Olivier Douliery | Abaca Press | MCT

An inside Acela Express car is seen Washington, D.C., July 11, 2011. Amtrak has struggled for survival nearly every year since its first trains rolled out on May 1, 1971.

The railroad, which is currently under construction, should be complete sometime in 2014, according to officials involved in the project.

Planners said the project is especially significant for Washington University students, as a large portion of them call Chicago and its surrounding areas home.

They hope the train, which should travel at a maximum of 110 miles per hour, will help promote cooperation between the two cities.

In June 2009, following President Barack Obama’s call for improved high-speed rail travel nationwide, the Federal Railroad Administration launched the High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail (HSIPR) Program as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

In January of the following year, Illinois was chosen as one of the states that would benefit from the project, and was allocated $1.2 billion in federal funding to introduce high-speed rail service by 2014.

Students have been a focus of the planning process.

“Students are the one of the important markets we want to reach with this project,” said Miriam Gutierrez, section chief of Rail Program Planning at the Illinois Department of Transportation. “This generation is big on trains, and there will be Amtrak student discounts.”

Gutierrez said that the project managers are currently working out ticket prices that are reasonable but will still help pay for new features the trains will offer passengers, such as Wi-Fi access and improved food services.

“Right now we’re trying to figure out how much we can raise ticket prices so that we won’t lose ridership,” Gutierrez said. “But they won’t go up super high, just because it’s so easy to jump on a plane instead.”

Washington University students who live in the Chicago area are currently faced with the decision between a 60-minute flight and a 5 1/2 hour train ride.

Sophomore Neha Nair said the high-speed rail will make traveling between school and home easier for her.

“I would definitely use the train for busy times like Thanksgiving” Nair said. “In order to get a reasonably priced flight, you have to book it really far in advance, which can be difficult to do early in the semester.”

“If I didn’t have my car and the tickets were cheap enough, I’d definitely take the train, especially since I’d be able to avoid the airport hassle” junior Claire Chaney said.

Gutierrez added that the project managers have to take the environmental impacts of the construction into account. The Illinois Department of Transportation worked with the Federal Railroad Administration to submit an Environmental Impact Statement for the project. Public meetings will be held over the remainder of the year to review the environmental clearance document and ensure that it will be environmentally safe to build a second railroad track through the St. Louis-Chicago corridor.

Ben Gottesdiener | Student Life

Freshman guard Maddie Scheppers drives by a defender during Sunday’s loss against No. 10 ranked Depauw.

The Bears enter this weekend’s slate of games with a 12-2 overall record, including 2-1 in UAA action. Wash. U. opened 2012 with a hard-fought loss to second-ranked University of Chicago, but the Red and Green bounced back last weekend with two road victories over Case Western Reserve University and Carnegie Mellon University.

“We are feeling very good about our position in the UAA right now. We came back from a tough loss against Chicago and got two wins on the road,” senior guard Dani Hoover said. “We can’t do anything about that loss now, so we are just taking each game one at a time.”

Against an undefeated Chicago team, the Bears fell just short in a matchup of two top-10 teams. The Maroons held onto a 17-12 lead with 10:22 before freshman forward Alyssa Johanson led Wash. U. on a 18-4 run that lasted 8:25 and gave the Bears a 32-25 halftime lead.

Chicago came out of the break firing on all cylinders as it rolled to an 11-point lead thanks to a 22-4 run of their own. From there, the Red and Green continuously chipped away at the lead.

Three-pointers by senior guard Claire Schaeperkoetter and sophomore guard Lucy Montgomery twice got the Bears within one point, but Chicago pulled away in the final minute for a 65-62 final score, giving Wash. U. its second loss of the season.

“I think we played really well against Chicago and put ourselves in a good position to win that game. There was a stretch in the second half where we turned the ball over too much and had a few defensive breakdowns,” Hoover said. “Those are the kind of mistakes you can’t have against good teams. Obviously we would have liked to get the win, but I think our performance proved that we can compete with the top teams in the country.”

The team purged the Chicago loss from its system with a 63-38 rout of Case Western. The Bears’ defense suffocated the Spartans’ shooters all night, holding them to 25.9 percent shooting from the field.

“We are continuing to gel as a team, on and off the court, and we continue to improve every game. We came out strong against Case Western after a tough loss and showed that we can bounce back,” freshman forward Melissa Gilkey said.

Offensively, Schaeperkoetter found her stroke as she poured in 13 points, and Gilkey added 14 points and five rebounds. The game marked the return of senior center Brianne Monahan from an injury suffered against Hendrix College on Nov. 26 as head coach Nancy Fahey cleared the bench and rested her starters.

