The decision follows widespread concern about Biondi’s management, which many say has impeded the school’s growth in rankings and to provide a supportive environment for students and faculty.

In a university statement quoted by the school’s student newspaper, Biondi said that his choice to leave the position was made with the Board of Trustees’ approval.

“I have decided it is time for a transition in leadership for Saint Louis University — time for me to move on to the next phase of my life,” Biondi said in the statement.

The announcement, which Biondi made at a Saturday night gala for members of the school’s Board of Trustees, comes at the heels of months of disapproval over the school’s governance. In a 35-2 vote last October, SLU’s faculty senate made a vote of no confidence in the school’s president, as the Father found himself in a heated controversy afar backing a plan for SLU to rework or get rid of tenure.

The tension has only escalated in recent weeks.

In a report the faculty senate released April 24, a task force responsible for identifying issues with the school’s financial and academic management described the need for a change in university leadership.

“Increasing student debt, a decline in research funding, the need to develop new technologies suited to the information age, and the need to attract and retain talented faculty and students require a different type of leader,” the report read. “The ‘my way or the highway’ management style to which Fr. Biondi admits may have been useful for bringing together a campus that was physically fractured, although it was never without cost to the shared governance valued by faculty. In the current environment, however, that management style—which…assumes that employees cannot be trusted to provide meaningful input to the organization–is eroding the academic mission and the Jesuit character of the integrated university Fr. Biondi built….”

After Father Biondi and the Board of Trustees failed to meet with faculty last week, students and faculty joined in protest over the lack of communication with the school’s administration.

A Facebook group named “SLU Students for No Confidence” had more than 1,300 likes as of Saturday night, when his resignation was announced.

The 13-panel display that will be up through reading week and into finals week was the culmination of a few months of effort by members of Material Monster, a student group that focuses on creating spaces with reusable materials, and Green Action.

Students hope that the visually striking display will help progress the ongoing “Fossil Free WashU” campaign, which looks to make Washington University sever its ties to the coal industry.

“Every single one of these panels tells a different story of a different area all around the world,” junior Rachel Goldstein, president of Green Action, said. “I think it just has a much better emotional connection with people than just reading something. And also it’s nice to have things outside in the middle of campus where people are going to see [them].”

The inspiration for the event came from a survey that organizers of the “Fossil Free WashU” campaign sent out to more than a thousand students, which showed that students felt social justice issues were the most important ones to consider. It also showed that many students did not see social justice issues relating to those surrounding climate change.

“There’s a very deep disconnect between environmental issues and people issues as if they aren’t intertwined and interconnected, when it’s really you can’t have one without the other,” Green Action member and senior Sophi Veltrop said. “If you don’t have rights for the environment, people are going to suffer, and if you don’t have rights for people, the environment won’t be taken care of well.”

Each panel in the display features a work of art designed by either one or two artists, next to a description of the particular environmental issue written by a Green Action member. Using wheat paste to protect the words from the rain, the descriptions were mounted onto mirrors that organizers said were to make the display more personal.

“The mirrors are there to implicate the viewer as a part of this global phenomenon and to remind them that they have a role, even though these communities are really distant from us,” Veltrop said.

The broken doors used for the panels were donated from Refab, a company that rents out materials from demolished buildings, and they were held in place using leftover wood from ThurtenE carnival.

The only panel drawn and written by the same person was one done by environmental studies and printmaking major Kelsey Brod, a senior. Brod’s work featured the township Imizamo Yethu in Cape Town, Africa, where she studied abroad.

In 1953, the apartheid-era government passed an act that deemed Cape Town white-only. All colored people were forced to relocate to an area between two mountains, known as Table Mountain National Park, which is an extremely uninhabitable ecosystem.

“There shouldn’t be any housing there because it’s an ecosystem where there’s intense fire, rain and sun, so the people who live there basically get the crap kicked out of them,” Brod said. “During the winter, extreme rain comes and erodes all of the housing…summer is known for extreme hot and lots of fires because the non-native trees brought by the colonists aren’t right for the area.”

Brod feels that the horrible living situation that the people of Imizamo Yethu deal with is a direct representation of the culmination of environmental and social justice issues.

“I think it’s blatant discrimination, keeping people out, but also because they’re living in this extreme environment, the effects of climate change are so much [harder] on them,” she said.

