The first week of the 2014 fall semester at Washington University in St. Louis began in the wake of unrest in the area that followed the Aug. 9 death in Ferguson, Mo., of African-American teenager Michael Brown.
Events were planned not only for students to lend a voice to the issues, but to encourage all members of the community, both on the Danforth and School of Medicine campuses, to come together in an open and welcoming atmosphere.
A community-wide website, Wash U Voices, was created as a portal for voices and opinions from all perspectives in blog form, as well as a calendar of events to keep the community informed of planned activities both the first week and in the future.
A group of students began the week on Aug. 25, the first day of classes, by joining in the “Hands Up, Walk Out” march, a nationwide, grass-roots event which urged marchers to join together not as university students, but as members of the St. Louis community.
A series of faculty and staff discussions and “Conversation Circles” began the first week on both campuses and will continue into September and beyond.
The week culminated in a community-wide forum Aug. 28 titled “Race, Place, and Violence: A University-Wide Dialogue About Michael Brown” that attracted a standing-room-only audience in Simon Hall’s May Auditorium.
(To view a video of the entire forum, visit here.)
Some images from the week on campus: