Author: Susan Killenberg McGinn

Phyllis C. Rogier, departmental accountant in the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, died Saturday, Feb. 21, 2009, of a heart attack at her home in St. Louis. She was 55.

Photo by Don DavisRotating black hole: one of nature’s most perfect objectsA physicist at Washington University in St. Louis has found a new twist on a 40-year-old discovery — “the Carter constant” — about the motion of particles in the external field of a rotating black hole. Clifford M. Will, Ph.D., the James S. McDonnell Professor of Physics in Arts & Sciences, has shown that even in Newton’s gravity, arrangements of masses exist whose gravitational field also admits a Carter-like constant of motion. The finding has implications for gravitational-wave astronomy, he says.

Undergraduate tuition at Washington University in St. Louis will cost $34,500 for the 2007-08 academic year — a $1,700 (5.2 percent) increase over the 2006-07 current academic year tuition of $32,800. The required student activity fee will total $345, and the student health fee will be $679. The announcement was made by Barbara A. Feiner, vice chancellor for finance. Room-and-board charges for 2007-08 will be $11,632, an increase of $456 (4.1 percent) over the current year’s charges of $11,176 for the full meal plan and newer student housing.

Gary S. Wihl, Ph.D., dean of Rice University’s School of Humanities and a highly respected scholar and academic leader, will become dean of the faculty of Arts & Sciences on July 1, according to Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton. “Gary Wihl brings his many talents as both an accomplished scholar and an experienced administrator to Washington University at a very important time in our history,” Wrighton said.

Wihl Gary S. Wihl, Ph.D., dean of Rice University’s School of Humanities and a highly respected scholar and academic leader, will become dean of the faculty of Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis on July 1, according to Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton. “Gary Wihl brings his many talents as both an accomplished scholar and an experienced administrator to Washington University at a very important time in our history,” Wrighton said.

Undergraduate tuition will be $37,800 for the 2009-10 academic year — a $1,600 (4.4 percent) increase over the 2008-09 current academic tuition of $36,200.

Undergraduate tuition at Washington University in St. Louis will be $37,800 for the 2009-10 academic year — a $1,600 (4.4 percent) increase over the 2008-09 current academic tuition of $36,200. The required student activity fee will total $378, and the student health fee will be no more than the current charge of $686. Barbara A. Feiner, vice chancellor for finance, made the announcement.

An expert on the Second Amendment says that gun owners and sellers should not be sweating bullets over Barack Obama’s election as president. Despite Obama’s record on gun control, David T. Konig, Ph.D., a professor of history in Arts & Sciences and a professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, says that the right of the people to keep and bear arms will not be an issue that Obama will address as president early in his term — if at all.

GainesGenevieve L. ‘Jean’ Gaines, who served Washington University for more than 55 years in roles ranging from a secretary, to administrative assistant, to associate registrar and lastly, as director of commencement, died Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2008. She was 86.

Elizabeth K. Barry, a first-year student in Arts & Sciences, died Dec. 8 in her room in Rubelmann House residence hall on the Danforth Campus. Barry, of Homewood, Ill., was 19.