. When I first started teaching, I did things like play music at the start of class, I would bring pizza to class, I’d take students out. We go to dinner at Fitz’s and get root beer floats. I'd have students over my home for dinner every Thursday night. I took students camping…it was just for whatever reason that particular thing ended up taking off.” For McLaughlin, who continued to host fun events including a magic show and a burrito-eating contest in the months following, an element of fun has always been integral to his teaching strategy. “I think it’s naive for anyone, particularly an accounting professor, to assume that you can just talk for 75 minutes straight

about accounting or any subject and you would just have people's undivided attention,” McLaughlin said. “I don't know everything about being a great speaker or presenter or teacher, but I do know that you should never take for granted that the audience will be listening simply because you are speaking.” For McLaughlin’s student junior Emma Storer, his engagement with students outside the classroom set him apart from her other professors. “He puts his heart into being present. You could find him at sports games cheering on students, in [Bear’s Den], where few professors brave stepping foot, hosting office hours or at your student group event,” Storer said. “A few times he came to support the events I planned on SPB [Social Programming Board], ones I had only brought up in passing. It takes one mention of something that is important to you, and McLaughlin is there to help and see you succeed.” When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, McLaughlin offered internships to all of his students whose internships were canceled, and even created resources to help students find temporary housing in the immediate aftermath of the University’s decision to shut down residential life housing for most students. “Once the spring semester was moved online, he made his best effort to make us happy in a time of global despair...” Junior John Maskalunas, one of McLaughlin’s students, wrote. “McLaughlin always managed to make me forget about the chaos COVID had caused and put a smile on my face.” Edspira, McLaughlin’s online learning company, has also allowed him to expand his impact beyond Washington University. With over 165,000 subscribers, Edspira’s YouTube channel hosts Khan Academy-style videos which teach accounting, economics and even some personal finance. “I've received a phenomenal education and I want to share that with other people…Well, one way [to do that] is just to give the knowledge away, so that’s what the YouTube videos are,” McLaughlin said. “I never ran any ads on

them until this past April when I agreed to hire all my current or former students who couldn’t find an internship.” In addition to Edspira, McLaughlin also hosts a podcast called Scheme, which dissects major historical cases of accounting fraud, and recently has been experimenting with TikTok as a platform for online learning. After his Washington University contract ended, McLaughlin considered going all in with online education, but ended up choosing IWU because they saw his online work as a major selling point and promised to help him develop a bigger platform. “The thing about Wesleyan is they’re very supportive of these things I'm doing [like] the YouTube channel, the podcasts, etc.,” he said. “Wash. U. never told me not to do this stuff, but… it was just kind of seen as something I did on my side and wasn’t really taken seriously.” Still, despite the opportunities and stability offered by a tenure-track position at IWU, McLaughlin regrets leaving his students at Washington University. “This was an absolutely heartbreaking decision for me,” McLaughlin said. “I can’t even begin to say how much I love my students at Wash. U., so the thought of leaving for another university was devastating. It still hurts. But IWU offered me the security and support I was looking for, and I’m very excited to begin teaching there.” “I have never met any individual who is more compassionate than him,” Maskalunas said. “His story is inspiring, and he truly made every single student feel special. In my class and in every class of his, he remembered every single student's name.” Despite his approaching departure, McLaughlin did not rule out a potential return to Washington University in the future. “Who knows, maybe Wash. U. will ask me to return some day,” he said. “For right now, I’m focused on making these last 6 months as memorable as possible for my students at Wash. U. They deserve nothing less, after all the great memories they gave me.”

WUPD from page 1 “Increasing policing around the surrounding areas and increasing the presence of Washington University patrols puts St. Louis citizens in danger by increasing possible contacts with police officers,” junior Nana Kusi told Student Life after an Oct. 24 abolition march. In spite of the uncertainty about what might take the place of WUPD, Owens pointed out that an important element of police abolition is shifting funding to other areas that need it, which proponents of abolition note will reduce crime. “One way we can figure out if getting rid of a police force is a good idea is by trying it and seeing what happens,” Owens said. “No one really knows exactly what is going to happen to crime, particularly if the

money that is moved from policing departments is put into other things which have also been shown to reduce crime.” For example, Owens pointed out that many schools have aggressively experimented with nonpolice responses to things such as underage drinking. “A lot of potentially criminal actions or the problems university police respond to have, at their heart, someone drinking too much,” Owens said. “Increased alcohol awareness or education, having public health workers or someone trained in alcohol response would be an interesting thing to explore.” University administrators have been noncommittal about potential reforms to WUPD. At a meeting over the summer, Chancellor

Andrew Martin said that the University would not necessarily disarm, defund or disband WUPD even if a majority of students of color said that it made them feel unsafe. The University’s public safety committee, primarily composed of staff, faculty and students, is currently working towards a set of recommendations about the role and scope of the force in coming years. Regarding policies that might rethink WUPD’s role on campus, Morton expressed optimism that the University could work towards a safer campus environment for all. “Reform is always good,” Morton said. “Change in policy, if needed, is always good if it benefits the students, faculty and staff that they serve.”

