Did you hear about the sex shop opening on the 40? The onset of that rumor was the handiwork of junior Julia Lindon, the head writer and founder of WashU Basement. The new college humor website is quickly taking off and thankfully Julia has gotten WashU in on the action right before it goes big. WashU’s site is currently staffed by twelve excited humorists who are happy to inform the WUSTL student body about anything from the social hierarchy in Whispers to the absurd ways that WashU spends its $4,560,043,000 endowment, while Julia (kinda) just tries to keep everyone in line.
Hometown? Rye, NY
What are you involved in on campus? Suspicious of Whistlers (long form improv group), WUSA, member of Kappa Kappa Gamma, new hated and proud member of Thurtene Honorary, and head writer of WashU Basement.
How did you become involved with WashU Basement? A friend of mine knew the guys who started the Campus Basement website at Syracuse and asked me if I would be interested in launching a website on our campus. Now, as WashU Basement’s head writer, I am in charge of setting up meetings, managing the website, recruiting new writers and overseeing the current writers.
Where do you want WashU Basement to go? I would love for more people to get involved. People in different social scenes could bring in readers from their groups of friends. In the future, we hope to start adding videos and interviews to the website.
How is WashU Basement different from other publications on campus? WashU Basement showcases college humor and like The Onion, presents satirical news. WashU Basement is purely on the web and we update every single day of the week. Our site is exciting because there is always something new being posted, and topics are oftentimes very current and relevant to that week. Our articles are sarcastic, ironic, and sometimes false, but articles always pertain to the interests of the WashU community.
Do you worry about being too outrageous? Yes! Though we are fine with being mildly offensive. Hopefully everyone who reads the website realizes that we like to joke. In the past week we have started to see negative comments in our comment section, but the founders of Campus Basement looked into the IP addresses and discovered that all of the negative comments were coming from only two people! So you two – if you are reading this, stop commenting!
What has been the campus response to the website? I’ve heard from tons of students who really love the website. As head writer everyone assumes that I write every article, which is not at all true. Scroll up on the page to see who is your responsible for your laughs.
What do you want to do when you grow up? I want to do something in comedy, whether it’s writing, performing or production. I had an internship at the Daily Show and at a stand up comedy club in New York City, and I really liked both experiences. My Anthropology major is really relevant…
How can others get involved? Send me an email at julia.lindon@gmail.com and include a potential article idea. Staff writers post one article a week and the position also has the potential for shares and moneymaking. If an article is shared 100 times, the author gets paid $20, and if it is shared 500 times, the author gets paid $50.
Look for Julia’s new article, the Do’s and Don’t’s of Sorority Recruitment, and make sure to “share” it! And like this if you know what’s good for you.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Wash U chapter.