Author: Leslie Gibson McCarthy

One individual can make a difference. That is the underlying theme of many of the speakers this fall for the annual Assembly Series, which opens Monday, Sept. 12 with author Steven Galloway speaking on The Cellist of Sarajevo. Other topics will cover politics, religion, science and the particular angst of graduate students.

Lively small-group discussions took place all over campus Aug. 29 of The Cellist of Sarajevo, the First Year Reading Program book selection for 2011-12. Freshmen read The Cellist of Sarajevo over the summer and came prepared to share their ideas on the book. They will also encounter themes from the book in classes and discussions throughout the academic year.

The International Criminal Court, civil rights class actions, gun rights, migration and food security are among topics that will be discussed during the fall lineup for the Washington University in St. Louis School of Law’s fourteenth annual Public Interest Law & Policy Speakers Series. The series kicks off Tuesday, Sept. 6, with “Mea Culpa: The Role of Apologies in Legal Decisionmaking,” by Jennifer Robbennolt, JD, PhD.

For the second year in a row, Washington University in St. Louis has received the top rating in the LGBT-Friendly Campus Climate Index, published annually by Campus Pride. WUSTL was one of 33 schools, out of about 300 participants, to receive the five-star rating.

Another academic year has begun at Washington University in St. Louis, but freshmen and new students have been going nonstop since arriving on campus Aug. 25. From the moment cars pulled up to the curb in the South 40, a WUSTL welcome was extended and it hasn’t let up.

Jerome R. Cox Jr. (right), PhD, senior professor of computer science, describes the interactive display of the Laboratory Instrument Computer, known as LINC, to Brian Smith in the atrium of Brauer Hall. LINC, developed at MIT in 1962 then brought to WUSTL by Cox in 1964, transformed biomedical research by integrating computer science with medicine and allowing researchers to program data analysis on the fly.

More than 1,200 freshmen are expected to participate in this year’s 13th annual Service First event on Saturday, Sept. 3, at 12 St. Louis-area schools. Among the projects Washington University students will be participating in include painting playground maps and indoor and outdoor murals, creating bulletin boards, and assisting teachers in preparing classrooms for the new school year.

Beginning Monday, Aug. 29, the Record will shift into its academic year schedule. Look for emails Monday through Friday throughout the academic year when classes are in session. The Record website, record.wustl.edu, also will be updated daily.

Members of the Class of 2015, new transfer and exchange students, and their parents and family members are arriving on campus this week. They will be welcomed with a variety of activities during Bear Beginnings: New Student Orientation, which begins Thursday, Aug. 25, and continues through Monday, Aug. 29.

Rebecca Dresser, JD, the Daniel Noyes Kirby Professor of Law and professor of ethics in medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, has been appointed to the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee of the National Institutes of Health. The committee serves a critical role in the oversight of federally funded research involving recombinant DNA.