COURTESY OF THE SOURCE

Michael McLaughlin, who has taught accounting in the Olin Business School at Washington University since 2015, will start in a tenure-track position at Illinois Wesleyan University next year.

EM MCPHIE & TED MOSKAL | SENIOR NEWS EDITORS | NEWS@STUDLIFE.COM

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2020

STUDENT LIFE 3

SPRING from page 1 Chemistry Lecturer Maria de la Cruz spent the summer preparing virtual labs for her students, who attend hybrid and online class. Before school started, de la Cruz found graduate student volunteers to be her actors as she filmed the experiments. She said she has to split one section into two—her hybrid students come in socially distanced to the lab while her online students learn the technique from YouTube videos. And she’s also adapted her grading scheme: While there is no performance grade, she asks questions that pertain to the techniques demonstrated in the lab. McKelvey School of Engineering, in contrast, made an effort to offer in-person learning, because many engineering classes require a hands-on approach. They left it to the professors to determine what the label of ‘hybrid’ meant. However, one of the hardest parts of this semester for many professors was conducting classes with mixed modalities, sometimes with

just one or two online students and the rest of the class in person. Lecturer Jeff Krampf has one remote student in his Mechanical Engineering & Design course, and he has to give her similar activities to the rest of the class. However, while planning assignments, he has to keep in mind that the online student doesn’t have the tools—which include hammers, drills and soldering irons—to build any physical structures. He has to record a video for the virtual student and then teach it in class. “To some extent, some of it takes a long time,” Krampf said. “And it’s sort of exhausting. But at the same time, I know from the students perspective, it is much harder for them to go through it. So it's worth it to make it as good as it can be.” He will continue teaching his class in a hybrid format next semester, changing a few things with his material to assign projects that are more feasible for remote students. The Olin School of Business has been making

an effort to conduct classes with at least some type of in-person element for most classes. They have developed the high-flex model, which means that the instructor is delivering class to some synchronous students in the class, but there are other students on a screen connected through Zoom. The high-flex course also uses engagement moderators, who help encourage interaction with remote students, monitor the chat and make sure that the online students are communicating with the in-person students. This allows more classes within Olin to be conducted with an in-person element; around 65% of classes are currently being conducted as hybrid, compared to about 33% of classes within the School of Arts and Sciences. The new technology has posed challenges to staff, who conducted “dry runs” in their classrooms before the school year started. “Everybody's working harder, but everybody is happy to work harder—this

CURRAN NEENAN | STUDENT LIFE

A tent on the Danforth Campus. Some professors chose to keep their spring classes entirely online.

is such a big challenge and such an unusual circumstance,” Professor of Finance and Vice Dean for Education Ohad Kadan said. Even when professors make the choice to conduct class in-person, anticipating students’ desires can be difficult. Professors who have taught hybrid classes with an optional in-person

portion said that students actually prefer to connect online instead of physically attending class. And that, Smith said, has been hard. “For me, the biggest challenge is trying to get faculty to choose more in person for the spring,” she said. “They're telling me, why should I do this when nobody is showing up?” Looking past the spring

semester, Smith said that uncertainty around the timeline for a Covid vaccine limited future planning, but expressed hope that the University’s classroom experience could begin to return to normal by the fall. “I'm holding out hope for at least enough vaccine coverage that we'll be able to re-densify the campus a bit for the fall,” she said.

