The idea of consolidating humanities departments should never have occurred at a university of WashU’s stature. Yet sadly, the university experience has become more of a business instead of a site of meaningful self-exploration that the humanities encourages.

As Israel ramped up its attacks on Gaza, killed more and more civilians, and committed several war crimes, many of us Jews adopted the strategies that Piper describes. We insisted that people who came out in support of Palestine were ignorantly hopping on the most recent and trendy left-wing train. We insisted that pro-Palestine rhetoric was the latest form of subtle (or not-so-subtle) antisemitism. We insisted that Hamas held 100% of the blame for the catastrophic death toll in Gaza. We insisted that those dying were indoctrinated from birth and already terrorists in the making. We even insisted that the death toll and the famine were calculated works of antisemitic fiction.

I am thankful for initiatives like the WashU Pledge and the adoption of need-blind admissions, but WashU must do more. Several of my friends and classmates have transferred due to rising costs, and prospective students are increasingly ranking other schools above WashU because of financial concerns. WashU is losing talent not just from lower economic backgrounds, but also those from the middle class.

Anyone who decides that the best way to honor Charlie Kirk’s life is to misconstrue his advocacy and forget what he stood for is likely deeply misguided about what it means to honor the dead. Either that, or they are painfully aware that Kirk’s true beliefs would not be heralded as the gleaming examples of civil advocacy that many sources might have you believe. People scrubbing his reputation evidently don’t care about making their remembrances accurate, just more easily digestible for the general public. In this case, being honest about Kirk’s character would only reveal how much hate and divisiveness he infused into U.S. political discourse.

It is not a stretch to say that the future of innovation is being negotiated right now. If Congress caps research funding or goes through with NIH and NSF cuts, WashU’s labs, students, and communities will severely suffer. Now is not a time to be passive.
WashU students have a responsibility and an opportunity to advocate for the research that saves lives and strengthens communities.

Yet at the moment when the nation needs quality teachers most, WashU has chosen to eliminate its teacher education program. In an August email, the Education Department at WashU informed students that, “due to ongoing challenges and budgetary constraints,” the department will be discontinuing its teacher education programs for students entering WashU in fall 2025 and beyond.

Think of the best educational experiences you’ve had at WashU: the classes that resonated most with you, the conversations with peers about the world or something you read, the moments that sparked creativity and excitement for you. A true education isn’t simply pouring knowledge from one bucket to another, from professor to student. It’s a lively, unpredictable conversation where professors’ expertise meets students’ intellectual energy, generating new insights and ideas. That conversation requires academic freedom for all of us. And when that freedom is jeopardized, students lose. 

On and off campus, we face the challenges of being overworked, underpaid, and undervalued, never mind our exhausting responsibilities as university students on top of them. If we want to see our conditions improve and create a future we can look forward to, students need to get serious about the fight for labor rights.

This is a university failing its federal legal obligations under Title IX. Students deserve to know the truth.

We call upon WashU leadership to protect our students, staff, and faculty by committing to non-cooperation with ICE beyond the legal requirements of judicial warrants.