Author: Deb Parker

Multicultural Celebration Weekend, April 11-13, welcomes admitted students for a campus visit focused on diverse student life and learning opportunities. Freshman Lela Prichett shows off one of the shirts marking the weekend.

Mechanics from Big Shark Bicycles will provide free bike tune-ups for students, faculty and staff today on the Medical Campus and tomorrow on the Danforth Campus. The tune-ups are part of Car-free Month at WUSTL.

The offices of Sustainability and Parking and Transportation challenge the WUSTL community to try alternative means of commuting to campus during Car-free Month, April 1-24. The teams with highest number of car-free trips and greatest number of car-free miles will win awards. April 12 is the last day to register for the Car-free Challenge.

More than 175 WUSTL volunteers recently did prep work at Gateway STEM High School — priming and taping walls, organizing supplies and competing other tasks. They cleared the way for an even larger undertaking this weekend during the Clinton Global Initiative University meeting. Approximately 800 conference delegates will perform service projects at the school. ​

The WUSTL men’s and women’s swimming teams are set to host their annual swim lessons on Tuesday and Thursday evenings beginning Tuesday, April 9, at the Millstone Pool. The deadline to sign up for lessons is Monday, April 8.

During a recent reception to mark the beginning of the Loop Student Living Initiative’s construction phase, Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton thanked University City and City of St. Louis government officials, business owners and residents for their role in the project’s progression. The celebration was held at the Three Kings Public House on Delmar Boulevard, which is in the same block as the construction.

President Bill Clinton announced the launch of the third annual Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) Commitments Challenge, a competition of ideas from college students in the form of a bracket. The KHE Project, a commitment to action by WUSTL Arts & Sciences students Emily Santos, Krupa Desai and Henry Osman, is part of the “Sweet 16” projects selected to compete.

Spring Preview, the campus visit program especially designed for recently admitted high school seniors and their families, kicked off this week and runs through April. Student guides begin tours in Danforth Plaza in front of Brookings Hall. In addition to taking tours, prospective students can sit in on classes, talk with faculty, attend meetings and social activities with student groups, and sample the area’s entertainment and cultural attractions.

WUSTL has made strides in becoming more sustainable, from keeping more waste out of landfills to adding staff to focus on energy conservation. The university’s overall institutional waste diversion rate improved to about 40 percent in fiscal 2012. The campus community also is participating in the Recyclemania competition this month.

Spring break begins this weekend, and, as students and faculty take a mid-March break, so does the daily Record email. The Record will be published Wednesday, March 13, then resume regular publication Monday, March 18. In the meantime, have a safe and relaxing break, and don’t forget to move your clocks forward Sunday, March 10.