Author: Susan Killenberg McGinn

Three Arts & Sciences juniors have recently been awarded prestigious national scholarships, with a fourth receiving an honorable mention. Two students received the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and one student received the Morris K. Udall Scholarship for the 2011-12 academic year. 

Graduate students from across Washington University gathered April 4 for the Graduate Professional Council’s (GPC) Bridging GAPS Awards Ceremony in Danforth University Center. The annual ceremony, organized by the GPC, is a recognition and celebration of the important role that graduate student leadership plays in enhancing interdisciplinary endeavors and the graduate student community.

Can getting from a class at the west end of campus immediately to a class at the east end leave you huffing and puffing? Starting in fall 2012, classes on the Danforth Campus will begin 10 minutes after their published start time, announced Provost Edward S. Macias, PhD. The only exception will be School of Law classes. This change extends the time between classes from seven minutes to 10 minutes. 

Washington University in St. Louis will award five honorary degrees during the university’s 150th Commencement May 20. During the ceremony, which will begin at 8:30 a.m. in Brookings Quadrangle, Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel will deliver the Commencement address and receive an honorary doctor of humane letters degree. The other honorary degree recipients are John H. Biggs, PhD; Shirley Ann Jackson, PhD; Griffin P. Rodgers, MD; and George W. von Mallinckrodt.

The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) announced April 1 that it has received proposals from 12 potential 2012 debate sites, including Washington University in St. Louis. The CPD will conduct site surveys during the next several months and plans to announce the final sites later in the year.

That FOX Broadcasting Company has a conservative slant and MSNBC skews liberal may reflect widespread opinion, but a Washington University in St. Louis study suggests that news networks’ biases can be measured. Published in March 2011 in the journal Behavioral Research Methods, the findings are important in their validation of a new research tool developed by Washington University psychologists, according to lead author Nicholas Holtzman, a graduate student in psychology in Arts & Sciences at the university.

The Washington University Bouchet Honor Society Selection Committee chose its fifth class of Bouchet Fellows. The 2011 Bouchet Fellows are Pascale Guiton, a doctoral student in the Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis Program in the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences, and Natecia Williams, a doctoral student in the Neuroscience Program in the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences.

With the theme “Celebrate the Magic of Community,” the 2011 Thurtene Carnival will transform Washington University’s North Brookings parking lot into a vista of thrilling rides and dramatic facades. The carnival will be from 4-8 p.m. Friday, April 15, and from 11 a.m.-8 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, April 16 and 17.

Arts & Sciences recognized the achievements of five alumni during the 14th Annual Arts & Sciences Distinguished Alumni Awards Ceremony, held March 24 at the Ritz-Carlton, St. Louis. Gary S. Wihl, PhD, dean of the faculty of Arts & Sciences and the Hortense and Tobias Lewin Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, and the Arts & Sciences National Council hosted an awards dinner.

Julian Bond, one of the nation’s most respected civil rights leaders, will deliver the keynote address for the Chancellor’s Graduate Fellowship 20th Anniversary Conference and Alumni Reunion March 31- April 1 at Washington University in St. Louis. Bond’s address, titled “Post Racial America: Fact or Fiction?” will be at 11 a.m. Friday, April 1, in Graham Chapel. It is free and open to the public.