Author: Susan Killenberg McGinn

Deeply concerned about an “innovation deficit” that is threatening the nation’s economic growth, Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton and Timothy M. Wolfe, president of the University of Missouri System, sent a joint letter last month to Missouri’s U.S. congressional delegation urging their support in helping close this innovation gap. Wrighton and Wolfe also  joined more than 160 university presidents and chancellors in signing an open letter July 31 to President Obama and the U.S. Congress asking them to restore federal investments in higher education and research.

A panel discussion, titled “Conversations on Gender and Blackness in the Age of Trayvon Martin,” will open WUSTL’s African and African-American Studies fall colloquium series at 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 6, in the Women’s Building Formal Lounge. WUSTL faculty will lead the discussion, which includes a coffee reception at 10 a.m.

The Record recently learned of the death of Michael A. Weinberg, PhD, a former associate professor of history in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. Weinberg died of heart disease April 23, 2013, at his home in Belfast, Maine. He was 83.

The United States must take military action against Syria, even though it may not deter Syria or other “belligerent nations” from using weapons of mass destruction, suggests Krister Knapp, PhD, a senior lecturer in the Department of History in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. 

As part of Washington University’s ongoing commitment to providing a safe and secure environment for university employees and students, the university is offering workplace safety training sessions. The one-hour free training class for employees and students will be offered six times this fall semester, starting Monday, Aug. 19. 

University College, the adult, evening and continuing education division in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, has developed three new degree programs, including a master’s in statistics that is the only one offered in the St. Louis area. The other two new  programs are a bachelor’s in communications and a bachelor’s in journalism. University College will offer the new programs this fall semester, which begins Aug. 27.

The Peacock Loop Diner, a 24-hour diner from Joe Edwards, is coming to Washington University’s Loop development. The diner will feature an expansive menu of breakfast classics, diner staples, international favorites, salads, vegetarian dishes, desserts and a full bar. The diner and new grocery store, Global Foods Market, are two of the retail tenants for The Lofts of Washington University, the university’s $80 million retail and student apartment development.

Joe Edwards, owner of such Delmar Loop attractions as Blueberry Hill and The Pageant, announced today plans to open the Peacock Loop Diner, a new 24-hour restaurant, in Washington University’s Loop development. The restaurant will be located at 6261 Delmar Blvd. near Eastgate Avenue and is slated to open in August 2014.

An Olin Library exhibition, titled William H. Gass: The Soul Inside the Sentence, ends July 31. But a newly launched digital version of the exhibit allows for ongoing exploration of a wide-ranging selection of the esteemed writer’s drafts, interviews, photographs and more. A gallery talk will be held at 9 a.m. Friday, July 19, in Olin Library’s Ginkgo Reading Room, providing a guided tour of the in-person exhibition.

Barbara A. Schaal, PhD, dean of the faculty of Arts & Sciences, has been appointed chair of an advisory group that will lead the National Academy of Sciences’ new Gulf of Mexico program, established as part of settlements with British Petroleum and Transocean Ltd. following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion. The advisory group will help create a strategic vision and guide the program’s development and implementation.