Author: Diane Toroian Keaggy

Members of the Washington University in St. Louis College Republicans will plant 2,998 flags — one for each victim of the 9/11 attacks — on Mudd Field at 8:15 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 10. This is the fourth year the group has commemorated 9/11 and the first time the students have planted flags to honor first responders and others who have since died of cancer due to exposure to toxic materials at the site. 

This past weekend, all new undergraduate students at Washington University in St. Louis attended “The Date” and a post-performance conversation about sexual assault. Part of new student orientation for 16 years, the play is written, produced and performed by students. 

Members of the Washington University in St. Louis community are encouraged to download the free personal safety app SafeTrek. The university is providing the service, essentially a mobile “blue light,” for free to students, faculty, staff and basic service contractor employees.

The 1,780 members of Washington University in St. Louis’ Class of 2021 came together for the first time at the end of Move-In Day, Aug. 24, for an evening of house cheers and family hugs. The annual Convocation also provided an opportunity to reflect on the events of Charlottesville and to commit to a Washington University that is diverse and tolerant.

Washington University in St. Louis welcomed the 1,780 members of the Class of 2021 on Thursday, Aug. 24. This year’s class includes six members of the first cohort of the College Prep Program, which prepares talented, first-generation students for life on a college campus.

Some 1,780 first-year students, the largest first-year class in Washington University’s history, will be arriving for the 2017-18 academic year that begins Monday, Aug. 28. The students hail from 49 states and 22 countries. A team of 300 students, faculty and staff volunteers will help haul everything from refrigerators and microwaves to laptops and bicycles. Trucks, vans, minivans and U-Hauls will line the South 40 driveways.

About 300 incoming Washington University PhD and graduate students attended orientation Aug. 21 at a secluded venue in Franklin County, in the eclipse’s path of totality. In between learning about the Graduate School’s many services and organizations, students stopped to marvel at the eclipse.

The “self” part of self-control can be a new concept for many college students. For years, they had parents and teachers to keep them on track. Then college comes, with its many demands and distractions, and students find themselves baffled by their own mistakes. Todd Braver, professor of psychological and brain sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, helps students understand the complicated brain basis for self-control.

Laura Cobb was struck by a drunken driver during her senior year at Washington University in 2008. She was seriously injured and today has aphasia, which severely limits her ability to speak. But she battled back, returned to school and graduated in May. She now works as a research technician on campus.

University College, the professional and continuing education division of Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, is now offering a 50 percent discount to full-time employees of St. Louis, Clayton and University City and their school districts. Charter school employees also are eligible.