THURTENE DEFINES CARNIVAL AS `COMMUNITY EVENT,` NOT

the independent newspaper of Washington University in St. Louis since 1878
VOLUME 136, NO. 54
WWW.STUDLIFE.COM
MONDAY, APRIL 20 , 2015
RUBIK’S CUBE
RECORD
Junior breaks
world record
(Scene, pg 6)
SOFTBALL SWEEPS
DOUBLEHEADER
Pitching sparks four
shutout games
(Sports, pg 5)
WEEKEND IN REVIEW
(Photo, pg 9)
Discontent
brews among
students about
housing process
ALEX SIEGMAN
STAFF REPORTER
THURTENE DEFINES CARNIVAL
AS ‘COMMUNITY EVENT,’
NOT CHARITY FUNDRAISER
VERONICA JONG | STUDENT LIFE
Community members walk around the Brookings parking lot for food and rides at this year’s ThurtenE Carnival. Many Greek Life organizations helped sponsor the
event and built facades showcased at the yearly carnival. For more photos of ThurtenE, check out Photo (pg 9). For more coverage, see Scene (pg 6).
ALEX SIEGMAN
STAFF REPORTER
This weekend’s ThurtenE carnival featured seven facades, more
than a dozen rides and a student
breaking a world record for underwater Rubik’s cubing. It didn’t
necessarily raise much money for
charity.
The junior honorary that runs
ThurtenE, which is the oldest
student-run carnival in the nation,
benefits from its association with
local charities and says that it
donates profits to these groups.
This year the beneficiary was
UrbanFUTURE, a nonprofit organization that aims to support public
schools through tutoring, mentorship and other programs.
ThurtenE, however, refuses to
disclose how much money brought
in by the carnival is donated and
it bars the charities from disclosing the donations themselves. A
ThurtenE spokesperson says it is
inaccurate to think of ThurtenE as
a charity.
“I would chalk it up to the misconception that the carnival is a
‘charity carnival’ or a fundraiser,”
junior and ThurtenE Public
Relations Chair Adam CohenNowak said. “Instead, ThurtenE is
a community event where the net
proceeds are donated to a partner
organization.”
Cohen-Nowak said that the
carnival’s goal is “community engagement” rather than
fundraising.
“Attaching a dollar value to
that isn’t necessarily the best way
to conclude the entire weekend,”
Cohen-Nowak said. “So we kind of
just try to focus everyone’s attention
on the event itself and promoting
the organization.”
Student Life contacted representatives from this year’s charity
and the previous four charities
designated as beneficiaries of the
carnival, and all of them said they
were barred from saying how much
money they received.
Frank Van Bree, CEO of
UrbanFUTURE,
said
his
organization is not concerned with
the expected donation and understands the secrecy that shrouds
ThurtenE honorary.
“I don’t know if it’s three cents
or $300,000, and we are not basing
anything on that part of the relationship,” Van Bree said. “I kind
of look at it as this is a fraternity,
sorority or a group, association or
whatever they call themselves…
When I was in a fraternity myself,
we had rituals and secret handshakes and things that only those in
the fraternity can know about, and
so I’ve written it off to this is the
same thing.”
Cohen-Nowak said the benefits
for the charity go beyond monetary
value. However, at this weekend’s
event, there was little information available to carnival-goers
about the organization. A solitary
UrbanFUTURE booth featured
pamphlets and business cards.
Some in the St. Louis community assume that the proceeds from
the carnival go directly toward
ThurtenE’s selected community
Gun violence initiative
unsure of ramifications,
politicized mission
SAM WEIEN
STAFF REPORTER
As Washington University prepares to hold the first event of a
year-long focus on gun violence,
the chancellor and his wife, whose
experiences sparked the initiative, seem to be at odds over the
mission.
Chancellor Mark Wrighton says
that the University is not pursuing
a legislative agenda against guns,
but instead is trying to find a way
to make firearms safer.
“We have to respect the fact that
the Second Amendment provides
the opportunity for anyone who
wants to have a gun to have one,”
Wrighton said in an interview.
Risa Zwerling Wrighton, his
wife, came up with the initiative
after a student she had been tutoring for seven years was shot and
killed. She said she does intend
for the initiative to have a political
agenda.
“Our goals include getting legislation passed, but that is just
one prong of a multi-pronged
approach,” Zwerling Wrighton
said in an interview last month
with Student Life.
Which approach the university
will take may begin to become
clear at the initiative’s first event
on Tuesday, April 21.
Sponsored by the Brown
School of Social Work, the first
event aims to identify what is
already known about the factors
that drive injury and death from
gun violence in the United States.
“What we’re striving to do is
to overcome the challenge that is
so evident just from reading the
newspaper every day,” Wrighton
said. “We see accidental deaths,
we see suicides, we see violence
in our community and we need
to explore ways of lessening the
chance of death and injury from
firearms.”
He compared this issue to
that of drunken driving in previous decades, which he said
were reduced by crackdowns and
safety equipment. As of 2013, the
SEE INITIATIVE, PAGE 2
partner.
A woman who brought her
two children to the carnival was
unaware that the honorary did
not reveal the amount of their
donations.
“I never thought about that
before,” she said. “It’s all about the
donation, but I never knew that
[the amount of donations was not
disclosed.]”
ThurtenE estimated that 80,000
visitors would attend the carnival.
If each spent $10 on rides, food
and games, that would amount to
$800,000 in revenue. It is not clear
what the expenses of hosting the
carnival add up to.
Although fraternities and sororities contribute significantly to
ThurtenE each year, it has faced
some criticism from those groups as
well. Vice President of Operations
for the Beta Theta Pi fraternity and
junior Austin Middleton said that
Kappa Delta and Beta decided to
work on a separate project and
If all goes as planned,
Rubelmann Hall will be demolished this summer. The result
is growing discontent amongst
students seeking affordable oncampus housing.
Until
construction
on
Rubelmann’s replacement is complete, there will be fewer beds on
the South 40, resulting in more
sophomores being pushed into
the Village House and Lopata
House.
At a panel hosted by the
Congress of the South 40,
Director of Housing Operations
Tim Lempfert said that the new
Rubelmann building will be of
the same modern style that the
University has been building
more recently. For next year, a
modern double on the South 40
costs $10,486 annually, while a
traditional double will have an
annual cost of $9,482. A single
in the Village and Lopata Houses
goes for $11,880 per year.
Lempfert also mentioned the
addition of
gender-inclusive
housing on the South 40 beginning this summer, which means
that underclassmen will be able
to choose roommates regardless
of gender.
The questions raised during the event ranged from those
regarding
financial
equality
among housing options to the
displacement of this year’s rising sophomores from the South
40. The event drew about 20
students.
Sophomore Morgan Ippolito
asked the panel of members of
the Office of Residential Life
about the increased pressure on
the Village apartments to house
underclassmen and what that
means for upperclassmen that
have traditionally lived there.
SEE THURTENE , PAGE 3
SEE HOUSING, PAGE 3
WASH. U. CELEBRATES HOLI
MARY RICHARDSON | STUDENT LIFE
Students take part in this year’s Holi festival of colors sponsored by Wash. U. Ashoka. The celebration of the Hindu holiday representing the victory of good over evil came during this year’s multicultural celebration weekend for prospective
students. For more photos of Holi, check out Photo (pg 9).
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MONDAY 20
PARTLY CLOUDY
63 / 44
MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2015
TUESDAY 21
MOSTLY SUNNY
68 / 47
WEDNESDAY 22
PARTLY CLOUDY
64 / 42
EVENT
CALENDAR
MONDAY 20
Department of Music—Wash. U. Student
Composition Showcase
560 Music Center, E. Desmond Lee Concert
Hall, 7 p.m.
Featuring the composition students of Christopher Stark.
TUESDAY 21
Gun Violence: A Public Health Crisis
Medical Campus, Eric P. Newman Education
Center, 5-7:30 p.m.
Opening remarks by St. Louis Mayor
Francis Slay. Keynote address: “The Gun
Violence Public Health Crisis: What it means
and what we need to do.” Alan Leshner,
Ph.D. Co-presented with the Institute for
Public Health and Brown School of Social
Work.
“Hunting Ground” Screening
Laboratory Sciences Building, Room 300,
7:30 p.m.
Join us for a screening of the recently released documentary about sexual assault on
college campuses, “The Hunting Ground.”
Following the screening, there will be a
brief panel discussion including representatives from various student organizations
and staff from the Office of Sexual Assault
and Community Health Services, as well as
Jessica Kennedy, the Title IX coordinator.
Department of English—MFA Reading
Duncker Hall, Hurst Lounge, Room 201, 8
p.m.
Second-year master of fine arts students
read from their fiction and poetry.
“It was beautiful
weather, no wind,
and two guys from
Wabash were
helping set the
pace to make sure
it went really fast.
I just tailed along
for 800 meters and
then tried to hold
onto the pace for the
last 700. Everything
went right, or
almost perfectly.”
- Josh Clark, junior runner on
his 1,500-meter school record
SEE STORY ON PG 5
WEDNESDAY 22
Thinking the Museum Series: Panel
Discussion
Kemper Art Museum, 6 p.m.
“Egyptian Mummies Now and Then.” Focus
on three ancient Egyptian mummies, two
owned by the Kemper and one owned by
the Saint Louis Art Museum. These mummies were recently transported to BarnesJewish Hospital, where a team of Washington University radiologists performed
CT scans on them. Moderated by Sabine
Eckmann, director and chief curator at the
Kemper Art Museum.
“Trainwreck,” starring Amy Schumer
and Bill Hader
AMC Esquire 7, 6706 Clayton Rd., 7 p.m.
Social Programming Board’s Film Committee presents an advanced screening of the
new romantic comedy. Buses leave from the
Alumni Parking Lot at 6 and 6:30 p.m. Free
to all undergraduate students with a valid
University ID. Reserve tickets online.
314.289.9000 | 3949 Lindell Blvd | St. Louis, MO 63108
SKYLER KESSLER | STUDENT LIFE
A panel discusses reproductive rights issues in the Danforth University Center on Thursday night.
New group battles Missouri
reproductive laws with state Rep.
KATIE MARCUS
NEWS EDITOR
State
Representative
Stacey
Newman
was
tired of hearing old white
men talk about women’s
bodies. Her answer: an
anti-vasectomy bill aimed
at mocking the idea that
government should interfere with reproductive
choices.
Newman, whose district
includes the South 40 and
some off-campus housing,
was frustrated when she
was one of seven women
not allowed to speak during a legislative debate
over a resolution concerning a federal mandate that
health plans provide contraceptive coverage.
The
state
legislator
recounted
her
tongue-in-cheek effort to
respond during a panel discussion Thursday. Her bill,
modeled on similar efforts
in other states, would have
prevented men from having vasectomies unless
facing serious health risks.
“It was to put the same
restrictions on a male
who was going after their
own reproductive choices
that we women face in
Missouri,” Newman said.
“The response that came
back was ‘How dare you.
How dare you interfere
in my personal choice.’ I
made my point.”
She was one of three
panelists at an event hosted
by Washington University
Student Advocates for
Reproductive
Rights
(WUStARR), a new student group partnered with
Planned Parenthood and
aimed at advocating for
women’s
reproductive
rights.
The others panelists
also work with women’s
reproductive health issues
and
included
M’Evie
Mead, state director of
organizing for Planned
Parenthood Advocates in
Missouri, and St. Louis
gynecologist
Jaclyn
Grentzer.
WUStARR is one of
Student Union’s newest
clubs. They began forming
in September and became
registered with SU in late
February.
WUStARR
founder and sophomore
Vera Schulte decided to
create the group when she
became more aware of
the struggles of women in
Missouri to achieve access
to proper reproductive
health.
“Growing up in Seattle,
Washington, which is
arguably one of the most
liberal areas in the U.S.,
I wasn’t really aware of
the detestable state of
reproductive rights in
other areas of the country, but my eyes were
opened when I moved to
Missouri,” Schulte said.
Schulte said she was
particularly upset by a
measure signed into law
in 2014 requiring women
to wait 72 hours to get an
abortion after receiving
counseling.
This
panel,
which
was the group’s first big
event, heavily focused
on the political aspects
of reproductive health.
WUStARR executive and
senior Emily Santos hopes
to see the group approach
such issues from different
perspectives in the future,
though she’s not sure what
issues they will be.
“It is exciting to think
there are a lot of different
ways this group can go,”
Santos said.
The event brought in
more attendees than the
new group expected, and
DUC 234 was tightly
packed by the time the
speakers began.
“Honestly, I was not
expecting to fill that
room,” Schulte said.
Sophomore
attendee
Vishal Vijay said he was
surprised to hear about the
inner workings of the politics behind such issues and
that he shared the views of
panelists.
“I’m glad I went,”
Vijay said. “It was kind
of eye-opening to see how
politics really happen, but
then again I don’t totally
know what to believe
because that was just one
side.”
INITIATIVE FROM PAGE 1
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number of traffic deaths per
100,000 people has been
more than cut in half since
1980.
“We’re trying to raise
people’s consciousness to
the scale of this crisis,”
Wrighton said.
A key administrator in organizing the
initiative seemed to echo
Wrighton’s perspective. Dr.
William Powderly, director of the Washington
University Institute for
Public Health—which is
coordinating the initiative—
says that the issue needs to
be addressed in terms of
societal well-being.
“It’s a public health
issue—we have many people dying prematurely from
something we can do things
about,” Powderly said.
“What we’re talking about is
recognizing that people have
certain rights and responsibilities. How do we create a
knowledgeable society that
manages so that fewer people die needlessly?”
Powderly says that over
the course of the initiative there might not be an
immediate, tangible change,
but foresees the initiative
making an impact on the
mindset the University community has about the issue.
He also says he hopes that
the initiative might help
identify solutions that could
be applied to the St. Louis
community.
“Do I expect that at the
end of one year we have a
major policy change and
that there will be new legislation?” Powderly added.
“I think that’s unlikely. But
if we create an environment
in which people start to talk
about that, then you can see
the road to where policy
may change in a direction
that benefits everyone: recognizing people’s rights, but
actually recognizing individual responsibility.”
Currently
all
seven
schools of the University
are involved in the Institute
of Public Health, but not
all have been incorporated into the year-long
series. Although the three
major partners as of now
are the Brown School of
Social Work, the School of
Medicine and the School of
Law, with each sponsoring
one of the events, Powderly
hopes each school will take
a role over the course of the
year.
Still, Zwerling Wrighton
maintains that she expects
something more than panel
discussions and community
education from the initiative.
“I would hope there
would be something a little
bit more concrete,” Zwerling
Wrighton said. “The hope
would be that [students] are
going to see it coming and
going and that we’re going
to raise everyone’s consciousness and by the end
of the year, come up with
something we can do.”
Next Tuesday’s panel will
be entitled “Gun Violence:
A Public Health Crisis,”
the event will feature keynote speaker Dr. Alan
Leshner, CEO emeritus of
the American Association
for the Advancement of
Science. Additionally there
will be a panel consisting
of James Clark, vice president of Better Family Life;
Bo Kennedy, professor of
pediatrics at the Washington
University
School
of
Medicine; Becky Morgan,
head of the St. Louis
Chapter of Moms Demand
Action for Gun Sense in
America; and Nancy Staudt,
dean of the Washington
University School of Law.
Leschner was chosen for
his work on the publication of “The Gun Violence
Public Health Crisis: What it
means and what we need to
do.” Additionally, St. Louis
Mayor Francis Slay has been
invited as special guest to
give the opening remarks.
MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2015
EMILY SCHIENVAR | SENIOR NEWS EDITOR | [email protected]
STUDENT LIFE 3
HOUSING FROM PAGE 1
SKYLER KESSLER | STUDENT LIFE
A panel of Residential Life employees and student representatives discuss the housing process
and its behind-the-scenes details. The event comes on the heels of housing selection where many
students had questions and concerns about the process.
“I feel like [the class
below us] is continually
pushing us out of housing
that has been traditionally
offered to people of our
year,” Ippolito said. “If…I
want to live with ResLife
all four years, can you
guarantee that?”
Lempfert explained that
in any given year there will
always be a group that goes
last, which is the nature of
a lottery.