“[My work] is similar to all of these cases because it shows you an extremely disadvantaged community affected by climate change,” Brod added. “It’s important to know because what [causes] climate change are these really developed countries. Americans use 25 percent of all global energy, and St. Louis significantly feeds into that, so it’s important for students to be aware of these things.”

Senior Katie Olson worked with senior Matt Callahan to depict the violence of tar sands extraction in Canada. Their piece, part digital and part pen-and-ink drawing, showed a giant machine tearing down a forest as a figure watched from a distance.

“Their forest is being destroyed. Same with the caribou, and the caribou in Canada are the thing that tells if the forest is healthy or not. And they’re dying out,” Olson said.

“If you look up images about the process that they use to transport this bitumen-heavy oil and make it—it’s these gigantic machines; they’re as tall as buildings and super-monstrous,” Olson added. “We made this huge machine—it’s kind of whimsical because they’re made up of all the different parts of all the different machines…If you were actually there, it would just dwarf you in its monstrosity. But you never see them.”

The installation of the outdoor exhibit was also being worked on by members of Trading Post, which works to promote reuse of goods.

“I know quite a few of the artists, and it’s really neat to see their art displayed in such a way,” junior Zach Hernandez, co-founder of Trading Post, said. “Hopefully it’s visible to a lot of people.”

While many of the panels depict environmental issues internationally, organizers were particularly invested in a two-panel-wide display of the coal ash landfills Ameren—the University’s energy provider—has been trying to build in Labadie, Mo., a flood plain fewer than 50 miles west of the Danforth Campus. Locals of the small Missouri town have been protesting the landfills for years, and they have been a rallying cry for a large number of environmental activists.

“We just really wanted to bring it home a little bit and be like—look, this is happening in St. Louis,” Goldstein said. “We need to act on a local level but look at these things happening on a national level, too.”

Brian Benton | Student Life

Yeasayer performs atop an inflatable couch thrown onto the stage by concert attendees. Yeasayer performed first at spring W.I.L.D., held last Friday.

The concert, which featured performers Yeasayer, Mat Kearney and Atmosphere in a festival-style lineup, was the first to be organized by SPB. Among the changes were new sustainability efforts, which included boxed water, compostable utensils and waste stations manned by student members of the Green Events Commission (GEC) and volunteers.

“Over the years, Wash. U. has made a very strong effort to become more sustainable, and I think that we were still able to provide students all of the safety in terms of water, and we were still able to do all of that, but do it in working with the GEC and fulfilling Wash. U.’s goal to be more eco-friendly,” SPB’s WILD director and sophomore Anna Eisenberg said.

Eisenberg noted that students were excited about the boxed water, and said the product will definitely be back for next year’s WILD.

“They didn’t know what it was, they picked it up to see what it was, and it became a conversation topic, and then people were just drinking it to see what it was,” she said.

Brian Benton | Student Life

Singer-songwriter Mat Kearney plays a set on the Brookings Quadrangle. W.I.L.D. on Friday.

“We found while cleaning up, there was actually less trash around,” she said. “I think that [the GEC] did a really good job. They had some of their students manning the stations, and no complaints on that end. I think it went really well.”

According to SU’s Executive Advisor for Sustainability and junior Jake Lyonfields, the stations on the quad replaced trash bins entirely.

“One of the reasons we were initially hesitant to not have those bins all over the grounds was because we thought people would just dispose of whatever they were eating or drinking on the ground, and some people…still did that,” Lyonfields said. “But in order to compensate for that we had…workers who were walking around with bags picking up trash that was left on the ground, and then they would bring those bags full of trash to the waste stations and we would actually sort it out.”

Though rain clouds loomed throughout the day, sophomore and SPB President Emma Tyler said the weather did not keep students from turning out for the day’s events.

“Attendance was in line with what it normally was. The students still came out and enjoyed the concert. It was a little colder, but students seemed in good spirits and the weather didn’t seem to deter anyone from coming out to the quad,” Tyler said.

A new afternoon event on the Swamp, Walk In Chow Down, featured cupcakes, ice cream and barbecue in an effort to make WILD more of an all-day event.

“The event on the Swamp pulled in more students to be spending time with each other and eating and being on campus throughout the day,” Tyler said.

According to Chief of Police, Don Strom, there were three students transported from campus to the hospital, one from WILD, one from a residence hall the South 40 and one from a residence hall in the Village.

At least 13 students were treated for intoxication around campus on Friday, and several students were declined entry to the event because of severe levels of intoxication, Strom said.