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SCENE

BENJAMIN SIMON | SENIOR SCENE EDITOR | SCENE@STUDLIFE.COM

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2020

The pandemic hasn’t stopped this student-run garden from growing RYAN RICKS STAFF WRITER This semester, for many, has been marked by an uptick in screen time and a lack of a fresh air. Washington University’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has moved many things online and into our bedrooms. Student groups are no exception. At least, mostly. Some clubs, despite the shift to the virtual, have been able to maintain some in-person components. One of these clubs is the Burning Kumquat, the University’s student-run organic garden. The group grows crops year-round, harvesting them to either sell to the University community and Bon Appétit (the company that manages the University’s dining services) or to donate to food banks around St. Louis. With a large outdoor space that allows them to meet in person and an ability to continue to perform the majority of their activities, the Burning Kumquat is in a unique position this year, a fact that has not gone unnoticed. “We have a lot of privilege with being able to continue to meet in person,” acknowledged sophomore Sindhuri Ivaturi, co-president of the Burning Kumquat. “We’ve continued to be able to have a lot of the same activities that we usually do, we’ve just adapted them to COVID times.” Ivaturi further explained that most of the student groups she had been a part of prior to COVID-19 have mostly been shut down or limited in what they’re able to do. Even though the Burning Kumquat enjoys being able to meet in person, this presents new difficulties, due to additional guidelines and requirements to follow, said co-president sophomore Maya Tsingos. The club has to be extra careful when scheduling its “workdays” for members of the group. In past years, workdays

took place over two hours on Saturdays or Sundays. This year, the club has implemented a sign-up system so that students can space out their work throughout the week. The activities students complete during workdays, though, have remained the same, Ivaturi said. Students are able to go into the garden and “get their hands dirty,” doing whatever needs to be done, whether that be weeding, planting or harvesting. Like many other student group leaders, Ivaturi and Tsingos’ summers looked quite a bit different than typical years when it came to preparing their student group for the coming semester. They still had to tend to the garden even though they weren’t able to physically look after it. “We had a team of faculty fellows taking care of the garden for us, so a lot of the summer was spent coordinating with them and with the Office of Sustainability to make sure that our space was still there for us when we came back,” Tsingos explained. Although the Burning Kumquat is primarily known as a garden, it has expanded beyond that, recently focusing more on advocacy and education, as well as providing a space where students can have fun and relax, typically with some form of artbased activity. For these, the club has had to go virtual. Documentary screenings and painting events are just a few examples of what the group’s virtual components look like. On the advocacy side of things, the club has also had a number of meanings dedicated to discussing topics such as urban farming and environmental racism. Most recently, the group screened the documentary “Urban Roots,” which is about the urban sustainability movement, Ivaturi said, and held a discussion about it. For Tsingos, these Zoom events have in some ways

CURRAN NEENAN | STUDENT LIFE

Burning Kumquat grows crops year-round at its garden on the South 40, which is nestled between Shepley Drive and the Alumni House.

been an improvement. “I feel like this year compared to last year through Burning Kumquat I’ve met loads of people, which is really nice,” Tsingos said, citing the cause of this to be the more frequent one-onone interactions she’s been able to have over Zoom. Additionally, the virtual formatting of these events has seemingly made it easier for students to get involved with the Burning Kumquat, Tsingos said. “Since Wash. U. had a big push to move all their advertising online for student groups, we were able to get a lot of initial interest at the very start of the year and that allowed students lots of different pathways to get involved,” Tsingos explained. “Maybe some students don’t want to go to workdays at all because they don’t feel comfortable. They can still come to all of our social events.” One of their more recent social events involved a Burning Kumquat tradition: garden names. Each year, members of the group were asked to name themselves after a fruit, vegetable or something

else garden-related. And at one of their arts-and-crafts events this year, Ivaturi explained, members were given small canvases on which to paint something that represented their garden name. The participation in the Burning Kumquat’s virtual events have exceeded Tsingos and Ivaturi’s expectations, primarily because of the students. “We were not expecting to get this much engagement, especially from the firstyear body.” Tsingos said. Ivaturi agreed, pointing out what seems to be a trend of increased freshman involvement this year. “Class of 2024 has been so incredibly engaged, not just with the Burning Kumquat, but I’ve noticed across the board that this class of first-years has been really active in the community, and showing a lot enthusiasm for getting involved and getting their hands dirty,” Ivaturi explained. However, while the Burning Kumquat’s virtual events have been a success, Ivaturi and Tsingos believe there is still room for

improvement. “We need to work on being more inclusive of [remote students],” Ivaturi said. She explained that many of the activities they do over Zoom require additional materials, and that so far the club has not been focusing on making those materials available to those who aren’t on campus. “I know there are people who are probably interested in being mailed things so that they can continue to participate in our activities.” Another area of concern for the Burning Kumquat is what to do next semester. Because club activities depend on whatever the University decides to do, the Burning Kumquat has been developing ideas for what to do if the situation improves, worsens or stays the same. So far, the University has not communicated any changes, Ivaturi said, so the current plan is to continue activities as they have done, with in-person workdays and virtual social events. “This is so unprecedented that it is so hard for everyone, the University included, to keep an eye