“The way our lottery is
structured, our strongest
preference for suites is for
our younger students and
our strongest preference for
apartments are our oldest
students,” Lempfert said.
Lempfert said that the
residential life process
maintains a set of priorities
that they tend to follow,
but trying to keep groups
of students close together
drives a majority of the
decisions made.
“We belie ve in our
model that it is more
important who you live
with than the actual building that you are assigned,”
Lempfert said.
Freshman
Hannah
Marias, however, complained that the interests
of freshmen living in Lee
and Beaumont were not
being taken into account.
While most freshman residential halls are complete
with matching sophomore
dorms on the South 40,
the Lee/Beau Residential
College has no sophomore
house on the South 40
for which they have sole
preference.
“The fact that you kind
of broke up Lee/Beau, I
think that implies that you
relied a little too much
on data and not the psychology of different floor
styles,” Marias said.
Panelists responded by
explaining that there are
plans over the next year or
so to discuss issues such
the Residential College
system, the uniformity
of housing prices and the
debate between modern
and traditional dorm construction, in depth.
Junior Aashna Narang,
CS40 director of services
and member of this year’s
housing task force, said
that she feels student opinions have been integral in
the housing process.
“I found that anything
that I said was really taken
very seriously,” Narang
said. “I had a few friends
come up to me and ask if
I could share their stories
and all of those things were
taken into account, and
there were solid steps made
to move forward to…move
new things into place that
would make this process
easier.”
Sophomore Lucy Chin,
speaker of the CS40 executive board, explained the
importance of hosting the
event during these times of
changing circumstances.
“We had anecdotally
heard that there were issues
with housing this year,”
Chin said. “We thought
it would be a good use of
our platform to connect
administration and students so that they could
have a really good candid
conversation that might
not happen as informally
in any other situation.”
THURTENE FROM PAGE 1
minimize their own facade
work this year.
“There’s so much wasted
effort where you build these
giant facades and spend all
of this money building it,
and there is a week of that,
and then it is essentially torn
down at the end,” Middleton
said. “It’s very much a waste
of resources and time for
something that doesn’t make
a sustainable impact within
the community.”
For several decades, the
ThurtenE
carnival
has
branded itself as a way to
engage with the St. Louis
community through donating its proceeds. But, in
1989, the Judevine Center,
a group which aids children
with autism, said it received
only $4,000 from ThurtenE,
according to a 1990 Student
Life article, while the
1988 charity, the Missouri
Coalition for Missing and
Abused Children, reported
receiving no funds at all,
which ThurtenE said was
because the charity was
under investigation at the
time.
At some point after,
ThurtenE barred groups from
disclosing the dollar amount
they receive.
This secrecy has led to
rumors amongst the student
body that they donate little, if
any, of the carnival proceeds
to their chosen community
partner.
Sophomore Erin Borders
echoed the sentiments of
the rumors that have been
circulating around campus
regarding how ThurtenE
spends its funds.
“I guess I think they’re
shady because they’re so
closed off about where the
money they earn goes to.
I feel like it’s some kind of
underground drug ring or
college mafia or something,”
Borders said.
Cohen-Nowak, ThurtenE
public relations chair, said
that the secrecy is justified by
the honorary’s history.
“ThurtenE honorary has
its roots as a secret society…
since taking over the carnival in 1935,” Cohen-Nowak
said. “We’ve tried to keep the
planning a secret just so that
in the end this whole event
comes out of nowhere, there
are rides, booths, it’s like
‘Wow! Where did this come
from?’ It’s really exciting for
us that way it’s exciting for
everyone else.”
He noted that the secrecy
of the donations and the
organization “makes for
quite a few colorful Yik-Yaks
and some hateful stares in
Whispers.”
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VOLUME 136, NO. 54
Megan Magray
Editor-in-Chief
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Wesley Jenkins
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Associate Editor
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Aaron Brezel
Senior Sports Editor
[email protected]
Sarah Hands
Manvitha Marni
Maddie Wilson
Managing Editors
Rima Parikh
Senior Scene Editor
[email protected]
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Long-Form Editor
Becca Christman
Design Chief
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Senior Cadenza Editor
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Copy Chief
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Emily Schienvar
Senior News Editor
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Senior Photo Editors
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General Manager
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Copyright © 2015 Washington
University Student Media,
Inc. (WUSMI). Student Life is
a financially and editorially
independent, student-run
newspaper serving the
Washington University
community. Our newspaper
is a publication of WUSMI and
does not necessarily represent
the views of the Washington
University administration.
FORUM
WESLEY JENKINS | SENIOR FORUM EDITOR | [email protected]
4 STUDENT LIFE
MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2015
STAFF EDITORIAL
W
ith yet
another
incarnation of
the ThurtenE Carnival in
the books, Washington
University students are
once again left with more
questions than answers,
more gripes than good
feelings about the whole
event. Wash. U. continually markets the event as
the school’s oldest tradition
and as the nation’s largest and oldest student-run
carnival. While age and
The liabilities of a tradition
size certainly factor into
the making of a tradition, general enjoyment
of said tradition is also
prerequisite.
With ThurtenE, outside
Greek life, very few people
get excited about the event.
It is essentially a Greek
event marketed as something the whole campus is
involved with and enjoys.
While this fact certainly
doesn’t preclude the event
from being a campus-wide
tradition, the general apathy felt by other students
and lack of transparency
do.
Many students avoid the
carnival or are at least wary
of it because its financials
are not released to the
public. While the carnival
itself is not marketed as
a philanthropic endeavor,
there is the general understanding among the student
body that the proceeds are
meant to go to a non-profit
in the St. Louis community.
Yet a charitable amount
is never released, and the
ThurtenE honorary itself
keeps its activities under
wraps because it is a “secret
society.”
If the event was more
focused on fundraising—
and overtly so—the rest of
the campus could become
more willing to embrace
the carnival and have it
more fully integrated as a
campus tradition. Because
so many students are
disillusioned by the group’s
secrecy, they are unwilling
to support the carnival as
a whole, which hurts not
only the school but the St.
Louis community as well.
On that note, running
ThurtenE as it stands is
a liability to the public’s
well-being. Even though
there are safety regulations
on the facades that force
the fraternities/sororities to
pay fees if violated, these
facades are still constructed
in around two weeks by
untrained college students.
Because community members, mostly children, sit in
these facades for extended
periods of time during
the carnival, there is the
definite possibility that any
safety violations could end
with someone outside of
the school getting hurt.
ThurtenE, as a so-called
tradition, also functions as
an extreme liability. The
event should be revamped
to include more of campus,
increase commitment to
the St. Louis community
and keep its builders safe.
Wash. U. craves a real,
campus-wide tradition to
hold onto, and ThurtenE
could provide that—but it
hasn’t yet.
POINT-COUTERPOINT
Point: Without consistency,
Writing 1 is irrelevant
WESLEY JENKINS
SENIOR FORUM EDITOR
A
s the year
is winding
down and all
freshmen (save
some lucky engineers)
have completed their
Writing 1 credit, we are
able to reflect on the class.
Despite the fact that most
of the reflection consists
of general whining and
moaning, to look on
Writing 1 after taking the
class still leads to varied
and polarizing views. One
such view is that Writing
1 is not an enjoyable
class but still necessary
in the college education
framework. Another such
view—my view—is that
the entire course is irrelevant and should be done
away with entirely.
First of all, regardless
of the value of the essays
or the writing taught,
the course is irrelevant
simply because there is no
consistency in its instruction. By making Writing
1 a required course for all
incoming freshmen, the
necessity arises for there
to be a large number of
sections taught by many
different teachers. Because
writing isn’t a subject that
has a fixed set of guidelines like math or science
(grammar notwithstanding), each instructor has
a different interpretation
of what they deem to
be good writing. Thus a
student may earn a C in
Writing 1 whereas they
could have turned in the
exact same essays to a different teacher and earned
an A- or the like. There
is no way to regulate so
many teachers and their
different writing styles in
a class where there are no
set guidelines to be met.
Because of this discrepancy, the course should be
either changed to a pass/
fail class that isn’t counted
against the student or
just removed from the
curriculum.
Regardless of the teaching variable, Writing 1
also fails to instill any
foundations for good
writing. Nothing in the
course’s syllabus focuses
on building cohesive
sentence structure, keeping the reader engaged or
analyzing others’ writing.
To be honest, the lessons
taught in the Advanced
Placement English
Literature course are far
more useful to creating
a good writer. Learning
how to vary your syntax,
expand your diction and
use your tone to your
advantage are valuable
lessons overlooked during
Writing 1. Instead, the
course focuses on broadstroke writing topics such
as theme (personal narrative, argumentation) and
organization more than
the more-important micro
aspects.
While I do believe
knowing how to write
about your own life or
being able to analyze the
media all around you are
important skills, they are
useless if your sentencelevel writing is not up to
par. In my opinion, the
only worthwhile essay
assignment was the
argumentative analysis
as it forced you to look at
someone else’s work, decipher their argument and
then formulate a response.
At the very least, this
essay taught an important
life skill—being able to
respond coherently to others’ opinions.
Lastly, the Writing 1
requirement is irrelevant
in the grand scheme of
Washington University’s
curriculum because Arts &
Sciences already requires
students to take a writingintensive course. If that
requirement were extended
to the other three schools
(with the same current
system of testing for
engineers), then Writing
1 would be obsolete as
all students would still
receive the same, if not
better, writing instruction.
Also, eliminating Writing
1 would serve the dual
purpose of cutting back
on the absurd amount of
requirements students have
to complete, thus letting
freshmen explore their
options of study with an
additional three credits.
Even though I doubt the
course will be removed
anytime in the near
future, it should at least be
improved or changed to an
entirely pass/fail course.
To force such a watereddown version of writing
upon freshman is a disservice to all parties involved.
It would be better if the
administration actually
made the class a consistent
study in the construction
of arguments, rather than
just another blow-off distribution requirement.
Counterpoint: Writing 1 is
flawed, but necessary
PETER DISSINGER
STAFF COLUMNIST
E
very college and
university in the
United States has
a set of writing
requirements for its students
that need to be fulfilled within
four years. For most students
at Washington University,
College Writing 1 is the class
that fills this obligation. A
course designed to prepare
students for future writingintensive courses and research,
the premise of the course is
valid in theory. However, in
practice, College Writing 1 has
become a pariah of subjective
grading scales and teachers
with terrible reputations.
As someone who has now
taken the class, I would argue
against the stigma and say that
the class actually benefits the
majority of students by giving
all students valuable writing
experience.
One of my favorite parts
of Writing 1 has been the
readings. So maybe this
argument doesn’t apply to
most people, but pieces like
“Against School” by John
Gatto and “Consider the
Lobster” by David Foster
Wallace provide a provocative
basis for class discussion and
have actual educational value.
That sounds vague, but as an
interdisciplinary student, I
can actually use these pieces
for other classes and talk to
my peers about controversial
and interesting subjects. In
that sense, the curriculum of
Writing 1 is actually useful to
my development as a critical
student.
Over the past few months,
I’ve learned about the problems of being bilingual in
the educational system and
that Google may potentially
be making us stupid. I’m not
claiming that “So What?” and
“Who Says?” are useful—in
fact, I’ve barely done more
than skim those readings. I
also had qualms with reading
an entire book in a week, but
regardless, I would still argue
that the readings in the class
actually can have an impact
on students.
Writing 1 has been my
smallest freshman class—I
know every person in our
group, and we get along well
with our professor. Certainly,
the experience in Writing 1
varies with the abilities of
each teacher, but I firmly
believe that there’s a social
value to Writing 1. I barely
knew anyone at the start of
the class, but I will leave the
year with a new set of people
I can say “hi” to on campus
and with whom I can have
meaningful conversations.
Yes, you could argue that
this could be accomplished
with a large set of freshman
seminars or a required writingintensive course, but it’s a
tangible benefit of Writing 1
that makes the class a wholesome experience for students.
And, as an added bonus,
you’ll always have something
to talk about with any Wash.
U. student. We’ve all gone
through it, and I’d say most—
if not all—of us, have lived to
tell the tale.
Finally—and this may be
my most contentious point—I
think the actual writing
portion of Writing 1 is an
effective way to introduce
students to creating thoughtful arguments and learning
how to do formal research
on a scholarly topic. I came
into Writing 1 with a very
traditional “I can write, so I
really don’t need this class”
mentality. Leaving the class,
I realize that I had a good
deal to learn about formulating research questions, using
library databases, properly
analyzing rhetorical strategies
from other writers and even
learning how to write engaging personal essays.
Maybe this isn’t the case for
every other student. Maybe I
was lucky that my professor
gave good feedback on my
essays and helped me find
my weaknesses as a writer.
However, I think writing the
same types of essays for the
class creates a fundamental
similarity among students.
The research process is the
same for everyone, and all
students have access to similar
resources to make their questions and resulting theses. If
you come in with the right
attitude to Writing 1, every
student can tangibly improve
their writing skills and come
out of the class with more
knowledge about the art of
writing persuasively.
One of the great conundrums of Writing 1 is the lack
of consistency with professors, and I admit that this is
a great argument against the
continuation of a school-wide
program for introducing
writing to college students. I
believe there are at least small
components of the program
that can benefit everyone. As
someone who has had a good
experience in the class, I also
think that there is the potential
to change as a writer. Maybe
my bias is too evident, but I
think that the College Writing
Program at Wash. U. is just
fine.
EDITORIAL CARTOON
BECCA CHRISTMAN | STUDENT LIFE
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sports
MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2015
AARON BREZEL | SENIOR SPORTS EDITOR | [email protected]
STUDENT LIFE 5
Baseball collects three wins, one loss in high-scoring weekend
aaron brezel
senior sports editor
The Washington University
baseball team could not hold
onto their 9-1 lead as the
University of Chicago battled
back with 15 unanswered runs
to down the Bears 16-13 in a
Saturday afternoon affair at
Kelly Field.
Despite the loss, the Bears
still improve to 23-12 thanks
to 10-6 and 13-3 wins against
Chicago Saturday morning
and Sunday afternoon, respectively, as well as 12-7 victory
against Webster University
Friday night. After a sluggish
offensive weekend against
Grinnell, the Red and Green
averaged 12 runs a game. Saturday afternoon featured
the highest combined singlegame run total this season.
The Bears out-hit the division
rival Maroons 14 to 13, but
were hampered by six errors
and a season-high 11 walks.
With the Bears enjoying a
9-1 lead in the top of the sixth,
Chicago chipped away at the
deficit with a run in the sixth
and two runs in the seventh.
In the top of the eighth,
the Maroons capitalized on
three walks and two errors in
the inning to strike five runs,
four unearned, against senior
Ian Kelso, who relieved senior
starting pitcher Kunal Patel an
inning earlier. The Bears had
a chance to escape the inning
unscathed when Chicago
smacked a potential doubleplay ball with the bases loaded
and one out. However, senior
second baseman Stewart
Martens could not corral
the short-hop, extending the
inning. The Bears were able
to convert a 6-4-3 double play
highlighted by a sweeping pick
by senior first baseman Zack
Kessinger to limit the damage,
but not before a single through
the right side tied the game at
9-9.
After the Bears could not
convert on a two-out bases
loaded situation in the bottom
half of the inning, Chicago
broke the game open in the
top of the ninth with seven
two-out runs. Five of those
runs would be charged to
sophomore Matt Clohisy, who
was charged with the loss, and
two to sophomore Jake Mintz.
The inning was punctuated by
a two-out no-doubt home run
that extended Chicago’s lead
to 16-9. Tempers flared when
Mintz hit the next Maroon
batter and was immediately
tossed without the customary
warning.
“My first reaction was
shock because I didn’t know
what [the umpire] was doing,”
Mintz said. “I told him it was
erroneous. I said, ‘Sir, that’s an
egregious decision. You don’t
[do] that. You’ve got to give
me a warning.’” Duncan rushed out to
protest the ejection and was
quickly tossed as well. “I thought it was completely inexcusable for the
umpire to eject the pitcher
given that circumstance and
just as inexcusable to eject the
coach for sticking up for his
player,” Duncan said.
Following the argument,
the Bears’ dugout was noticeably more active.
