Student Life at Washington University in St. Louis
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- For the student newspaper of Washington University in St. Louis, see Student Life (newspaper)
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[edit] Student Organizations
Washington University has over 200 undergraduate student organizations on campus. All are funded by WUSTL's student government Student Union, which has a $2 million annual budget that is completely student controlled and is one of the largest student government budgets in the country. Known as SU for short, it sponsors large-scale campus programs including WILD (a semesterly concert in the quad), free copies of the New York Times, USA Today, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch through The Collegiate Readership Program; the Assembly Series, a weekly lecture series; and the campus television station, WUTV and the radio station, KWUR.
[edit] Student Government
Founded in 1967, SU carries out three major activities: representing student interests; registering, funding, and supporting student groups; and planning campus-wide events. It is divided into three branches: the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches. The Student Union Executive Branch is comprised of 4 elected individuals, who are the student body officials - the President, Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary - who are charged with managing the and allocating the budget, being the point of contact with University administration, and leading and setting the direction for Student Union. The Legislative branch includes the Treasury and the Senate. The Treasury of the Student Union recently restructured the process for funding the speakers for the Assembly Series and continues to hear appeals for finances from various student groups. Recent resolutions of the Senate include adding new capabilities to student ID cards, forming a GLBTQA task force, requiring all professors to distribute course syllabi and midterm grade progresses, and increasing the minimum wage of University workers. The SU Judicial Branch includes a Constitutional Council comprised of a Chief Justice, four Associate Justices, and one Alternate. The Election Commissioner and the Financial Advisory Review Board (FARB) fall under the Judicial Branch of Student Union. SU is one of the few student governments in the country that does not compensate its elected offers. More information about the history and responsibilities of Student Union can be found here.
[edit] Music
There is a large interest in A cappella music on campus, spawning groups such as The Stereotypes, After Dark, The Mosaic Whispers, The Pikers and More Fools Than Wise. A body known as ACAC (All A Cappella Auditions Council) oversees auditions for member groups each fall. The University also has a Department of Music that, in addition to providing concentrated study for music majors, also provides instrument and voice lessons to students. There are also a number of instrumental groups and ensembles in which students may participate. Other student organizations, such as Team 31 and The Gargoyle Committee, bring in popular national bands and lesser-known independent alternative performers.
[edit] Residential Life
75% of undergraduate students live on campus. Most of the dormitories on campus are located on the South 40, named because of its adjacent location south of the Hilltop campus and its size of 40 acres. It is the location of all the freshman dorms as well as several upperclassman dorms. All of the dorms are co-ed. The South 40 is organized as a pedestrian friendly environment where residences surround a central recreational lawn known as the Swamp. Wohl Student Center, the Habif Health and Wellness Center (Student Health Services), the Residential Life Office, University Police Headquarters, various student owned businesses (e.g. the laundry service, "Wash U Wash"), and the baseball, softball, and intramural fields are also located on the South 40.
[edit] Residential Colleges
Residences on the 40, as it is frequently abbreviated, are broken into small groups known as Residential Colleges. Residential Colleges typically have social events for their member houses and are administratively a single unit. Each College was originally supposed to consist of a freshman dormitory and an upperclassman dormitory paired together, but currently only five out of the nine include at least one freshman dormitory and at least one upperclassman dormitory.
Residential Colleges include:
- Wayman Crow (Howard Nemerov and Nathan Dardick Houses)
- Robert S. Brookings (Arnold J. Lien and Kate M. Gregg Houses)
- William Greenleaf Eliot (WGE) (Elizabeth G. Danforth, Ethan A.H. Shepley, and Butron M. Wheeler Houses)
- Park/Mudd (Helen Ette Park and Mudd Houses)
- JKL (Thomas G. Rutledge, Carl A. Dauten, and Shanedling Houses)
- HIGE (Herbert F. Hitzeman, Chester Myers, Frank E. Hurd, and Thomas H. Eliot Houses)
- Lee/Beaumont (John F. Lee and Louis Beaumont Houses)
- Ruby/Umrath (Helen F. Umrath and Maurie Rubelmann Houses)
- Liggett/Koenig (John E. Liggett and Edwin C. Koenig Houses)
[edit] North Side
Another group of residences, known as the North Side, is located in the northwest corner of campus. Only open to upperclassmen and January Scholars, the North Side consists of Millbrook Apartments, The Village, and all fraternity houses except the Zeta Beta Tau house, which is off campus and located just northwest of the South 40. Sororities at Washington University do not have houses by their own accord. The Village is a group of residences where students who have similar interests or academic goals apply as small groups of 4 to 24, known as BLOCs, to live together in clustered suites. Like the South 40, the residences around the Village also surround a recreational lawn as well as its own student center.
