Interest in psychedelics has surged in recent years as clinical trials suggest they may provide rapid and lasting relief for people who do not respond to conventional treatments, particularly those targeting clinical depression.

WashU recently welcomed the Class of 2029, the second-largest cohort in the school’s history. In comparison to the Class of 2028, this class saw an increase in rural and international students and a decrease in students from FGLI backgrounds, along with varied fluctuations in racial and ethnic minority enrollment.

WashU and MilliporeSigma, a pharmaceutical company affiliated with the multinational Merck Group, signed a formal non-binding agreement known as a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on July 24, 2025. The agreement would support joint research initiatives between the company and WashU’s schools, including Arts & Sciences, McKelvey, and WashU Medicine.

Less than four months into 2025, WashU has seen five reports of trespassing in student dorms and residential buildings on the Danforth Campus — up from three reports in all of 2024, and one break-in in all of 2023 — according to a Student Life analysis of the crime log updated by the Washington University Police Department (WUPD) every 48 hours. 

In an email addressed to the WashU community last Monday, Chancellor Andrew Martin emphasized that the WashU administration was doing “all [it] can to advocate for the university” in light of the recent investigations and funding cuts under the Trump Administration.

Last August, The Princeton Review named WashU #2 in the nation for “2025 Best Campus Food,” up from #5 in 2024. The other five schools listed are the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (No. 1), University of Richmond (No. 3), Bowdoin College (No. 4), and Cornell University (No. 5).

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) announced that it was investigating 45 universities across the United States, including WashU, for allegedly “engaging in race-exclusionary practices” in their education programs and activities Mar. 14.

Nobel Laureate and University of Chicago professor Jack Szostak delivered two lectures on the origin of life to an audience of professors, graduate, and undergraduate students the Monday and Tuesday before Spring Break.

On Friday afternoon, the National Institute of Health (NIH) announced a $4 billion research funding cut spearheaded by the Trump administration. A federal judge temporarily paused the cut nationally on Tuesday following lawsuits filed the day before.

While the future of NIH funding is now uncertain, the cut to indirect cost reimbursement would have cost WashU about $106 million of research funding in 2024, according to Student Life’s analysis of the NIH funding database.