on all the student groups,” Tsingos explained. “So, unfortunately, it is up to the student groups themselves to find the initiative and the resources to change the whole direction of their club for a semester or a year.” Even with these difficulties, though, Ivaturi and Tsingos are happy with what the Burning Kumquat has been able to do this semester. “The Burning Kumquat has exceeded most people’s expectations for how adaptable a club can be in COVID times.” Ivaturi said. And it’s not just the Burning Kumquat that’s been able to adapt to this pandemic era. This has been a good learning experience for all student groups. “I think [this year] just shows in general, not just us, but other student groups, how effectively we’re able to respond to certain situations,” Tsingos said, “I’m very happy and proud of us and all the other student groups on campus for navigating this year.”

BENJAMIN SIMON | SENIOR SCENE EDITOR | SCENE@STUDLIFE.COM

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2020

STUDENT LIFE 5

From the page to the screen: Short film featuring Professor Rafia Zafar’s research on African American food history earns award nomination JUSTIN MORENO STAFF WRITER Hands vigorously mixing the ingredients in the bowl, Rafia Zafar followed the recipe made by a former slave. In front of her stood a film crew. With their cameras focused on her, they tried to capture her in the moment. Months later, she heard that the feature had been nominated for a MidAmerica Emmy award. In addition to serving as the Faculty Director for the Mellon Mays program, Zafar teaches English, African & African American Studies and American Culture Studies at Washington University. Her work focuses on African American food and the culture behind it. Zafar grew up in Manhattan, N.Y. where her interest in food started to develop when she was a child. Her mom, Zafar describes, was “a cook without an imagination,… she was only interested in getting food on the table.” Instead, Zafar and her sister had “to learn to cook in self-defense,” making dinner for themselves. After graduating from City College of New York, Zafar spent some time in the world of book publishing. As a side hustle, she worked at Dean & DeLuca, then a cheese store. Talking over Zoom from her office, she said, “We had jam, we had cheese, olive oil, you know...The store probably wasn’t much

bigger than my office here.” She laughed as she recalled having to carry 45-pound blocks of cheese up from the basement, but remarked that the job helped to shape her love for the culinary world. By the time she reached graduate school at Harvard, she expressed interest in doing research about food. But her teachers pushed back. “The men, who were my teachers back then—I had no female teachers at Harvard—they discouraged me,” she remembered. They told her that no one would hire her. Yet, since the 1990s, Zafar has been teaching classes on food, starting at the University of Michigan. Because of her New York City roots (her grandparents lived in Harlem), her early research focused on African American literature preceding the Harlem Renaissance. But she has always contemplated writing a book on African Americans and food. After years of having the idea in the back of her mind, she finally sat down to write “Recipes for Respect: African American Meals and Meaning.” Published in 2019, the book reflects the interests from her entire life. It focuses on African American culture pertaining to food and the availability of their recipes. She examines the stories behind recipes and the history behind how they are written. Imagine not having a temperature reading for your oven and

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Rafia Zafar is a professor of English, African and African-American Studies and American Culture Studies at Washington University. Her most recent research centers around the intricacies of African American recipes and cooking practices.

having to inherently know the correct temperature to cook with. The stories in the book, with some of them later shown in the short feature, highlight the resilience of African Americans in the face of adversity. The book attracted the attention of Kathy Bratkowski, a producer with HEC-TV, who reached out to interview Zafar about her book. After conducting

an interview of her, Bratkowski and Peter Foggy, the videographer, liked the progression of the film so much that they asked if they could go to Zafar’s house and watch her cook. They wanted to create a short feature film that would cover stories mentioned in “Recipes for Respect.” After watching the final product that was sent to her months later, Zafar was impressed, initially

thinking that it “was going to be different kinds of talking heads”—in other words a simple interview. Laughing, she revealed that, at first, she “wasn’t really sure what their [initial] creative vision was.” Months later, Bratkowski sent her an email with a screenshot showing that the feature of her book had been nominated for a Mid-America Emmy award. “I was like—what?

That’s crazy,” Zafar said, laughing even more. Although the award would not specifically go to her, but rather to the producer and videographer, Zafar expressed her excitement for the possibility of the feature of her work winning the Emmy award. “If we [win], I don’t even know what we’ll do, because I can’t even take myself out for dinner,” she said, laughing again.