The Maroons’ pitcher
plunked Kessinger to leadoff the next inning, but was
not ejected which prompted
a chorus of boos from both
the home fans and the Bears’
dugout.
The Red and Green’s bats
seemed to benefit from the
added drama. After a sluggish several innings, Wash. U.
battled back with four runs on
two hits, but could not complete the rally.
Five Bears recorded multihit games highlighted by
senior Brandon Deger’s
six-RBI day (two for five).
Lowery, Goldstick, Kessinger
and sophomore third-baseman Austin Darmawan added
two, two, two and three hits
apiece.
Patel cruised through the
first five innings, allowing
two hits and one unearned
run with five strikeouts for the
Bears. Patel’s final stat-line
would include three earned
runs and six free passes. A few hours earlier, the
skyler kessler | STUDENT LIFE
Senior Zack Kessinger bats in the Bears’ loss against the University of Chicago Saturday afternoon.
The Bears split the doubleheader against Chicago and Kessinger had four runs in the second game.
Bears were able to halt
another late-inning comeback attempt by the Maroons.
Chicago would close an eightrun deficit with three runs in
the seventh and one run in
the eighth, but sophomore
Bill Heisler pitched a scoreless ninth to secure the win.
Lowery, Martens and junior
centerfielder Max Golembo
would enjoy multiple-RBI
days as senior Max Zhang
dealt through seven innings to
earn the win. Lowery’s record-breaking
hit was a two-out, two-RBI
single in the fourth inning
of Friday’s game against
Webster. With the hit, Lowery
surpassed Brandon Rogalski
(class of 2012) as the alltime hits leader in Wash. U.
baseball history.
“It feels amazing,” Lowery
said. “I worked really hard my
whole life and since early on I
was told I wasn’t really able to
do it. I was small, I wasn’t that
talented, but I worked my butt
off and it finally paid off.”
Lowery currently leads the
Bears in average (0.435), hits
(64), runs scored (42), RBIs
(52), stolen bases (18) and
total bases (86).
“He’s probably the greatest offensive force to ever
come through the school, so
it’s been fun watching him,”
Duncan said.
Aside from Lowery’s historic performance, the Bears
took advantage of seven
Webster errors to score seven
unearned runs. Junior Julian
Clarke gave up fourteen hits
and seven earned runs in nine
innings pitched for the complete-game victory.
In the Bears’ final game
of the weekend, the Red and
Green drew eight walks in
addition to nine hits on their
way to the victory. Golembo
provided the spark on offense
with team highs in hits (3)
and RBI’s (4). Sophomore
Scott Nelson earned his fifth
win of the year and trimmed
his ERA to 3.07 by giving up
three earned runs in a complete game victory.
Next up, the Bears will look
to continue their hot hitting as
they travel north to Principia
College for a Tuesday doubleheader before hosting Iowa
Wesleyan College a day later.
Solid pitching, high-scoring offense ignite softball to 4 victories
nick kauzlarich
STAFF reporter
By posting four consecutive shutouts, the No. 15
Washington
University
softball team came away
with four convincing wins
this weekend. Highlighted
by two complete-game
performances from junior
starting pitcher Annie
Pitkin, it was the first time
since 2008 that the Bears
registered four straight
shutouts. On Friday, the Bears
(29-9 record) went on
the road and dominated
Westminster (12-19) by
stephen huber | STUDENT LIFE
Freshman Mackenzie Gauden pitches in the Bears’ game against
Millikin College on Saturday afternoon. Gauden had six strikeouts in her five innings pitched.
scores of 10-0 and 13-0,
respectively, before cruising
to two 4-0 victories against
Millikin (13-19) at home on
Saturday.
A week after losing two
games in a row for the first
time all season at Illinois
Wesleyan University, the
Bears endured through a
couple of grueling practices that prepared the team
for this weekend’s stretch
of games.
“The message was pretty
clear that we’ve got to step
up. We kind of got our
butts kicked a little bit [in
practice] with conditioning and stuff, but I think we
certainly rallied around it
and turned things around,”
Pitkin said. “We showed up
this weekend and the hard
work definitely paid off.”
Facing
off
against
Millikin, Pitkin fired her
500th career strikeout
and tossed seven shutout
innings en route to earning her 18th victory of the
season.
Offensively, the Bears
started out quickly in the
first inning. After senior
Adrienne White hit an RBI
single, sophomore Janet
Taylor belted a towering
two-run homer to left field
as the Bears jumped out to
a 3-0 lead. Taylor added
an RBI single in the fourth,
and the Red and Green
cruised to a 4-0 victory.
“There was a focus [in
practice] on just being
more aggressive hitting
wise,” Taylor said. “For
me, it’s all about timing
and rhythm and it was
good to gain that back in
practice this week.”
In game two of the
doubleheader, the Bears
jumped out to another
first-inning lead when
sophomore Hannah Mehrle
singled to left to score
senior Paige Biles. With a
slim 1-0 lead in the fourth,
freshman pinch hitter Hera
Tang provided a spark by
hitting an RBI single up the
middle and then scoring on
a wild pitch to make it 3-0.
The Bears added an
insurance run in the fifth
and held on for the second
4-0 victory of the day. Freshman
Mackenzie
Gauden (5-1, 2.10 ERA)
earned the victory after
allowing just three hits in
five innings of work and
fellow freshman Maggie
Clapp tossed two perfect
innings to close the game.
For Pitkin, being able to
witness the development
of Gauden and Clapp as
pitchers has been an enjoyable experience.
“[Clapp] and [Gauden]
did a phenomenal job this
weekend. They complement each other really
well. To have a few pitchers who can really take care
of business together is so
fun to watch,” Pitkin said.
“It’s been a lot of fun to see
them grow into their roles.
It’s hard coming in as a
freshman. You don’t really
know where you fit in, but
they’ve hung in there and
just kept working hard.”
On Friday, the Bears’
offense took control against
Westminster, scoring three
runs in the first inning and
four in the fourth to hold
a commanding 7-0 lead
before White smashed a
three-run homer in the
sixth. It was her 10th
round-tripper of the season, which puts her just
one home run away from
tying the Wash. U. singleseason record.
Pitkin kept the Blue
Jays off the scoreboard by
striking out 11 while surrendering only three hits
and a walk in six innings.
After posting the blowout
victory, the Bears picked up
where they left off with 13
runs and a season-high 18
hits in a 13-0 five-inning
triumph. Mehrle (2-for3, three RBIs) and junior
Brooke Hofer (2-for-2, two
RBIs) were the top contributors offensively for Wash.
U. Gauden nabbed the victory by conceding just one
hit in three innings, and
Clapp blanked Westminster
in two innings to preserve
the shutout. With four wins already
in the books, the Red and
Green were slated to play
a home doubleheader on
Sunday against Webster
University, but the games
were rained out and will
not be rescheduled.
Clark sets school record as Bears prepare for UAA championship
zach kram
staff reporter
A week before Washington
University’s track and field
team hopes to extend one
record and tie another as a
group, junior Josh Clark set
a school mark of his own on
Friday.
With a scorching time of
3:49.57 in the 1,500-meter
race, the second fastest in
Division III this season, Clark
bested an 11-year school
record by nearly two seconds
at the Rose-Hulman Twilight
Invitational in Terre Haute,
Ind.
Beyond Clark’s victory, the
Bears won four additional
events on the men’s side to
finish a narrow second in
the team standings while the
women posted eight victories
to run away to an easy team
win.
“It feels good,” Clark said
about his achievement. “It was
one of my goals coming into
the year, was to set the school
record and qualify for nationals. Hopefully the time that I
just ran will get me there.”
Finishing behind Clark was
Wash. U. sophomore Dillon
Williams, who edged out three
runners from Wabash College
to take second place. Clark
said that the Wabash runners
helped set the pace early and
propel him to his record time.
“It was beautiful weather,
no wind, and two guys from
Wabash were helping set the
pace to make sure it went really
fast,” he said. “I just tailed
along for 800 meters and then
tried to hold onto the pace for
the last 700. Everything went
right, or almost perfectly.”
Clark said that after hitting
the 800-meter mark with the
two leaders in 2:03, he kept the
pace for the next 300 meters
before quickening on the last
400 en route to a 59-second
last-lap finish.