In future WILDs and other events, Tyler said the new structure under the Social Programming Board will allow for more advance planning.

“From this point forward, every concert will be booked a full semester in advance,” Tyler said. “So that’ll help us with being able to plan production farther in advance, bigger reveal plans farther in advance, we’ll be able to reveal sooner to campus, and it’ll really give us a chance also to just explore more options in terms of artists.”

The board hopes to better utilize the new Outreach Director position to solicit student opinions when booking artists and planning other aspects of the event.

Brian Benton | Student Life

Atmosphere performs at spring W.I.L.D.

While Eisenberg acknowledged that Social Programming Board has room to learn and change, she considers the board’s first WILD a successful event.

“I think we’re still figuring out how SPB works and how we’re going to change WILD and make it better in the future, but I think that overall, we were very happy with how the new structure helped in terms of planning it,” she said. “I think the board was stronger than it has been in the past, and I think that being a part of SU and having this whole new structure actually really benefited WILD.”

The event, which began at 8 p.m. Thursday night with a candlelit walk toward Graham Chapel, encouraged students with stories on the sensitive subjects to share their experiences in a safe, sheltered space.

“Stories can range from different experiences that people might have had, if they were assaulted or raped, to their thoughts on the rape culture that’s prevalent in our society,” senior Eunice Kwon, coordinator of Take Back the Night, said. “It can either be a way to share stories or a social commentary.”

This year, organizers received a larger number of submissions than last year, with around 20 pre-submitted stories and then an open mic portion at the end for any additional students that wished to speak.

“I was actually amazed with the turnout because it’s such a personal event, and I think it’s probably really uncomfortable and overwhelming for a lot of people, so it means a lot that as many people showed up as they did,” host of the event and sophomore Maxine Kali said. “I really enjoyed the audience. They were very accepting and appreciative of everyone’s bravery.”

Students who submitted their stories, which ranged in form from poems to speeches and even a song, had the option of reading them aloud or having a Community Organized for Rape Education member read for them while they remained anonymous.

According to Kwon, receiving a large number of submissions is rarely a problem for the event, and few people choose to remain anonymous.

“About a fourth of them have chosen to remain anonymous, but usually people share their own stories,” Kwon said. “They’re silenced so much in the normal community that a lot of them want to share their stories, though I think it’s completely valid to want to remain anonymous as well.”

After a candlelit walk from Bear’s Den to main campus, students entered Graham Chapel, where T-shirts designed by CORE members depicted various statistics about sexual assault and rape. The event began with Kali introducing herself as the night’s host and then offering to share her own story.

“I’m a slam poet, so I’ve basically told my story to hundreds of people, and it’s always interesting because every time I do it, it does something different to me,” she said. “I’m not always sad or I’m not always angry, and sometimes I see it from another perspective, and every time I start speaking, I say something different and I react to it in a different way.”

“Continuing to tell my story has been a really healing process for me, and I’m happy that I have had the opportunity to do so,” Kali added.

Kwon was another one of the participants to share her story on stage. She had also participated last year but chose to share a different story at this year’s event.

“Last year, I talked about the before—what it was like before it had happened—but this year I wanted to talk about what happens after something like this occurs,” she said. “My biggest tagline is that what we don’t talk about is that we’re always living in the after.”

As students took the stage, some tearfully, audience members who agreed with certain statements or who wanted to express their support for the speaker were asked to snap their fingers instead of yelling out in order to avoid breaking the atmosphere.

Sophomore Aleks Husic, who attended the event for the first time, was amazed by the gravity of the speeches he heard.

“The people who spoke out were so courageous and brilliant. I don’t think I’d have their strength,” Husic said. “I loved what the event stood for by bringing things that people don’t want to talk about to light, and I think these issues are truly problems that need to seriously be addressed.”

Once all students had finished talking, Christina Meneses, education services supervisor for the Young Women’s Christian Association’s St. Louis Regional Sexual Assault Center, presented the keynote speech of the event. She spoke of the need to share individual stories and the importance of breaking the silence on topics such as these.

“Obviously, there’s always a lot of emotion involved, and it’s not exactly a happy event, but it’s a meaningful one, and that’s what’s important,” Kali said. “I think that every time this event happens, it reaffirms my belief that it’s something that needs to happen.”

Kwon likewise emphasized her belief in the importance of the event.