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SPORTS

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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2020

From isolation to community: How WU BLAC has been working to better the experiences of WU’s Black student-athletes MATTHEW FRIEDMAN ASSOCIATE EDITOR This is the first article in a two-part look at the Washington University Black Letterwinning Athletes Coalition and the work students and administrators are doing to better the experiences of Black student-athletes at Washington University. When 19 student-athletes joined a Zoom call on Oct. 4, it was the first time many of them had ever met one another. Even though they were all a part of Washington University athletics, they had never gotten to interact across their various teams, and before this fall, there had not been much of a sense of community for Black athletes on campus. The Zoom call was the first general body meeting of the Washington University Black Letterwinning Athletes Coalition (WU BLAC), a new student group focused on fostering that sense of community for Black student-athletes and advocating for their interests within the Athletic Department. On the surface, it was just a single Zoom call. But it represented much more.

‘There’s always been a sentiment to have something like this’ After being the only Black student on her majority-white high school’s swimming team, the chance to be surrounded by other Black athletes and coaches was a major part of what attracted senior Caira

Watson-Haynes to the high school track team. While she was on it, the team always had two or three Black coaches, and she felt that she was able to be herself on the team. She cherished how track served as an escape from the broader school community. Her ability in high school to use the sport as an escape was part of why Watson-Haynes was taken aback after arriving on the Wash. U. track and field team. There was just one Black assistant coach for more than 50 student-athletes. “It was just a culture shock in a sense, because track was no longer able to be my escape from the larger school community,” she said. “Just not having Black coaches who you could turn to who understand what I’m going through, it just made it really tough.” That sense of isolation for Black student-athletes undergirds the demands of WU BLAC and informs how the group’s members are seeking to build on the momentum of this year’s renewed focus on racial injustice to better the experience of Wash. U.’s Black student-athletes. One of the key demands is increasing the presence of Black people and other people of color in the athletic administration. While more than half of the Wash. U. student body is non-white, WU BLAC says that just 12% of the administration is people of color. “It’s an obvious inadequacy,” men’s basketball junior and WU BLAC Vice President of Operations Kameron Mack said. “What that does is more so in thought and in theory

CURRAN NEENAN | STUDENT LIFE

Junior Kameron Mack, the Vice President of Operations for WU BLAC, scans the court against the University of Chicago. ‘What we want to do is help Black student-athletes feel less isolated by creating those spaces where they can see people who look like them,’ Mack said.

because it makes you feel undervalued and it doesn’t create a space where you feel as though you belong.” For Eka Jose, a senior on the track and field team who serves as co-president of WU BLAC with Watson-Haynes, isolation manifested itself in difficulties connecting with members of the administration. “Having such a limited number of staff in the department, it’s hard to find someone that you really connect to, so when you do find that person, that relationship is really important because it’s just someone there that you can really depend on and that you know is already about your interests before you express it to them,”

she said. “That can be hard to relay to someone who doesn’t have very similar experiences as you do.” Limited opportunities for engagement between Black student-athletes have further compounded the effects of that lacking representation. Jose estimated that there are roughly 40 Black student-athletes in the Wash. U. athletic program. She said that number is “pretty decent,” particularly when compared to peer institutions. But having Black student-athletes is not in and of itself sufficient. “The thing is, we don’t really get to see each other or mingle,” Jose said. “You might recognize someone, but you don’t really know

them to the point where you really feel comfortable having a conversation with them, even though that’s your desire.” Mack encouraged people to empathize with Black student-athletes. “Put yourself in the shoes of a Wash. U. Black student-athlete going into a practice or a game setting each time and being the only person in that space that looks like you,” he said. “That can be isolating. What we want to do is help Black student-athletes feel less isolated by creating those spaces where they can see people who look like them.” It’s more than just isolation. WU BLAC has brought a focus on

the need to better the experiences of Black student-athletes generally, spotlighting issues that Black student-athletes have dealt with at Wash. U. for decades. Nearly 250 recent alumni of Wash. U. athletic programs signed a letter in support of WU BLAC, and submissions flowed fast when they started sharing anonymous retellings of their experiences with racism at the University. They detailed experiences that ranged from the rampant use of microaggressions and stereotypes to active and overt racism, with negative encounters an indelible part of the students’ Wash. U. athletic experience.

