Author: Michael Smick

WUSTL recently won recognition for its “green” efforts. The university took part in the St. Louis Regional Chamber’s Green Business Challenge, and it won the Star Circle of Excellence Award, the highest designation. Here, Phil Valko (center), WUSTL’s director of sustainability, chats after accepting the award. The award recognizes efforts such as conserving energy and reducing water use.

Stuart Bunderson, the George and Carol Bauer Professor of Organizational Ethics and Governance, has accepted an appointment as associate dean of executive programs at Washington University in St. Louis’ Olin Business School. He will assume this role March 1.

Kim Norwood, JD, professor of law and of African and African-American Studies, in Arts & Sciences, will lead a panel discussion of her new book, “Color Matters: Skin Tone Bias and the Myth of a Postracial America,” at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 29, in Olin Library’s Gingko Room. Joining Norwood will be two contributors to the book, Vetta S. Thompson, PhD, an associate professor in the Brown School, and Richard Harvey, PhD, an associate professor of psychology at Saint Louis University. Books will be available for sale and signing at the event.

A “topping out” ceremony was held Jan. 16 marking the final steel panel being raised and put into place on The Lofts of Washington University, WUSTL’s $80 million retail and student apartment complex under construction in the Delmar Loop. Construction of the first phase of the project is on target to be completed in July, with students and retailers moving in this August.

The Women’s Society of Washington University seeks nominations for the Harriet K. Switzer Leadership Award. The award is given annually to one or more graduating seniors, recognizing young women who have made a significant contribution to WUSTL and have great potential to be leaders. The deadline is Feb. 7.

“The House leadership’s procedural excuses for blocking a vote on critical immigration reform make little sense,” says Stephen Legomsky, professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis and the recent Chief Counsel of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Department of Homeland Security. In that position he worked intensively with White House and DHS officials and played a major role on comprehensive immigration reform. “It’s now been 7 months since the Senate passed a bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill. Speaker Boehner should allow the people’s elected representatives in the House to consider it without further delay,” Legomsky argues.

William F. Tate, PhD, the Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences and chair of the Department of Education at Washington University in St. Louis, has been named the next dean of the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and vice provost for graduate education. He will succeed Richard Smith, PhD, who steps down July 1.

Marie Griffith, PhD, is the director of the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis. Griffith, the John C. Danforth Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, came to WUSTL in 2011 from Harvard Divinity School. Her husband, Leigh E. Schmidt, PhD, Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor, is also a faculty member at the Danforth Center.

The Mosaic Project will host a forum to introduce the Bias Report and Support System and to share updates about other projects, including efforts to a create a center for diversity and inclusion. The forum will be 4 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 22, in Umrath Hall Lounge.

Washington University expects to have more than 29,000 applications for the class that will enter in August and admitted more than 630 students in the early decision round (a little more than 35 percent of the expected freshman class). While the total number of applications received is down slightly this year, the Admissions Office reports another strong and talented group of applicants.