“It creates a safe space where people can talk about their experiences,” she said. “Sexual violence is a topic that we don’t really talk about, and I’m sure a lot of people find it uncomfortable because there’s a lot of shame and guilt attached, so it’s nice to have a safe space and designated event.”

She said the event is a good way for people not only to speak out about their experiences but also to establish a community around those experiences.

“It doesn’t seem like there’s a huge group for survivors to feel like they’re a part of, but at this event, when you see so many people standing against it, it’s a great visual of the community,” Kwon said. “Based on statistics, it’s likely that a given person will know of someone who has been sexually assaulted or raped, so just attending the event in itself is a way of speaking out against it.”

Samantha Harris, director of speech code research at the Foundation of Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), claimed that ResLife’s policy on harassment “allows the administration to punish an almost unlimited amount of speech and expression” in her announcement of the award published on FIRE’s website on April 5.

The ResLife policy states that harassment is defined as “any behavior or conduct that is injurious, or potentially injurious to a person’s physical, emotional, or psychological well-being, as determined at the sole discretion of the University.”

“One very common problem we see with speech codes and their enforcement is an abuse of discretion,” Harris clarified in an interview with Student Life. “Generally speaking, rules that affect speech have to be very clearly set forth. If speech is going to be restricted, it has to be done by very clear, objective and content-neutral criteria that are published in advance.”

“For a student reading this regulation, there’s no way for someone to know in advance whether the University might consider their speech to be potentially injurious to a person’s emotional well-being,” Harris added. “There’s no guarantee the University will enforce it in a consistent, across-the-board manner. By giving [the University] complete discretion, it just opens the door for arbitrary enforcement.”

FIRE annually reviews the speech codes of more than 400 universities nationwide, focusing on one particularly objectionable policy per month. The group sends a letter to each university in question with suggestions of how the policy in question can be improved. In this case, Harris’ forthcoming letter will refer the administration to the Supreme Court’s decision in Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education that contains the legal definition of unprotected harassment and the suggestion to modify the current policy to reflect this legal definition.

Ann Prenatt, the vice chancellor for human resources at the University and the Title IX and sexual harassment coordinator, did not provide comment.

Tamara King, director of judicial programs, and Justin Carroll, dean of students, were unavailable for comment.

The contest honors excellence in collegiate journalism in the state of Missouri. The awards were announced at the annual MCMA meeting in Joplin, Mo. on April 20.

Student Life won the Division 1 Sweepstakes contest, where papers are awarded points for wins in the contest’s 26 categories. Four points was awarded for each first place finish, three points for second place, two points for third place and one for each honorable mention.

Student Life also finished second in the Best Overall Newspaper category, behind Missouri State University’s newspaper, The Standard, which also took home the Best In State award.

Here are the individual winners for Student Life:

Sweepstakes – Student Life (1st Place)

Best Overall Newspaper – Student Life (2nd place)

News Writing – Michael Tabb (1st Place), Gunshots on Delmar Loop Saturday

Editorial Writing – Will Wilder (2nd Place), I believe in Lance Armstrong; Natalie Villalon (Honorable Mention), Vote! For the greater good

Sports Writing – Zach Kram (2nd Place), Women’s volleyball wins three on tough road trip

In-Depth Reporting – Michael Tabb, Sadie Smeck and Sahil Patel (1st Place), ‘FOUR MORE YEARS’

Investigative Reporting – Michael Tabb, Parker Chang and Matt Mitgang (Honorable Mention), Paper ballot shortages mean lengthy lines, disillusioned voters

Sports Column – Zach Kram (3rd Place), A letter of sympathy to Cardinals fans

Entertainment Review – Paul Marsh (3rd Place), ‘Master’ful

News Photography – Matt Mitgang (2nd Place), McCaskill tops Akin for senate seat

Political Cartoon – Leah Kucera (1st Place), Leather-Bound Binders of Women

Nonpolitical Cartoon – Andrew Catanese (1st Place), Off-Campus Services

Information Graphic – Sam Schauer (2nd Place), Fundraising Campaign

Story Illustration – Leah Kucera (3rd Place), Prefrosh B-I-N-G-O

Advertising – Student Life (1st Place), Cars are Overrated

Page One Design – Mary Yang (Honorable Mention), February 9th; Sam Schauer and Leah Kucera (Honorable Mention), November 5th

Sports Pages – Sam Schauer, Leah Kucera and Sahil Patel (2nd Place), World Series (Pages 6-7)

Feature Page – Michelle Merlin and Alan Liu (1st Place), The Delmar Loop Neighborhood Guide (Pages 10-11)

Special Section – Student Libel (3rd Place); 2012 Election Guide (Honorable Mention), Pages 5-8

Web Page – David Seigle (1st Place), Student Life

The amendment requires a three-fourths vote from SU’s Executive Council and failing that, a majority vote from Treasury, for the vice president of finance to make major allocations from SU’s largest slush fund of unspent cash. The Executive Council is made up of the five-person executive slate and the speakers of the Senate and Treasury.

SU Treasury amended the resolution initially proposed in SU Senate last week in a discussion that lasted until midnight. The following night, SU Senate passed the revised resolution after minimal delay.

Each year, the money that student groups have been allocated that they have not spent is transferred into the carryforward account. At the end of the year, the carryforward account is emptied into long-term savings, an account with a balance of a few hundred thousand dollars.

The amendment passed by Senate last Wednesday required approval from Executive Council on any expenditure from long-term savings greater than $5,000. Some members of Treasury initially supported this decision, believing Treasury would lack the expertise to handle the larger-scale capital improvement expenditures.

“I don’t think it’s suitable for our two-hour meetings each Tuesday and is more suitable for [Executive Council],” freshman Jordan Federbush, a treasury representative, said.

“Executive Council is probably a more substantive check since they actually have the information to make those decisions,” junior Sean Janda, speaker of the Treasury, said.

However, other members initially believed a majority vote of Treasury should act as the check.

“Even though the primary purpose of Treasury is to approve budgets and allocations, I still think Treasury could be a check on long-term savings,” sophomore Sam Gorsche, a treasury representative, said.

Following extended discussion, Treasury did not pass the statute. The option of a Treasury-based check also failed to garner enough support. As a middle ground, some members supported requiring a unanimous vote from Executive Council, or failing that, a majority vote from Treasury.

“I think the problem is it takes one person from having so much power, and a unanimous vote just gives one person the ability to block,” Federbush said.

SU Treasury ultimately decided that its body would only consider long-term saving allocations after the appeals were seen by Executive Council, a revision that SU Senate passed 9-3-1 the following night.

The themed week began with a kick-off in Edison Family Courtyard on Monday, which was also Earth Day. Different environmental and sustainability groups set up booths with activities or fliers to help students find out ways to become involved and how to become more sustainable in their everyday lives. The GEC also encouraged green groups on campus to participate in the week by putting on different events or informational sessions.

“We want to show the campus the sustainability community’s presence, but we also want to educate them on these issues,” GEC co-chair and sophomore Anna Deming said. “The point of this week is to provide the green community some exposure on campus in a fun way.”

“We have a pretty good green community, and a large percentage of the student body is pretty supportive of green initiatives, but we hope this week will just help to further that response,” Deming added. “Wash. U. has a long way to go to being more sustainable, but our community in general seems eager to head down that path.”

Sophomore Libby Mohr, communications and education coordinator of The Burning Kumquat, the on-campus farm, said the Kumquat booth saw a lot of traffic during the event.

“There were a ton of people walking through, and we were hosting worm races, and it ended up being a riot,” she said. “A lot of races were really close, and people seemed to be getting really into it. It was a really exciting way of getting people riled up for the week.”

On Monday night, a climate change panel took place in Tisch Commons, featuring five professors from different departments who discussed how their fields focused on sustainability and issues pertaining to climate change.

Bon Appetit will be hosting low-carbon food demonstrations in the Danforth University Center and Bear’s Den throughout the week. A Washington University Cooperative-hosted picnic will take place on Thursday at the Gingko Walk from 12-1:30 p.m., followed by a “Bike to the Future” bike-in movie event on Art Hill showing the movie “Back to the Future.”

A sustainable food discussion and Inklings workshop occurred on Wednesday, and the week concludes on Saturday with a Burning Kumquat work day from 2-4 p.m. and a documentary film screening of “Cafeteria Man,” which discusses the Baltimore school area’s switch to healthier and more sustainable food.

“Access to information about sustainable food is really important, and there’s no way to get around it,” Mohr said. “A significant portion of climate change is attributable to agriculture, so the way we produce and what we produce is a really important thing for people to be aware of. The documentary provides good insight into those facts.”