“Any win will boost a team’s confidence, but we see more than just a win. We focus on what worked for us and what didn’t and use those things to help us get better,” Gilkey said.

Against Carnegie Mellon, the Bears started each half slowly, but with the game tied at 26 with 8:24 to play in the first half, Gilkey broke it open. The freshman provided all the scoring in a 9-0 run that pushed Wash. U. to a 44-38 halftime lead.

The Tartans started the second half quickly, and, with 16:45 to play, Carnegie Mellon completed its comeback from a 12-point deficit and tied the game at 48. From that point on, it was all Wash. U.

Gilkey got things going with a three-point play, sophomore center Jordan Rettig hit a layup, and five minutes later, Monahan added a jumper in the paint to cap off a 15-0 run that put the Bears up 63-48. Wash. U. pushed the lead to 17 on two occasions, and the lead stayed in double digits the rest of the way as the Bears coasted to a 80-68 win.

Gilkey scored a career-high 21 points and added eight rebounds, while Hoover chipped in 16 points and five assists. Rettig had 12 points and six rebounds, while Monahan contributed 10 points.

“The great thing about this team is that any girl could be the one that steps up [in the] next game. We have a deep bench and so many girls are able to score and rebound,” Gilkey said.

Wash. U. continues its conference schedule with home games against Brandeis University on Friday, Jan. 20, at 6 p.m. and against New York University on Sunday, Jan. 22, at 2 p.m.

“We definitely have to protect home court in order to do well in the UAA. This weekend against NYU and Brandeis we will have to continue to execute on offense and limit our defensive breakdowns,” Hoover said. “The strength of this team all year has been our defense, so we will really need to bring it this weekend and the rest of the season.”

A year ago, six black students were denied entry to the Original Mothers Bar under the pretext that their jeans were too baggy. After a shorter white student was allowed in wearing the same jeans, the students rightly called the incident a case of unjust racial discrimination.

Seniors on the trip held a protest the next day, and upon returning to Washington University, then-senior class president Fernando Cutz and the six affected students held a town hall forum and consulted legal counsel on how to respond to the incident. The students reached a contract with the bar, and—after a few appropriate modifications—Mothers upheld its promises.

Our thoughts

What happened at Mothers Bar that night did more than just expose the reality of racism in America today. It also appropriately unleashed a wave of student action and energy rarely witnessed on this campus.

We find a statement from one of the students’ legal representatives particularly fitting: “Both sides were able to take a negative incident and make something positive come of it. The students demonstrated leadership, maturity and strength of character as they stood up for important principles, and I believe that the Mothers organization worked with the students in good faith to help combat racial discrimination.”

While nothing can fully erase what happened, we applaud Mothers’ steps to rectify some of the damage done. We also have praise for the student body, student leaders such as Cutz and the six men who endured the brunt of it all.

But though an anniversary has come and gone, it would be unreasonable for us to suggest everything is done and great. What happened at Mothers was not an isolated incident. Combating racism requires sustained passion and commitment.

Cutz says he hopes “that something’s changed…because of everything that we did last year and everything that we went through.” In our assessment, it seems little has changed. This is not to say that last year’s work was in vain; Mothers had to be held accountable. But despite the formation of the Diversity Affairs Council, our attention to diversity and discrimination has suffered. Today’s student body lacks the same vigor to attack racism that had our campus so electrified last fall.

Moving forward

It may seem inevitable that most of us have fallen into the trap of complacency again, distracted by the more recent Gulf oil spill, midterm exams and an upcoming election. Nevertheless, as students, we need to take a stronger interest in making a difference at Wash. U. and in the broader St. Louis community.

Students in an isolated, academic and relatively politically correct environment—especially those who do not experience racism firsthand—have a tendency to forget the importance of dialogue and consideration.

Dialogue and awareness on campus is important not only in the present, but in the future. In exposing us to a wide variety of people with 18 to 22 years of life experiences different from our own, college enables us to learn the social skills that we will carry with us into futures in business and the public service—among them the ability to listen to and genuinely appreciate diverse values and experiences. Wash. U. at large may be more politically correct than the broader world, but—as last year’s incident proved—influence can start with us. We hope that the lessons of the Mothers Men are not lost on this campus.

The Fairmont Millennium Hotel had agreed to house 128 of the trip’s 272 participants but pulled out of the contract with the Senior Class Council (SCC) on Wednesday after overbooking the hotel.

