WashU ranked 72nd out of 257 colleges in the 2026 Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) College Free Speech Rankings survey, with an overall “D- speech climate grade.”

In The Secret History of WashU, Student Life Producers Jeremy Slaten and Alan Zhou share the stories of the buildings that once defined the Danforth campus. This trailer provides a sneak peek of the fourth episode, which examines the history behind the burning of the ROTC building.

At around 9:15 p.m. on Saturday, October 14, a fire broke out on the first floor of an apartment building at 6230 Clemens Avenue. 

It meant so much to me because someone does walk past the monument every day, because someone possesses a deep-rooted connection to structure as a symbol of their God, and because someone awes at the cathedral as an image of beloved Gothic architecture.

The torrential blaze that devastated the cathedral nave isn’t simply a subject for discussions on preservation, restoration and medieval architecture: It’s at the epicenter of political debate – about the meaning of tradition, hegemony and what the priorities of news should be – in which I feature centrally.

The fire started when two graduate architecture students were working in the lab. Clayton Fire Department officials were called at 6:37 a.m., and extinguished the small fire shortly after arriving.

The smell of smoke filled the Sam Fox School Monday afternoon when a dumpster on the south side of Bixby Hall caught fire. While staff rushed to put out the flames, maintenance worker and carpenter Nick Garcia said, they ran out of fire extinguishers before local firefighters arrived at the scene minutes later.

A non-profit, pro-individual rights group has granted Washington University its “Speech Code of the Month” Award for Residential Life’s harassment policy that may be open to discretionary abuse.

An ice machine motor ignited in the Bear’s Den kitchen and forced evacuation of the Dining Hall and all of South Forty House at around 9:35 p.m. A Bon Appetit employee burst out of the kitchen asking for assistance, which was followed by the chefs shouting for everyone to “get out of the building.” There was an accumulation of smoke in the kitchen.

At 12:40 P.M. today, a small fire started in an oven in the kitchen of the Lopata House basement.