The independent newspaper of Washington University in St. Louis since 1878 THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 2025
VOLUME 146, NO. 16
‘Interwoven’: Celebrating LNYF SARA GELRUD MADISON YUE
JUNIOR SCENE EDITOR MANAGING DEI EDITOR
WashU apprehensive as Trump reassumes office JUSTIN OCKUN COBY RINKE
Vibrant colors, exciting acts, and lively music will light up the Edison stage on Friday and Saturday for the Lunar New Year Festival show. SEE MORE, LUNAR PAGE 6
ISABELLA DIAZ-MIRA | PHOTO EDITOR Performers from Lion Dance rehearse for the 2025 LNYF show.
38th annual MLK commemoration highlights responsibility NATALIA JAMULA STAFF WRITER
At the 38th annual Danforth Campus Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration, audience members gathered in Graham Chapel to hear various speakers and choirs address themes of responsibility, resilience, and justice, in accordance with King’s lessons. The event was co-hosted by senior Hussein Amuri, President of Student Union (SU), and sophomore Spencer Snipe, Co-President of ABS. The event’s theme focused on responsibility, specifically King’s quote: “Ultimately, individual responsibility lies not in the external situation but in the internal response.” Harvey Fields — Ph.D., Director for Missouri Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation and Associate Dean for Student Success — spent over 17 years at WashU. In his keynote speech, Fields explained that King delivered a version of his sermon that appealed to the public by emphasizing his commitment to the social gospel. “King’s message focused on individual responsibility, and he provided the impetus for his evolving and enlarging engagement in the movement for civil rights,” Fields said. “As any good traditional Baptist minister would do, Dr. King connected the message of personal responsibility to the personage of Jesus Christ.” Fields acknowledged that President Donald Trump was being inaugurated on the same day. “However we may feel about the election of the president, it was an orderly transition of power,” Fields said. “That says something about democracy and that says something about the possibilities and opportunities we have to leverage democracy for our purposes, our goals, and our needs.” Snipe also talked about the inauguration, emphasizing the need to focus on King’s legacy. “If anything, it makes everything we talked about that much more real and powerful, especially given the text messages that students have received in the last couple weeks telling them to go back to plantations,” Snipe said. Snipe’s mention of texts is a reference to racist messages that Black students across the country received saying that they had been
SCOTT ZARIDER | CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHER WashU community members gathered in Graham Chapel to honor the enduring legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “selected to become a slave.” Fields connected the messages to the hatred King received. “The threats that he received, the beatings he endured — [I hope] people realize he intentionally experienced those things and still came out with a perspective that what he was doing was for the good of humanity, and that becomes a really great testimony to him and his character,” Fields said. Next, Snipe introduced the WashU Chamber Choir’s performance of “Wade in the Water,” explaining that King often used music to underscore the message of the Civil Rights Movement. Sophomore Reece Gray, a member of the Chamber Choir, noted the deep historical roots of the song. “‘Wade in the Water’ references how the slaves would have to wade through water to avoid dogs catching their scent,” Gray said. He added that he really appreciated being able to go to events like the commemoration. “It’s really eye-opening to hear amazing speakers like Dr. Harvey and all these people from a different culture than my own,” Gray said. Chancellor Andrew Martin asked the audience to reflect on individual and collective responsibility. “If you read the sermon, you know that Dr. King encourages his listeners to take personal responsibility for their actions, to resist making excuses, and to transcend the circumstances that challenge them,” Martin said. Martin also applied King’s lessons to WashU students. “Every student at WashU has opportunities to explore their values and to understand more about their
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‘capital R responsibility’ to the world and in doing so they will begin to take more ‘lowercase r responsibility’ for their actions,” Martin said. Senior Assistant Dean of Advising Wilmetta Toliver-Diallo emphasized the need to also think of the larger civil rights movement and remaining injustices. “We honor the thousands of nameless and faceless others whose sacrifice made the gains of the movement possible,” Toliver-Diallo said. “Today we are faced with new challenges. Our nation is polarized, our systems remain unjust, and there is unrest in many parts of the world and in our country, where women and children bear the brunt of the violence.” Following Field’s keynote address, the Commemoration Committee presented two awards. Legacy Jackson received the “MLK Youth Service Award” in recognition of her volunteer work and the new creation of the community service organization Little Legacies. Dr. Flint Fowler received the “Rosa L. Parks Award for Meritorious Service to the Community” in recognition of her work transforming the lives of young people and their families in St. Louis. The Rev. Callista Isabelle — Director for Religious, Spiritual, and Ethical Life — provided the event’s closing remarks, followed by the most prominent freedom song of the Civil Rights Movement, “We Shall Overcome.” “This is our season to call out racism, homophobia, xenophobia, any force that threatens to dehumanize, because we are still striving to live out the dream that Dr. King put forth,” Isabelle said.
