ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: You can imagine my surprise when I heard that my Bear Beginnings, my foundation for a successful collegiate experience, is threatened by the First Year Center, which announced last week that any pre-orientation program with fewer than 20 students enrolled by June 15 would be cancelled.

2013-14 was a banner year for Washington University athletics. Three teams earned No. 1 rankings, and 10 University Athletic Association championships were brought back to the Danforth Campus. Ten student-athletes were named UAA MVPs, and the Bears’ rosters featured 28 All-Americans. Here is a review of each team’s accomplishments from the year through April 27.

With the regular season coming to a close, the Washington University softball team recorded its 30th victory after winning its fourth game of the weekend, but two losses against a regionally ranked opponent left the Bears wondering whether they will make the postseason.

Bear Basics returns with Washington University softball player Annie Pitkin teaching Sahil Patel how to pitch.

Men’s track and field Looking for its sixth straight University Athletic Association outdoor title, the Washington University men’s track-and-field team is projected to be in a dead heat with Carnegie Mellon University at the UAA Outdoor Championships in Chicago. According to head coach Jeff Stiles, the two are tied on paper.

All junior pitcher Kunal Patel wanted was a chance. Once he got it, he made a statement. With the Washington University baseball team in a 5-1 hole after three innings against Rhodes College on Feb. 23, head coach Steve Duncan made the call to the bullpen, and Patel made his collegiate debut in the third game of his third season with the Bears.

Student Life, the independent student newspaper of Washington University, won 15 awards in the 2014 Missouri Collegiate Media Association newspaper contest, presentation slides by the Missouri Press Association revealed Tuesday. Honoring excellence in collegiate journalism in Missouri, the contest receives entries from all over the state.

I was up until 3 a.m. Thursday morning because of Student Life production. About 2 1/2 hours later, I was woken up by a siren blaring to announce the arrival of the first tornado of 2014—what literally everybody wants to be woken by. I got on my iPhone’s Twitter app, did a quick search for “tornado St. Louis” and found that one had touched down in University City at 5:22 a.m.

Three speakers who were funded through the Student Union Speaker Series cancelled their planned appearances this semester, leaving student groups scrambling to come up with alternate programming. Neuropsychiatrist Eric Kandel, actor Joe Pantoliano and astronomer Steven Squyres added to a list of speakers who have been scheduled to appear but were forced to cancel.

The third annual WUSTL Spring Invitational came down to one stroke, and the No. 1 Washington University women’s golf team was on the wrong end of the final standings. Despite the narrow loss to NAIA No. 6 William Woods University, which has now won every rendition of the tournament, the Bears chose to dwell on the positives.