A bike tune-up and Tote Green reusable bag decorating event will take place during the day on Thursday, and an electronics-free evening of board games, hosted by the Environmental Justice Initiative, will be held Thursday evening.

Sophomore Melanie Stern said she did not initially know Earth Week was happening but was interested in how different student groups were collaborating to celebrate the week.

“I was eating lunch at the DUC and saw all the different groups putting things on,” she said. “I talked to a few of them, and it was really cool to see how different groups are going green in different ways.”

Courtesy of Brian Aggrey

The Washington University Racing Team practices in the parking lot prior to their first track run of the May 2012 competition. The team will unveil their car Thursday.

Group members said they have spent thousands of hours and about $46,000 on the as-yet untested car that they will consider a success if it makes it through the May competition’s endurance test, which involves going 22 miles around a track with one driver switch in the middle.

They hope the 5:15 p.m. Thursday afternoon unveiling in Tisch Commons will increase the group’s status on campus and provide them with an opportunity to thank their corporate sponsors, which include Boeing and Monster Energy drinks.

“We get a lot of our funding from SU [Student Union], but we also get a lot of our funding from outside companies that either give us monetary donations, or a lot of times they just give us parts or services,” senior Tyler Willibrand, vice president of corporate and sponsor relations, said. “One of our goals this year is to get more public recognition but also more recognition on campus.”

From 1:30-3:30 p.m., Monster will be handing out free energy drinks outside the Danforth University Center to promote the unveiling, where teammates will present the car at an event open to students and faculty, with food and refreshments provided.

Willibrand said the group hopes the unveiling in a very public place on campus—as compared to last year’s low-key unveiling by the School of Engineering—will help them become a known campus competition group, improving recruitment efforts and sponsorship opportunities.

“It takes a lot of people on the team to do this in a year, to build a whole race car,” Willibrand said. “Also we just kind of want to become sort of a higher status symbol on campus—one, just because it’s nice to be that and then also reasons of funding. We think if we can build our name that it’ll be a lot easier to get sponsors that maybe will have heard about us.”

The team of about 20 students spends about 40-60 hours per week on a project that is not only unpaid, but sometimes involves members buying smaller parts out of pocket. They spend most of the fall semester designing the car and begin manufacturing the car toward the end of the year through the following semester.

While the car is made as simple as possible to meet the entry requirements, one of the car’s most unique features is a wood grain dashboard; most racecar dashboards are made of thin metal.

“The heavier weeks are more like 80-100 hours in a week, and then sometimes they take the car away from us to go do work in other places, we don’t get to do any work on it,” senior Matt Monson, chief engineer, said.

Last year was the first year the team ever made a car in one year; a steering issue kept them from making it through the endurance test. This year, their car is not only better-constructed but also 100 pounds lighter.

Members estimate that their 470-pound car will probably get about 80 horsepower and while car speed will help determine who wins the competition, their car will likely average about 30 mph and never top 70 mph. If they are able to make it through the endurance competition, they will be one of the top few dozen teams.

“The ultimate goal is to have the lightest and fastest car, but that’s pretty unrealistic for most of the cars that compete,” senior Steven Schleibaum, co-team lead for suspension, said. “In order to have a car that will have the fastest times, you’ll have to sink a lot of money into it.”

They construct the car in Jolley Hall in the School of Engineering, where lab technician Patrick Harkins helps them troubleshoot some of their more difficult manufacturing problems. While WU Racing has never had a major safety issue and members say the safety requirements are rigorous, the Pennsylvania State University’s student team had their car burst into flames at last year’s competition.

“A lot of the manufacturing goes beyond our capabilities,” Schleibaum added. “So our goal this year is to finish endurance, which will put us in the top 30 teams, which is a huge goal for this being the second car that we’ve made in a year.”

The Formula SAE (FSAE), formerly the Society of Automotive Engineers, competition begins on May 9. They will be competing against 119 other teams in static events, such as design judging and a business presentation, and dynamic events—straight-line acceleration and endurance tests, among others.

Some of the international teams they will be competing against, they said, are students at the equivalent of graduate schools, whose teams have around 100 members.

“A lot of Germany’s best teams will come over and compete here as well after they compete in Germany, and one of the teams that got second place last year, they’re actually building a custom engine with AMG in Germany this year—just for their car. It’s pretty ridiculous that some of the teams we go up against have resources like that,” Monson said.

Junior Brian Chang, vice president of manufacturing, said the team’s main purpose is to train its members, most of whom come in with no experience.