Another
mid-distance
specialist with a big day was
junior Emily Warner, who
chipped in with victories both
in and outside her usual list of
events. Her 400 time of 56.55
seconds marked the fifth fastest in Division III this season,
while Warner sprinted with
sophomores Kelli Hancock,
Rebecca Ridderhoff and Daisy
Ogede to win the 400 relay.
Ogede also added a pair of
individual victories in the 100
dash and 100 hurdles.
Other event winners for the
women included freshmen
Annalise Wagner (800) and
Alison Lindsay (1,500), sophomore Annie Marggraff (3,000)
and senior Claire Simons
(pole vault). For the men,
that list spanned all grade levels, with freshman Andrew
de Jong (3,000 steeplechase),
sophomore Zach Teed (3,000),
junior Joey Pasque (high
jump) and senior Nick Alaniva
(pole vault) tallying victories.
“There were so many really
good performances,” head
coach Jeff Stiles said. “It was
guys, girls up and down the
line. You could give me every
event and I could find something really good in the event.”
Because of academic commitments, several of the
team’s top athletes could not
make the trip to Indiana,
and others did not compete
as fully because they are
trying to stay fresh in advance
of next week’s University
Athletic Association Outdoor
Championships.
“I think it just shows that
we have a really deep, good
team that we can constantly
finish first or second at every
meet even when we’re not
running all our best runners or
we’re not running all our best
events,” Clark said.
Of the team’s five outdoor
meets this season, both the
men and women have won
four. Stiles praised the team’s
consistency in its week-toweek performance.
“Just being consistent is
something any coach in any
sport wants to see from their
athletes,” he said.
At next week’s UAA
championship, the Bears will
attempt to put the finishing
touches on a year of consistent conference dominance.
Wash. U. is the only school to
win five of six UAA titles in a
year—the six coming for men
and women in cross-country,
indoor track and field and outdoor track and field.
The Bears accomplished
the feat in 2004-05, 2005-06
and 2011-12, and with three
of four titles already secured
this year, the team will need
to sweep the outdoor titles
to match their Wash. U.
predecessors.
For the men, another streak
is on the line: six consecutive
UAA outdoor titles, already a
record, and Clark said that the
team’s main goal is simply to
continue that run of success.
“We don’t want to be the
team that breaks that streak,”
he said.
6 STUDENT LIFE
SCENE
MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2015
RIMA PARIKH | SENIOR SCENE EDITOR | [email protected]
Underwater Rubik’s solver: Kevin Hays breaks record
RIMA PARIKH
SENIOR SCENE EDITOR
It’s Sunday, April 19 at
ThurtenE Carnival, and a
torrential downpour has just
lightened to a drizzle. The
inclement weather doesn’t stop
a smattering of people from
gathering around a dunk tank,
where Washington University
junior Kevin Hays is about
to break the world record for
solving the most Rubik’s Cubes
underwater in one breath. The
current record is set at five, so
Hays must complete at least six.
The crowd includes children,
parents, ThurtenE Carnival
student organizers, Hays’
friends, other curious carnivalgoers and a man that looks
suspiciously like my high school
principal. Everyone huddles
close to the tank—close enough
that there are enough umbrellas open around me that I’m
able to discreetly mooch off my
neighbor’s.
Hays seems unbothered by
the dismal weather. He’s draped
in a towel, prepared to climb
into the tank at any minute.
His inspiration for the
endeavor came from watching his friend set the previous
record of solving five Rubik’s
Cubes underwater.
“I saw my friend Anthony
Brooks break the world record
last summer, and I thought,
‘I could do that,’” he tells the
crowd.
This is a daunting feat, but
Hays has the qualifications.
He’s been competitively solving Rubik’s Cubes for six years
t on 2/18/15.)
now. During the summer of
2013, he broke the world record
in completing the 6x6 Rubik’s
Cube in a little over one minute
and 40 seconds. He is currently
the world champion for solving
the 5x5 and 7x7 Rubik’s Cubes.
He’s also on the swim team, so
he has plenty of practice holding his breath.
While he did practice solving cubes underwater, he also
trained by completing them
while holding his breath above
ground. His main strategy is
to stay relaxed throughout the
event. He plans to pace himself
by taking a whole 15 seconds to
solve each cube, rather than his
usual average of nine seconds.
The tank, which looks like
one of those circular recycling
bins on steroids, is loaded
with nine 3x3 Rubik’s cubes. It
has one clear square panel in
the front from which viewers
will be able to observe Hays
as he whizzes through them.
According to the live commentator, the water is also heated.
He’s been giving a play-by-play
of the event so far and will
continue to do so while Hays is
in the tank.
The commentator asks Hays
if he has any last words before
making the plunge. Hays gives
a half-grin. “I hope I don’t pass
out,” he says before climbing
into the tank.
He sinks to the bottom, positioned as if he’s lounging in an
armchair, and begins working
on his first cube.
Members of the crowd are
gaping through the see-through
panel on the side of the tank,
CLAIRE KOMYATI | STUDENT LIFE
Kevin Hays, a member of the Wash. U. swim team, breaks the world record for most Rubik’s Cubes solved while underwater. Hays completed the challenge of solving eight cubes within a single breath after two attempts.
with some even crouching
to get a good view. Multiple
viewers are filming this as their
Snapchat Stories. Someone is
holding their phone on a selfie
stick, just to keep it at a good
angle to catch the event.
In a few seconds, two cubes
have already floated to the top.
Hays had solved two Rubik’s
Cubes in the time that it
takes me to pump a dollop of
Softsoap from a soap dispenser.
After completing three cubes,
however, Hays resurfaces
above water at the top of the
tank. There’s an uncomfortable pause. The commentator
fills the silence by asking Hays
about what went wrong.
Hays tells him that he used
up too much energy in the
beginning and burned out too
quickly. Still, he’s going to do it
again.
After taking a second to recuperate, Hays dips back into the
tank for a second try. This time,
he seems more focused.
One, two, three, four cubes
float up to the top of the
tank. His hands are propelling
through them almost mechanically. Four more cubes surface,
and soon after, so does Hays.
With eight cubes, he breaks
the world record for the most
Rubik’s Cubes solved underwater in a single breath.
In the midst of tilt-a-whirls,
games and carnival food served
by teenagers who probably
haven’t washed their hands in
a while, Hays breaks a world
record in the parking lot in front
of Brookings. If that isn’t something to brag to your friends
about, I don’t know what is.
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MARK MATOUSEK
SENIOR CADENZA EDITOR
Orchestra wrangler.
Reverent mystic. Tortured
mystic. Schizo-pop auteur.
Purveyor of Christmas
cheer. Sufjan Stevens is
many things.
In the 15 years since
beginning his solo career,
Stevens has moved through
sounds and styles with
an insatiable appetite
for self-transformation.
His albums veer between
bombast and intimacy,
mythmaking and memory,
profundity and novelty,
poking about the furthest
reaches of his aesthetic
interests. He’s made an
electronic song cycle
driven by the Zodiac calendar, an orchestral piece
inspired by the BrooklynQueens Expressway and 10
discs worth of Christmas
music. His formal range
compares favorably
with the likes of David
Bowie; his tonal flexibility
approaches Prince.
Like those two, he’s
also managed to maintain
an air of mystery. The
name helps (it’s pronounced soof-yahn), as do
TV REVIEW
Marvel’s
‘Daredevil’
Now streaming on Netflix
JAKE LEE
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The Marvel Cinematic
Universe (MCU), which
includes movies like “The
Avengers,” is becoming one
of the biggest canonical
universes in combined media.
While there is a new movie
(“Avengers: Age of Ultron”)
on the horizon, there is yet
another exciting addition to
this ever-expanding universe: the new Netflix series
“Daredevil,” whose first
season was released in full on
April 10.
