HatchetWhen Amy L. DuVall got off of the Metro in Washington, D.C., something on the saxophone case of a street performer caught her eye. It was a bright pink Vintage Vinyl sticker. Amy immediately thought of the popular store on the Loop in St. Louis and of her college days at Washington University.
DuVall was an engineering student and went straight into law school after graduating in 1995.
DuVall grew up in Iowa but decided to branch out from her friends and attend college out of state.
“Going to Wash U was the biggest positive experience of my life,” she said. “I left home to go to Wash U and I learned so much, and I am still in contact with some of the great friends I made there.”
DuVall lived in Eliot, which was recently torn down.
“It makes me feel old to see it go,” she said. Also, the Umrathskellar, once a popular place for burgers, is now the Subway. Still present, however, are the Bear’s Den chicken fingers.
“Those chicken fingers are the one food thing that I remember to this day!” she said.
What hasn’t changed at Wash U is the faculty’s commitment and dedication to the student body, she said. She recalls feeling overloaded with engineering homework and problem sets and sitting down with Dean Russell, who calmed her and reworked her schedule, helping her continue on her track and not give up.
“Wash U is a great place and they’ll take care of you there,” she said. “My 10-year reunion is coming up this year and I’m looking forward to it.”
Melissa Parsons, also a 1995 alumna, recently moved back to St. Louis and was amazed and amused with the changes at Wash U. She recalls more activism on campus, including group hunger strikes and fasts in response to Bosnia and even topless marches to protest nudity as a strictly sexual element.
Parsons remembers when a teacher in the art school was not invited back, and students petitioned and protested until they were allowed more involvement in committees for appointing faculty.
Alcohol was another brewing issue on campus. Her freshman year held the typical array of Frat Row parties until the national spike in deaths and alcohol-related injuries drew negative attention to Greek Life, causing a crackdown on drinking. With wristbands and invitations required for parties on the Row, the drinking scene moved to the dorms. There were more ambulances on the South 40 during her sophomore year. The epidemic of alcohol related incidents spanned through to her senior year.
Besides alcohol lacking on the Row, Parsons notes the lack of technology that Wash U students now enjoy.
“There was no MetroLink, the shuttles were very unreliable and we also didn’t have e-mail, if you can believe that,” she said. “Engineers started getting e-mail my junior year, but the school obviously felt no need for art school students to have e-mail.”
In the mid-90s, students formed a panel to help determine what the University needed to do to move forward. Parsons’ husband, a 1996 graduate, was a part of this panel. There were lasting effects of this student involvement.
“It’s so exciting to be back and seeing what things have happened on campus,” she said. “Chancellor Wrighton has done a great job following through with some of the panel’s ideas.”