Author: Leslie Gibson McCarthy

In 2020, so much about what we know to be normal came to a grinding halt for the WashU community. One week in March, we’re looking ahead to spring break, and then suddenly it’s an unending hiatus. Yet the work of the university, and its families, goes on.

Andrew Whitaker, a two-sport athlete and a senior biomedical engineering major at the McKelvey School of Engineering, has spent his undergraduate career giving back.

No one could have foreseen a fall without football when Aaron Keen was named head coach last January. But the 1994 WashU graduate is tackling the challenge of his first season head on, with resiliency and a positive mental attitude learned under his friend and mentor, Larry Kindbom.

It looks the same, yet the 169-acre campus feels a bit different this fall. As students return, a by-the-numbers look at what has been done to make the campus as safe as possible for returning students, faculty and staff.

A new tool using math has been designed to help sports franchises keep the fan experience at stadiums and arenas the safest it can be in this era of COVID-19. The formula was developed in part by John E. McCarthy, the Spencer T. Olin Professor of Mathematics in Arts & Sciences and chair of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Washington University in St. Louis.

Rob Morgan, in Arts & Sciences, shares the story of how he steered the Beyond Boundaries Program — in its first cohort in 2019-2020 — to roll with the challenges of COVID-19. Embracing resiliency and creativity, Morgan and the program pivoted, creating a podcast to bridge the digital divide.

This fall, each and every member of the Washington University community who will be on campus will be required to follow four steps — four public health measures that must be completed by students, faculty and staff individually, but will have an impact globally.

Due to the continuing COVID-19 global pandemic, Washington University varsity athletic teams will not be competing during the 2020 fall sports season. “While the decision to cancel fall competitive schedules was not made easily, we remain committed to keeping the safety and well-being of our student-athletes and campus community front of mind,” said Anthony J. Azama, the John M. Schael Director of Athletics.

The spring semester at Washington University was not supposed to end like this — with empty labs and remote classrooms; canceled traditions and idle walkways; scattered friends and electronic colleagues. But the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) changed everything. Here’s a look at the many ways Washington University responded in the first uncertain weeks of a new reality.

As the novel coronavirus has accelerated its spread throughout the Midwest and across the U.S., scores of students on the Washington University Medical Campus have mobilized to support health-care workers and the St. Louis community in the fight against the global pandemic.