STAFF WRITERS
Following the inauguration of President Donald Trump, members of the WashU community have expressed uncertainty and concerns over proposed policies of the new administration that could impact large groups of students and reshape University practices. J.D. Burton, Vice Chancellor for Government & Community Relations, indicated that the University is taking a wait-andsee approach toward the Trump administration. “We’re always paying close attention to what’s happening in Washington,” Burton wrote in a statement to Student Life. “This is especially true anytime a new administration is taking office. There are always federal issues that are important to higher education and to WashU, and we will advocate in areas that will have a direct impact on our mission.” Faculty and students alike expressed concerns over how international students may be affected by the Trump administration. Multiple U.S. universities, not including WashU, released statements in recent months advising international students to exercise elevated levels of caution. One junior international student from China—who wished to remain anonymous due to her pending citizenship application—spoke about the anxiety international students such as herself have felt since Trump secured re-election. “I have friends who wanted to go abroad or back home over break but chose to stay [in the U.S.] because they were scared about their status being removed,” the student said. “I am scared of [my visa] being revoked because of how long my family has tried to get citizenship. If Trump hadn’t been elected president in 2016, I would have gotten my citizenship in 2017 or 2018.” The anonymous student also warned that the Trump administration may act as a deterrent to prospective students who plan on applying to U.S. universities. “You have to think about the financial commitment these international families are making as they send kids to these schools that don’t offer much aid,” the student said. “Making that kind of financial commitment is difficult under this political uncertainty.” Matteo B. Ciarbonetti — a thirdyear Italian exchange student in his final year of college — echoed the anonymous student’s sentiments about prospective international students. “[Some] students wouldn’t even be able to apply for a college in the States because it could be harder to find a sponsor for the visa,” Ciarbonetti wrote. “I really think that it could depend on your home
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country and its relationship with the US government, but generally, it will definitely be harder getting permission to not just study but to live in the US.” Others, like seniors Will Gunter and Celia Rattner — Washington University Political Review (WUPR) Editors-in-Chief — said that they hoped WashU would take steps to protect international students. “If any student does find themselves in an issue with immigration services, I hope that WashU will be there to advocate for them,” Gunter said. “I mean, it’s a school with an amazing number of resources.” Many college communities have also expressed concern over the potential for the Trump administration to identify and subsequently deport undocumented students through the use of Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) data or reinterpreted Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) guidelines. Andy Sobel, Professor of Global Studies, said that such moves may impede WashU in its efforts to foster a diverse intellectual community. “One of the great aspects of the US university system is the recruitment of talent from all over the world, fostering exploration, discovery, intellectual collaboration, creativity, and invention of new ideas, insights, [and] inventions,” Sobel wrote to Student Life. “Erecting barriers to such flow of talent and ideas will have costs.” Among his proposed policies, Trump has threatened to strip accreditation from U.S. universities that continue Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs. Rebecca Wanzo — Chair of the Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies — expressed grave concern over an executive order signed by President Trump that restricts certain rights of transgender individuals and legally defines gender as being aligned with biological sex at conception. “The Executive Order suggests that transgender and non-binary people should not exist,” Wanzo wrote to Student Life. “If that perspective wins out in public policy, it will obviously affect our trans and non-binary students, staff, and faculty at Washington University.” Wanzo also said of the threat the Trump administration potentially poses to various fields of study, including her own.
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ANAELDA RAMOS | ILLUSTRATION EDITOR