“I would say that the main goal of any team outside of the top 10 that don’t really have unlimited resources and unlimited time and just unlimited money is to really develop the engineers on the team,” Chang said. “When I go to interviews, this is what I talk about. This is the highlight of my resume. This is where I learned all of my engineering skills.”

Senior Brian Aggrey, vice president of development for WU Racing, said the Thursday unveiling is a celebration of all the work current and former group members have done on the project.

“This event and this year is the culmination of not just a single year of work but no less than four years of development,” Aggrey said. “This car was really a long time coming, and we’ve had a lot of people come through this team that haven’t been able to see their results in a competitive package like the one we’ve been able to produce.”

The Princeton Review’s 2013 Guide to 322 Green Colleges released last week places the University as one of the top institutions nationwide showing significant dedication to the environment, not only in course offerings but also in infrastructure and career preparation.

“Students are realizing with the changing economy that green jobs are likely to rise and going to a school who shows a commitment to sustainability is in their interests, given they will likely be more prepared than a student who is not in that type of environment on campus,” David Soto, director of ratings for The Princeton Review, said.

The Green Guide was created using schools’ green ratings from last July. Those ratings were generated from surveys in which schools were asked about their environmentally aware practices regarding quality of life, preparation for “green” jobs and administrative involvement.

The guide is the latest of the college guidance provider’s lists that commend Wash. U.’s dedication to its students in academics and other services and amenities. Soto noted that “green comforts” like locally grown food can actually improve a student’s experience.

“Every time we come up with a ranking and list, we have parents and students in mind,” Soto said. “These schools are preparing students for [a] green economy while also providing those green comforts.”

The Princeton Review consistently surveys parents and adults on what matters to them in the college admissions process, and Soto said that while affordability is their primary concern, sustainability is not significantly far behind.

Phil Valko, Washington University’s director of sustainability, said that most prospective students are primarily interested in the University’s academics, but many still care strongly about the school’s environmental efforts.

“I had a prospective student come in and drop by our office this week. She was trying to make a decision between schools and sustainability is a thing that’s very important to her,” Valko said. “My guess is she’s just one of many students that have it on their radar.”

Sophomore Amy Fjerstad, a student in the Pathfinder Program in Environmental Sustainability, said the school’s focus on green initiatives was an important factor in her decision-making process.

“One of the appeals of Wash. U., and probably the main reason I came here, was because of its emphasis on sustainability,” Fjerstad said. “There are so many options available to students here to help them be more sustainable—the recycling bins outnumber the normal trash cans and we have all these eco to-go boxes—that I think that even people that don’t really care about it are still forced to make some eco-friendly choices in even the smallest of ways.”

The Green Guide specifically cited Washington University’s LEED Silver certified buildings, free U-Passes and bottled water ban as particularly praiseworthy. Valko said that the Office of Sustainability is also working to decrease waste and make sure the student apartment complex being constructed on the Delmar Loop stays in line to be the school’s first LEED Platinum certified building.

Valko’s office has also just hired an alternative transportation coordinator to work one-on-one with students and staff to help create a stronger culture around alternative transportation.

Freshman Arjay Parhar, though, noted that she sees significantly more institutional than personal dedication to sustainability.

“I’ve just noticed little things, like how people back home would take efforts to turn off the water while they brushed their teeth, while the people I live with here don’t really do that,” Parhar said. “I know people that just throw things away, without a care about whether it’s in the right trash can or not. It seems like Wash. U. itself really tries to emphasize sustainability, but there are still a lot of students that don’t seem to follow up on the efforts.”

Valko said the rankings are important because, in the long term, they can lead to a more green-conscious student body.

“Part of the value that I see in rankings like this Princeton Review ranking is it has the potential to help build a feedback loop where prospective students [looking at the ratings] are those same students, when they’re at the institution, [who] are very actively engaged and helping the effort to make the institution more sustainable,” Valko said.

“And it gives all of us working hard on it…a really nice pat on the back for the progress we have made,” he added.

Soto said that while some ranking metrics vary from year to year, The Princeton Review is trying to maintain consistency to give schools solid benchmarks for improvement.

“Generally the method has remained the same—we think it really allows schools to measure their own progress when it comes to becoming a sustainable institution,” Soto said. “It is constantly evolving, but we think we have a pretty good handle on the methodology.”

With additional reporting by Divya Kumar.