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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2020 Some students listed specific experiences, like coaches and captains joking about lynching and speaking negatively of protests for racial justice or avoiding rap music in the weight room because it was too ‘urban.’ Others had more general charges, with some students detailing how athletic trainers had ignored their physical ailments and how pushback against microaggressions was met with few changes. “We would like to call attention to these experiences to emphasize that this is not just one team, one coach or one student but a systematic issue that has been neglected for too long,” the alumni wrote toward the end of their letter to the administration. That outpouring of support from alumni only made the members of WU BLAC more committed to their fight. “We have huge social

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

unrest and all of these things with Black Lives Matter, and I’m sure that fueled wanting to get something going in the Athletic Department,” said junior Samantha Weaver of the women’s basketball team, the WU BLAC communications chair. “But I think there’s always been a sentiment to have something like this.”

‘They just felt like we should be able to do better’ WU BLAC’s roots go back to the fall of 2019, when Watson-Haynes and Jose worked with Senior Associate Athletic Director Summer Hutcheson and others in the administration to plan a social event specifically for student-athletes of color. Then, this past February,

students organized a Black History Month social media campaign on the official athletic department accounts. Plans for other initiatives had to be postponed because of the pandemic. The summer’s renewed focus on racial justice kept the topic in conversation. Knowing that the pair had been planning events for Black student-athletes and other student-athletes of color, Mack approached Watson-Haynes and Jose with the idea to form a new organization. By the second week of August, the students had launched WU BLAC, taking inspiration from similar student groups on campuses nationwide but making the organization their own. Director of Athletics Anthony Azama was instrumental to the organization from the beginning. “He’s been a driving force since

day one and has really given us the platform to be able to do and execute any of this,” Mack said. Azama stressed to the students the importance of having a solid plan that could generate tangible outcomes and strived to connect them to whatever resources they needed to succeed. He and the WU BLAC executive board members began having weekly meetings over the summer that have continued into the school year, and he has been impressed by how quickly initiatives have moved since WU BLAC first came to him. The students’ desire to be actively involved in bettering the experiences of Black student-athletes particularly moved Azama. “These young people are incredible, to want to take on the responsibility when the more convenient route is to stand on the sidelines

CURRAN NEENAN | STUDENT LIFE

Eka Jose, a senior on the track and field team, is co-president of WU BLAC. The group’s first meeting was a success, Jose said: ‘Practically every athlete that was on that call expressed that they were so grateful to have an organization like this.’

and point a finger at the University or the Athletic Department,” he said. “They want to be part of making it better, and helping us make sure we live up to our mission and our values, creating and building a community that is focused on really helping to develop, as well as impact, others that both look like them and ones that don’t.” As much as the students’ work impressed him, the first few meetings were still hard for Azama. “It was tough, because it’s not my intention to have a department where somebody doesn’t feel heard or doesn’t feel seen,” he said. But the meetings were future-focused, which allowed conversations to remain optimistic. “It wasn’t accusatory. [The students] didn’t point the finger at me. They just felt like we should be able to do better,” he said. “And I feel like that every day.” After WU BLAC’s first few meetings with Azama, Assistant Athletic Director for External Relations Chelsea Petersen began working with members to plan graphics and outreach, and the organization started to ramp up its efforts as the school year neared. They kept in mind Azama’s advice about a clear mission and ways of measuring growth and began thinking of ways to foster community among the school’s Black student-athletes. Given the constraints of the pandemic, the initial community-building has primarily happened online. WU BLAC held an initial information session about the organization over Zoom on Aug. 16 and has accumulated 270 followers on Instagram. The Oct. 4 first GBM was a key milestone for the group’s efforts. At the start of the Zoom

STUDENT LIFE 7 call, each of the athletes changed their display name to include a phrase that described how they felt. “The common thread was that our athletes were just tired or exhausted,” Jose said. “And that’s to be expected with everything that’s going on, both COVID and the injustices of the world. It was a very eye-opening and sobering experience to be able to share those emotions with other athletes instead of always keeping them in or just talking to one other person about it.” Having that space, even if it was purely digital, provided an opportunity that Black student-athletes had not experienced much before. Weaver described the meeting as having a “chill, family vibe.” Despite the students’ exhaustion, they were still able to share emotions and then have a good time, as they also played a game during the meeting. “To have everyone in a single space and be able to congregate and network in that space, I felt powerful,” Mack said. “I get the sense that for our other members, it was quite powerful for them as well.” Jose was worried that people would not show up to the general body meeting or that they would not be as interested in creating a community of Black student-athletes on campus. The meeting quickly assuaged those feelings. “Checking in with people during that call, it was very evident that we were all basically on the same page,” she said. “Practically every athlete that was on that call expressed that they were so grateful to have an organization like this.” The second part of this story will be published next week.