Instead of staying downtown at the Fairmont, these students will stay near the airport, at the Sheraton Chicago O’Hare, which is 15 miles outside the city. The class council is working to compensate these students for the increased distance from many of the trip’s activities, which include a sunset boat cruise on Lake Michigan and a “moonlight stroll” pub crawl near the Fairmont.

The SCC is arranging for buses to shuttle students between the hotel and the events.

The situation has infuriated senior class officials, who have spent months planning the weekend and booked the Fairmont rooms in July.

“As a council, we’re enraged that they think they can do this to us,” SCC president Alex Kiles said on Sunday. “When we sold these tickets, people signed up with the idea that they’d be staying downtown.”

The class council already had booked a second accommodation, the Congress Plaza Hotel, on Sept. 13, following unexpectedly high registration numbers for the trip. Students who signed up later were booked at the Congress Plaza and will remain there.

The SCC plans to notify students about details of the change, including how much they will be reimbursed, early this week.

The class council, along with Assistant Director for Campus Life Mary Zabruskie, gave the Fairmont a down payment of $13,000 in early September as part of their contract.

“We put this money [down] to guarantee that we were coming this weekend, and on their end they were supposed to make sure they were going to have these rooms,” said SCC treasurer Michael Chen.

The total cost of the reservation was $15,000.

A conference sponsored by the American Academy of Ophthalmology will bring approximately 25,000 individuals to the city the same weekend, making hotel reservations downtown difficult to book.

The original package was negotiated with Kara Gegerson, the Fairmont’s sales manager. According to Chen and Kiles, Gegerson agreed to help find alternative accommodations for the senior class after the contract fell through.

When Gegerson found the Sheraton was available, she claimed to have negotiated a special deal that included free shuttle buses to public transportation, Wi-Fi and breakfast.

After checking hotels.com, the class council quickly found that these amenities were included in the Sheraton’s standard package.

“That’s when we stopped trusting everything they told us,” Chen said.

The SCC is working with University officials and members of the University’s legal counsel to discuss potential legal action against the Fairmont.

According to Kiles, any legal action would require time and money, and the damage to the trip has already been done.

“They explicitly said that they broke the contract, but right now [the Fairmont authorities] don’t think that we’re going to press legal action,” Kiles said. “We’re not sure of the whole legal procedure and if the legal costs will feed the benefits we’ll get. We think the hotel knows that, and that’s why they’re doing this to us.”

The Fairmont has not yet returned the deposit of $13,000. The council will ask for a refund on Monday.

This is the second year in a row that the senior class trip has made the news. During last year’s trip, four black students were turned away from a class outing to Mothers Bar. That incident prompted threats of a lawsuit, a settlement and widespread discussion about racial profiling, both nationally and on campus.

“Senior trip hasn’t even started, and we’ve already run into issues,” Kiles said.

Representatives of the Fairmont hotel did not return phone calls from Student Life on Sunday.

Luster: March 23 at Cicero’s, 8 p.m.

Chicago’s own Luster has spent a year writing and recording, and the band now feels it can take its show on the road. The band bought an RV and booked a ton of shows all over the nation, and is coming to St. Louis. Catch them this at 8 p.m. Tuesday at Cicero’s. For more information, visit www.lusteronline.com.

Tiempo Libre: March 26 at Edison Theatre, 8 p.m.

The Grammy-nominated Latin jazz band will play in the Edison Theatre this Friday as part of the Edison Theatre OVATIONS Series. Directed by pianist Jorge Gomez, the band fuses Cuban rhythms with classical melodies. Tickets are $20 for students, $28 for seniors and Wash. U. faculty and staff, and $32 for everyone else. For more information, visit edisontheatre.wustl.edu.

The 25 or so students who attended the roundtable split into committees devoted to specific areas of campus life, including Washington University Police Department (WUPD) affairs, on-campus student awareness, Residential Life, student group interaction and off-campus affairs.

Students in the taskforce on WUPD affairs debated whether some students’ allegations that WUPD officers approach black students more than white ones means the officers are guilty of racial profiling.

While the group did not reach a conclusion, group members agreed that reports of suspicious activity filed by students against other students are a major contributor to WUPD stopping black students more often.

Members of the group said they would like to initiate dialogue between WUPD and students regarding methods of identifying suspicious persons, and also explored the idea of a “walk in your shoes” orientation program in which students would learn about the differences that race makes in daily life.

The “on-campus awareness” taskforce was primarily concerned with the issue of self-segregation in the student body. Group members said they hoped to break down what they termed the “fishbowl” phenomenon: a tendency for important conversations about race issues to remain confined to racially or ethnically homogenous groups.

“I know that as an African American male I have particular conversations with other African American males on campus that pretty much we keep amongst ourselves,” said senior Regis Murayi, one of the six black students rejected from Mothers bar.

The task force proposed mediating conversations about self-segregation on freshman floors. Members of the group also plan to develop initiatives to draw a greater and more diverse body of students to events like Monday night’s roundtable to engage students who might otherwise be uninvolved in the dialogue about diversity issues.

Like the on-campus awareness task force, the ResLife committee offered a plan to spur more diversity dialogue on freshman floors by designing special programming to be led by residential advisors. Group members also planned a conference with Residential Life about making ethnic and racial diversity a priority when forming freshman floors.

The student group interaction taskforce envisioned working with Student Union to create an incentive program that rewards collaboration between student groups. It also proposed the development of a multicultural retreat in which students from diverse backgrounds would bond over a variety of recreational and discussion-based activities.

Members of the off-campus taskforce expressed a desire to raise awareness of racial and class implications of policy decisions behind recent MetroLink service cuts. The taskforce hopes to launch a visual campaign to make the faces of St. Louis residents affected by the service cuts more visible to students.

Senior De Nichols, co-president of Connect 4, said her group would facilitate further meetings of the taskforces created at Monday night’s roundtable to lay out more concrete action steps. The organization hopes that this event will be a first step in empowering passionate students to turn thoughts into action.

Said junior Wanda Savala, Connect 4’s other co-president, “[Students] will start something but they don’t really feel supported. We need to rally those students who are doing something, who have ideas.”

The turnout for the roundtable was short of Connect 4’s expectations, paling in comparison to the more than 300 students who filled Lab Sciences 300 for the town hall meeting.

The large gap in the turnout between the town hall meeting and Monday’s roundtable elicited concerns from some that the enthusiasm exhibited by the general student body in recent weeks will not last as the Mothers bar incident fades into the past.

“[The turnout] kind of made me question how passionate, how committed students are to affecting change in this area,” Nichols said.

Nonetheless, she said she was confident that a smaller group of students would continue to converse and act on race and diversity issues.

“Quite honestly, I am a very optimistic, faithful person,” she said. “The rational side of me says that people are gonna let this die, but I think we have a committed body of students who won’t let this die out.”

The ADL contacted the group of six black students three days after the original incident to offer them access to the organization’s infrastructure and advocacy from the group. This was unusual, as most people with a complaint need to contact the ADL before it will consider a case.

In this case, however, a parent of a University student was an ADL board member in Houston, and according to ADL Chicago regional director Lonnie Nasatir, “it kind of came through the ranks.”

For the students from Washington University, the support came as a welcome surprise.

“I was surprised because I hadn’t contacted them,” said Fernando Cutz, senior class president. “I was just really grateful they reached out.”

The ADL first asked the students if they would be interested in the organization writing a coalition letter to be circulated among civil rights groups in Chicago. The organization then hand-delivered a letter to the bar last Friday. This prompted the first response from Mothers. According to Cutz, the ADL “was certainly a major part in that reaction.” The group also helped the students find free legal counsel.

The Anti-Defamation League is a non-profit organization focused on fighting anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry.

“It goes back to that notion that if one minority group is targeted, we all are targeted, and that we can really be much more effective in a broad way than if we just sort of stick within our own communities,” said Karen Aroesty, the St. Louis regional director of the Anti-Defamation League.

Senior Regis Murayi speaks at a news conference Wednesday in the Danforth University Center. Murayi is one of the six black students alleging race discrimination at a Chicago bar. (Matt Mitgang | Student Life)

Senior class president Fernando Cutz and the six black students who allege they were racially discriminated against by the Original Mothers bar in Chicago said at a news conference Wednesday that they will not be pressing charges against the establishment.

Cutz announced at the conference, held in the Danforth University Center, that the students have reached an agreement with the bar, and Mothers will issue a public apology to the students. Managers at the bar will undergo diversity sensitivity and awareness training. The students are receiving free legal counsel from Covington and Burling LLP in their negotiations with Mothers.

Mothers will also hold four charity fundraisers, three at the bar in Chicago and one in St. Louis. The students will determine the recipient of the funds. Senior Regis Murayi, one of the six black students rejected from the bar, said the funds will likely go toward a social justice-related cause.

“As this whole incident is about raising the issue about race relations in the United States, we think it’s very important to contribute to a fund or even a scholarship or organization, something to that matter, that would do the best to promote raising these types of issues,” Murayi said.