While most of the MCU
properties (including the
ABC show “Agents of
S.H.I.E.L.D.”) are deeply
interconnected, “Daredevil”
is a bit different. Of course,
there are some references
to the other parts of the
universe: since it takes place
in a New York neighborhood, the climactic battle in
“The Avengers” is the major
pivoting point that opens
at the
peabody
opera
house
Sufjan
Stevens
now
hear
this:
infrequent interviews and
a dearth of information
about his romantic life. Yet
he remains even harder
to pin down than the
Thin White Duke and the
Purple One. Sometimes,
he makes overtures to
persona-building (largely
through his elaborate
stage costumes); often,
he doesn’t. When he
engages with the media,
he projects an affability
that counters his semireclusive, shape-shifting
ways. His music is colored
with specks of profound
sadness, yet he largely
eschews the trappings of
the tortured genius. His
religion informs much of
his work, but he’s more
inclined towards wonder
than fealty.
All the genre-hopping
and personal mystique
would amount to little
were they not paired with
a songwriter and arranger
of prodigious talent.
Stevens is just that, writing
melodies that can bear
weight when paired with
only his voice and guitar
or shine through a swarm
of strings. He’s equally
fluent in the physical and
emotional qualities of his
instruments, lending even
his densest compositions
the clarity of purpose.
At times, his songs are
beautiful, funny, tragic
and everything in between.
If Stevens isn’t one day
recognized as one of the
creative geniuses of the
early aughts, something
will have gone horribly
awry.
Though his entire
discography is worth your
time, it can be unwieldy
at first sight. Here’s where
to start before his show at
the Peabody Opera House
tomorrow:
the show, and there is also a
small nod to a character who
briefly appeared in “Agents of
S.H.I.E.L.D.” However, that’s
it: with its minimal connections to the MCU, the show
tells its own story about Matt
Murdock (Charlie Cox), who
becomes a vigilante to save
his city.
Murdock lives in Hell’s
Kitchen, the neighborhood
in New York most affected
by the alien invasion in “The
Avengers.” After becoming
blind from an accident, he
develops his other senses to
a level that allows him to see
using them, sometimes better
than normal people would.
Using his abilities, he decides
to become a masked vigilante
to save Hell’s Kitchen from
the show’s villain, Wilson
Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio),
who tries to rebuild the neighborhood by destroying it first.
The most impressive aspect
of “Daredevil” is how laserfocused the plot is. With one
exception, the show never
removes the characters from
Hell’s Kitchen, which is a
stark contrast compared to
even its fellow Marvel series
“Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”
While it sometimes feels
like the pacing is a little slow
from time to time, the plot
is immersive and keeps you
wondering what is in store
for the next episode. The
producers used Netflix’s binge
strategy of releasing all its
episodes at once quite well,
making ties in each episode a
bit tighter than in regular TV
shows.
“Daredevil” also spent a
long time crafting its characters. Both Matt Murdock
and Wilson Fisk’s characters
have past events that shape
them, and those are explored
thoroughly throughout the
season. The episode that
explored Fisk’s childhood
was one of the strongest and
the most impressive episodes.
Cox and D’Onoforio are both
stellar in their performances
as the hero and villain of the
series.
The fight scenes, a centerpiece of the “Daredevil”
series, are also quite crafty.
They demonstrate that
Daredevil is not invincible,
unlike superheroes such as
Captain America. However,
it also amplifies the risks
Murdock takes in becoming
Daredevil in order to protect
his city. It shows how dangerous being a vigilante can be,
and with a TV-MA rating,
it is the most violent MCU
show. It’s honestly surprising
that Marvel allowed this level
of violence.
All of this makes
“Daredevil” the most realistic
MCU show yet. There are no
heroes with superpowers, no
mystical alien objects. There
is just one blind man who
struggles to make his city a
better place.
1. “Illinois” (2005)
Rarely do records as
sprawling as Stevens’ 2005
opus come packaged with
so little pretension. The
second and final entry
in his 50 States Project
(following his 2003 album
“Michigan,” he jokingly
indicated he would make
an album about each of
the 50 states), “Illinois”
rendered further volumes
unnecessary. In its heart,
whit and whimsy stacked
as high as the Sears Tower,
the album presents a
challenge: to top Stevens’
colorful colossus, to construct a vision so large and
so intimate. Throughout,
Stevens flaunts his comfort
across the range of scale
and tone, following lighthearted pocket symphonies
with chilling character
sketches, each revealing an
insight into the range of
human emotion.
That insight gives
“Illinois” its weight.
Wrought with the potential for empty melodrama,
“Illinois” instead earns the
right to grandstand. Take
“Chicago,” a near-perfect
six-minute ode to the transformative powers of the
big city. Though the lyrics
risk anthropomorphic
cliche (“You came to take
us…To recreate us” he
sings to Chicago, teetering
on the edge of indulgence),
his musical precision
gives vivid expression to
his musings: strings and
backup singers swelling
in just the right places,
xylophone quivering with
excitement.
An emotional travelogue
in itself, “Illinois” is an
astonishing marriage of
ambition and execution.
STUDENT LIFE 7
The trick is that Stevens
replaces hubris with
generosity, returning the
listener’s commitment
tenfold.
2. “The Age of Adz” (2010)
Though not without
precedent, Stevens’ frenetic
left turn proved a shock
to those who had come
to love his way with lush
arrangements and acoustic whispers. Inspired by
the apocalyptic work of
schizophrenic artist Royal
Robertson, “The Age of
Adz” darts skittishly about
its mechanical landscape.
Initially confounding with
its frequent twists and
turns, repeat listens set the
album’s broader movements in focus. Even more
than “Illinois,” “Age of
Adz” is a feat of compositional balance, conjuring
the enormity of helplessness in jagged, pulsating
strokes.
Informed by a bout of
an unidentifiable illness
that left Stevens beset by
chronic pain, the album
reflects the anxiety of a
man newly appreciative
of the gift of motion. And
move it does, dashing and
darting without losing its
shape. Overwhelming but
never burdensome, “The
Age of Adz” proved that
Stevens’ gifts transcend the
method of their expression.
3. “Michigan” (2003)
A tribute to Stevens’
home state, “Michigan”
serves as a muted companion to “Illinois,” forgoing
the latter’s wide-eyed
wonder for a more pensive
air. It meanders where
“Illinois” blossoms, evoking both the pleasures
and constraints of smalltown life. To paraphrase
Kendrick Lamar, loving
home is complicated, as
time breeds an intimate
knowledge of its virtues
and faults. For every
evocation of the state’s
natural wonders, there’s an
elegy to urban decay. But
above all, after two promising but uneven albums,
“Michigan” signaled
Stevens’ arrival as a major
talent, ready to weave
threads of potential into a
magnificent whole.
Sufjan Stevens plays the
Peabody Opera House tonight
at 7 p.m.
Cadenza reacts to this
semester’s WILD openers
Following the recent
announcement of this semester’s
WILD openers, Associate Editor
Noah Jodice and Senior Cadenza
Editor Mark Matousek share
their reactions:
Choo Jackson
Choo Jackson, a former
member of the group Phresh
Muney, has been consistently
putting out easy-listening rap
since at least 2010. Jackson
is now associated with
Mac Miller through Mac’s
REMember Music label and
previously toured with Miller
on the Space Migration Tour.
He certainly fits in well with
the Miller vibe: spacey beats
that could only trip out high
schoolers experiencing their
first contact with drugs.
Jackson’s music isn’t bad;
it’s just not anything that
hasn’t been heard before.
His first solo mixtape, 2011’s
“Beer Flavored Pizza,”
sounds like the title implies.
If his flow doesn’t necessarily excite, it’s still better than
your high school friend who
took up rapping after hearing
Miller’s “Best Day Ever.”
Jackson’s videos and music,
such as the recent release
“Lights On,” have all the
trappings of high production
value that come with being
part of a successful rapper’s
crew. Still, Jackson might be
stretching for something better, even if it’s unclear what
that something is.
As for his status as a
WILD opener, Jackson
should get the job done.
Despite his stoner rap vibes,
his songs still maintain a high
level of energy that is important for getting the crowd
on their feet. Last year’s
“Marbles” has a laid-back
California synth sound that
should get WILD attendees
swaying along to the groove.
He doesn’t yet have any hits
for the crowd to sing along
to, but Jackson is still young
and finding his way through
songwriting. His strong
association with Miller will
draw in no outside fans, but
should be exciting for those
who follow Miller’s musical
endeavors closely.
