Author: Jessica Daues

The following are among the new faculty members at Washington University in St. Louis: Parag Banerjee, PhD; Danielle Dutton, PhD; Josh Jackson, PhD; Kristina Kleutghen, PhD; Charlie Kurth, PhD; Zhao Ma, PhD; Paulo Natenzon, PhD; Jay Ponder, PhD; Elizabeth Quinn, PhD; and Lucia Strader, PhD. Others will be introduced periodically.

An Apple mobile application called WUSTL Dining — which allows potential diners to check out menu items at each WUSTL Dining Services location — now is available at the Apple App Store. The new app is free and also allows users to find WUSTL Dining Services locations and view nutritional information on menu items on their iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad.

Due to increased employee interest in the High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) and the Health Savings Accounts (HSA), the WUSTL Benefits Department will host special informational sessions Nov. 17 and 18 about these health plan options.

With the recent time change — daylight savings time ended at 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 6 — it will get dark earlier in the evening. The Washington University Police Department offers some reminders as part of the “Don’t be in the Dark” campaign.

The timing, process and archaeology of the peopling of Europe by early modern humans have been actively debated for more than a century. Reassessment of the anatomy and dating of a fragmentary upper jaw with three teeth from Kent’s Cavern in southern England has shed new light on these issues. 

The WUSTL Police Department is teaming up with the Kurt Warner First Things First Foundation and Operation Food Search for the 11th annual Warners’ Warm-up winter-coat drive. Through Monday, Nov. 14, the WUSTL police station will serve as a drop-off location for students, faculty, staff and others to donate new or gently used winter coats.

The annual health open enrollment period for the health/dental or dental-only plans, the health- and child-care flex spending plans, the Health Savings Account and the Retirement Medical Savings Account will be from Nov. 1-30. Enrollments and changes to these plans made during the open enrollment period and before the Nov. 30 deadline will be effective Jan. 1, 2012. During open enrollment, employees will be able to make changes and enroll through HRMS.

Amy Kweskin regularly engages in what Barbara Feiner, the university’s CFO, calls “a balancing act.” As university treasurer, Kweskin works to ensure the university has enough liquidity to manage its day-to-day operations. But she also has to make sure the university is not keeping too much extra cash around, missing investment opportunities for longer-term gains. It’s a process that is “critical to the smooth running of our operations,” Feiner says.

To ensure broad communication, certain key university policies are published on an annual basis in a special policy section of the Record. All members of the university community are essential to the continued endeavor for excellence in WUSTL’s teaching, research, service and patient-care missions.

WUSTL will celebrate Campus Sustainability Week Monday, Oct. 17, through Saturday, Oct. 22, on the Danforth and Medical campuses. WUSTL’s Campus Sustainability Week — along with national Campus Sustainability Day, Thursday, Oct. 20 — is held to bring attention to the achievements and challenges for students, faculty and staff in working to instill sustainability principles in higher education institutions and their surrounding communities.