Let’s talk about sex, baby! But wait — before we can get down and dirty, let’s make sure we’re actually on the same page.

So, you wanna have a dorm party. Maybe you’re tired of endless bidding over GroupMe party-ticket messages; maybe you’re thinking of a chill night in; maybe you’ve just been somehow assigned to host the afters. Whatever the occasion, the dorm party is a certified classic function. So, if you’re looking to throw a night everyone will remember (but not because of a mass email from the RA), here’s your ultimate guide.

Seven minutes past 7 p.m., a gaggle of students sporting “I Voted” stickers and camouflage print “Harris-Waltz” hats milled around Seigle 103, waiting for the WashU College Democrats election night watch party to commence. The nervous energy radiating off the group was palpable, cut briefly as WashU Democrats’ President, senior Saish Satyal, pushed through the crowd with a plentiful bounty of Domino’s pizza boxes stacked high in his arms. The watchers expected a night of community, come commiseration or celebration.

“I’m a leader for a student group on campus, and I’m super frustrated with my Campus Life advisor and feel like they aren’t really hearing students out this year. I’m wondering if you have any advice on how to go about approaching a conversation with an adult who has power over you, but who isn’t necessarily doing their job effectively.”

Although it was already 2 p.m., the South 40 was quiet, a blanket of muggy heat holding everything at a sticky, leisurely standstill. Nearby, students nursed spillover regret from the previous night or unhurriedly ambled towards the main campus for some semblance of studying. Productivity wasn’t the only facade, though. So was peace.

In addition to the 1,851-student-strong class of 2028, 50 transfer students from 38 colleges count among the new arrivals at WashU. But what isn’t so clear is the opposite side of that equation: the number of students who chose not to return to campus.

The semester only just started, but I’m already feeling stressed about my classes. It’s a heavier load than what I’m used to, and I’m really worried about keeping up with the pace and still having a life. Help!

I count some people I met during the first week among my closest friends, and I consider myself incredibly lucky to have met such a wide variety of people I can still wave to, even if our inseparability turned out to just be temporary. But it’s absolutely normal to realize you just might not be perfectly aligned with the very first people you met in college, and it’s really no big deal.

The rush begins bright and early in the week, as soon as the sour regret of the past weekend’s mistakes is replaced with anticipation for the next. All across campus, a stream of hundreds of notifications, all repeating the same scant and minimal sentence, formulated for maximum efficiency, fills screens. The messages ping in the back row of lectures, snake through the lunch rush Corner 17 line, and get swiped through during breaks between leg day sets at Sumers Recreation Center. The transactions are discreet and quick — as soon as a message is sent, a flood of responses arrive, […]

  Sure, it was a poetry reading. But don’t imagine quiet, tasteful coffeehouse gatherings populated by berets and tweed, or nodding off with a classmate’s perplexing prose in first-period English — think stomps, snaps, and shouts. Think lively banter, sharp choreography, and most importantly, really good poetry – the kind that strikes a chord, crystalizes […]