—Noah Jodice
Botnek
Forged from the fires of
small-town Canada, electronic duo Botnek (comprised
of Gordon Huntley and Eric
Muse) first gained recognition
via a remix of Felix Cartel’s
“Skeleton,” which placed first
in a contest run by Dim Mak
Records in 2009. From there,
the duo has followed the
traditional electronic dance
music distribution template,
releasing two EPs, a handful of singles and a flurry of
remixes, supplanting these
releases with a heavy slate of
touring
Musically, the duo is
largely indistinguishable
from the rest of the Ultra
crowd, putting the slightest of twists on the staccato
synths, synthetic handclaps
and goofy vocal interjections
found within the traditional
build-drop-build-drop
structure. That being said, the
festival-ready, EDM sound
does have its virtues. Oriented
around movement above all
else, the high-energy DJ set
is a live art, relying just as
heavily on the composition of
its crowd as the music itself.
If the audience is marked by
a distinct lack of inhibition,
this kind of ecstatic blare
can work towards a communal transcendence. When
the crowd’s more reserved,
awkwardness abounds. For
Botnek’s part, its proclivity
toward a substantive bottom
end lends its work a physicality that should play to its favor
when attempting to rouse a
crowd largely unfamiliar with
its music.—Mark Matousek
THE CHOICE OF A LAWYER IS AN IMPORTANT DECISION AND SHOULD NOT BE BASED SOLELY ON ADVERTISEMENTS
MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2015
8 STUDENT LIFE
Featured Upcoming Job & Internship Deadlines
Public Relations Internship
Alice + Olivia
DIFFERENCE
MAKERS
WANTED
Medical Scribe
CEP America
Programmer Extraordinaire
Expensify
Peace Corps Ambassadors
Peace Corps
Project Manager / Implementation
Consultant + Others
Epic
April 25
AOM Summer Internship
Art of Motion, Inc.
April 22
Consulting Careers for Scientists
& Engineers
Princeton Consultants
The Ferguson Commission is hiring
paid summer interns! Must have:
Corporate Controller Intern
Kaiser Permanente
A strong sense of mission and purpose
and desire to have a significant impact
April 26
2015 Paid Summer Interns
Cannonball Agency
Each One Teach One Tutor
Washington University in St. Louis
April 23
Media Analyst
Electronic Arts
The ability to work collaboratively with
diverse populations and individuals who
hold a variety of perspectives on issues
The Ferguson Commission has been
charged by the Governor to issue a
report with policy recommendations.
Interns will be responsible for carrying
out specific projects that support
Working Groups in areas such as: CitizenLaw Enforcement Relations, Municipal
Courts and Governance, Child Wellbeing
and Educational Equity, and Economic
Inequity and Opportunity.
Data Analyst Intern
Rodgers Townsend
Risk Assurance Associate
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)
The Discovery Program
Johns Hopkins University
Applied Physics Laboratory
April 24
Architectural Intern
Wold Architects and Engineers
Summer Intern: Asian Studies
American Enterprise Institute
for Public Policy Research (AEI)
CFP Commissioner’s Fellow
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Software Engineer Intern
Wolverine Trading LLC
Business Analyst
Emerson
Consultant - Client Development
The Gallup Organization
Applications and a faculty letter of
support are due on Friday, April 24.
For more information, and to apply, visit:
http://diversity.wustl.edu/ferguson
FROM PASSION SPRINGS PURPOSE
goo.gl/kNeqK
April 21
Amazon Studios - Creative
Development Internships
Amazon
For details and more internship, co-op, and post-graduate postings,
visit careercenter.wustl.edu/careerlink.
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Thursday’s Puzzle Solved
SOLUTION TO
THURSDAY’S PUZZLE
4/20/15
4/20/15
MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2015
STEPHEN HUBER & SKYLER KESSLER | SR PHOTO EDITORS | [email protected]
STUDENT LIFE 9
WEEKEND IN REVIEW
FRIED FOOD, FACADES,
AND FROGGY WEATHER
AT THURTENE CARNIVAL
MARY RICHARDSON | STUDENT LIFE
WU CELEBRATES HOLI
STUDENTS TAKE PART IN THIS YEAR’S HOLI FESTIVAL OF COLORS SPONSORED
BY WASH. U. ASHOKA. THE CELEBRATION OF THE HINDU HOLIDAY REPRESENTING THE VICTORY OF GOOD OVER EVIL CAME DURING THIS YEAR’S MULTICULTURAL CELEBRATION WEEKEND FOR PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS.
SKYLER KESSLER | STUDENT LIFE
NIGHT MARKET
VERONICA JONG | STUDENT LIFE
STUDENTS PASS OUT FOOD AT THIS YEAR’S NIGHT MARKET HOSTED BY THE ASIAN
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION. THE EVENT INCLUDED MUSICAL PERFORMANCES AND
CULTURAL FOODS SUCH AS BUBBLE TEA, PORK BUNS AND KIMBAP.
THE YEARLY THURTENE CARNIVAL TOOK PLACE ON BROOKINGS
DRIVE THIS WEEKEND. THE EVENT FEATURED GAMES, RIDES AND
ACTIVITIES. WU STUDENT GROUPS BUILT FACADES AND BOOTHS,
WELCOMING ALUMNI AND LOCALS TO THE UNIVERSITY’S CAMPUS.
THINKING THE MUSEUM
Egyptian Mummies Now and Then
Wednesday, April 22, 2015 | 6p
This program revolves around the scientific insights gained from this advanced technology and the ethical concerns
of the original and religious meanings of mummies. In addition, this program will inquire into how the mummies might
function today as artworks, removed from their original context and site.
Participants include: Karen K. Butler, associate curator, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum; Lisa Çakmak, assistant
curator of ancient art, Saint Louis Art Museum; David Friedel, professor of archaeology, Department of Anthropology in
Arts & Sciences; Dr. Vincent Mellnick, Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine
Thinking the Museum: Egyptian Mummies Now and Then will be moderated by Sabine Eckmann, director and chief
curator, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.
kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu
10 STUDENT LIFE
MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2015
Setting up for Bauhaus 2013 with the rest of the
Architecture School Council representatives.
I interned last summer with
SCDA Architects in Singapore
as an Architectural Intern.
Taylor Halamka
2015 | Architecture
SCDA has strong confidence in their interns’
capabilities. We were given many projects!
Singapore’s architecture was simply aweinspiring. SCDA was an incredible experience.
My goal... making a positive impact in the architecture industry.
Getting to know myself...
Wash. U. has played a huge
role in my development of
better working habits as well
as a stronger drive to be the
very best I can. Our studio
courses force us to understand
our own ideas and beliefs and
transfer them into something
tangible. After learning of the
SCDA opportunity, I worked
with Martin Padilla within the
architecture career center a lot
on my portfolio for applying to
the SCDA scholarship as well as
other firms.
Bringing my story to life...
I applied to about six firms
simultaneously. The varying
application requirements
among different firms provide
a big challenge while juggling
school work at the same time.
With the competition at hand,
I learned that tailoring your
materials to each firm and
speaking to why you want to
work there and how you will be
very beneficial to them is the
best approach. For SCDA, I
submitted my resume, portfolio,
and statement of intent.
My experience take away...
I have learned that I enjoy the
studio and the workplace for
different reasons. In studio
you spend long hours trying
to discover more about your
own design process, while in
the office you are working with
others more collaboratively to
solve different problems. It has
been a rewarding experience to
see both sides. As of right now,
I plan to continue my education
and go to graduate school to
get my MArch degree before
working full-time for a firm.
Taylor’s advice: “Don’t send generic applications. For every organization, tailor
your resume, cover letter, and any other application materials to them. Speak to
why you want to work there, as well as how you will be beneficial to them.”
FROM PASSION SPRINGS PURPOSE
This Week’s Opportunities
Amazon
CEP America
Alice + Olivia
Peace Corps
PwC
Epic
U.S. FDA
Princeton Consultants
Emerson
Cannonball Agency
Events
APRIL 22
On Your Own: A Workshop Series
for Freelancers - Panel Discussion
on Clients
Technology Trivia Night
Hosted by Epic
APRIL 23
Coffee with a Pro: Engineering
Young Alumnus of the Year
For more information visit careercenter.wustl.edu