Cutz also announced at the conference that Senior Class Council will be leading a “massive demonstration” in Chicago in late November that will include both University students and representatives from Mothers.

Cutz said that Student Union will likely fund bus transportation for students to go to the event.

The students stressed at the conference that they are not seeking compensation from the bar.

“Nothing in the plans had anything to do with us getting financial compensation,” said senior Chuka Chike-Obi, one of the six black students.

“This isn’t power, this isn’t about leverage, this isn’t about fighting, kicking and screaming. This is about really raising the issue about racial discrimination in America and really opening this issue moving forward,” Murayi said.

Cutz said he is pleased with Mothers’ response.

“Personally I’m satisfied with the way that things turned out,” Cutz said.

-With additional reporting by Dan Woznica

This is a Student Life breaking news update. Check back soon for more information.

The six black students who were allegedly denied entry to Mothers bar in Chicago due to their race. (Matt Mitgang | Student Life)

View a slideshow from the town hall event

Students expressed anger at the Original Mothers bar and demanded that the establishment issue an apology during a town hall forum Monday night.

“I’m flabbergasted that an apology hasn’t been given because the first step is admitting that you have a problem,” senior Jessica Strong said at the forum.

Almost 300 students showed up at the meeting, which was organized by the Association of Black Students, Connect 4 and the Senior Class Council.

The forum, held in Lab Sciences 300, was arranged to discuss an incident of alleged race discrimination by the Original Mothers bar in Chicago against six black male students on Oct. 17. Students have accused the bar of denying entry to the six because of their race.

Although the bar has not returned phone calls from Student Life, it released a statement saying it does not discriminate but will investigate the incident.

Students at the forum called for another student protest against the bar to follow up on the first one held by seniors in Chicago. Others demanded that the bar’s managers be fired or be given anti-discrimination training.

“We need to demand that they write an anti-discrimination policy, and they need to post it outside of their bar,” senior Nikki Spencer said at the forum.

Still other students suggested that the bar return the money that was spent there by seniors on the night of the incident.

“Our money is our vote,” senior Audrey King said. Another suggestion was made that Mothers should fund a scholarship for a University student.

The forum was intended to help the six black students and members of the Senior Class Council develop an official list of demands to give to the Original Mothers bar. The demands will be presented at a news conference held by the Senior Class Council at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday in Danforth University Center room 276.

Summary of the town hall

All six students who were denied entry to the bar were in attendance at the forum.

Senior Class President Fernando Cutz announced at the beginning of the event that the incident and the University’s response to it have prompted national and international media attention. CNN ran a TV spot on the story Sunday night, and The New Zealand Herald covered the story Monday.

Cutz also addressed questions about why students at the bar had not staged a walk-out from the establishment on the night of the incident.

Cutz took full responsibility for this and cited concerns he had on the night of the incident that people “weren’t level-headed and that it could escalate the situation.”

“The Senior Class Council and the six students who were involved were the only ones outside when it happened,” Cutz said in an interview. “The majority of students, I don’t believe they should be blamed for that decision. It wasn’t their decision to make.”

Karen Aroeste, St. Louis regional director for the Anti-Defamation League, also spoke at the event.

Aroeste said University students have the potential to use the incident to make a significant positive change.

“You do have an opportunity to turn lemons into a seriously large pitcher of lemonade,” Aroeste said.

Students react to Mothers,University-wide response

After the event, students shared their personal reactions.

Alex Cooper said he was unsurprised when he first heard about the incident at Mothers.

“I think the things that happened at Mothers bar were ridiculous but not too surprising just knowing how America is,” Cooper said.

Brandon Wilson, a sophomore and African-American studies major who is black, echoed Cooper’s sentiment that incidents of racism are common in America today.

“I’ve been called n—– and have racist comments directed towards me all the time,” Wilson said. “This [incident at Mothers] is really a microcosm of a bigger issue. We can get angry all day about six young men being rejected from a bar, but there’s 60,000 men being rejected from society in East St. Louis.”

Junior Wandalyn Savala, a member of Connect 4 who was involved in planning the event, said she felt students at the town hall were energized about the issue but fears they will not be for long.

“Everyone’s really fired up, and I’m excited about that,” Savala said. “But I know in a few weeks, people are going to be like, ‘Eh. Kinda don’t really have time. Kinda have a midterm.’”

Said junior Audrey Morrow, “I just really hope that when the spotlight goes away, that people still remember that we still have these problems to fix.”