Author: Michael Smick

The 21st century is bringing challenges to urban areas like never before, as if A Tale of Two Cities is being played out over and over again, in your neighborhood and in cities all over the world. The problems are both local and global, and so are the solutions. It’s this context that has led three Washington University in St. Louis faculty to compile an impressive array of international scholarship in a two-volume book titled Urban Ills: Twenty-first-Century Complexities of Urban Living in Global Contexts.

Washington University in St. Louis law students are taking their commitment to public service to the next level through a growing partnership with Northwest Academy of Law. With the assistance of law faculty and through their own initiatives, law students are reaching out to the inner-city St. Louis high school’s students to provide mentoring and law-related educational experiences.

Students took part in a themed trivia night inspired by the popular mustache-sporting character played by Nick Offerman on the TV show Parks and Recreation. Offerman will perform at 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Edison Theatre. Other “Nick Week” activities today include an Offerman cookie contest at Cafe Bergson and a happy hour at 5:30 p.m. at the Gargoyle.

In 1974, Walt Reed opened the Illustration House. For decades, the New York gallery was the nation’s premier advocate for illustration art. Now, Washington University Special Collections has worked with Reed and his son, Roger, to acquire the Illustration House archives, along with a substantial number of original artworks.

Jim McKelvey, School of Engineering & Applied Science alumnus and co-founder of Square, spoke with MBA students at WUSTL Nov. 1. His visit was part of the Entrepreneurship Platform Summit, organized by Cliff Holekamp, senior lecturer in entrepreneurship at Olin Business School.

This spring, Washington University students may take a variety of Semester Online courses ranging from Trinity College Dublin’s “Ireland and Rebellion” to Wake Forest’s “Introduction to Bioethics.” The online consortium now boasts 21 top peer institutions.

The Washington University Assembly Series and the School of Law Public Interest Law & Policy Speakers Series will close their fall 2013 program schedules on Thursday, Nov. 14, with an address by Catharine MacKinnon, one of the principal architects of landmark sex equality laws in the United States, and more currently known as an internationally successful litigator against sex crimes and human trafficking. MacKinnon will speak on “Trafficking, Prostitution and Inequality” at noon in the Anheuser-Busch Hall Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom.

Arts & Sciences students Annie Werner (left), a sophomore, and Olivia Lugar, a junior, take “selfies” Oct. 31 in front of the McDonnell Center for Space Science’s Trick or Tweet display in Rudolph Hall. Arts & Sciences undergraduates were encouraged to participate in a community-building and social media campaign on Halloween by visiting departments throughout campus and taking their pictures next to Halloween-themed stations. One lucky student won an iPad Mini.

By looking at what banks do rather than what they say, finance professors in the Olin Business School estimate that the effect on bank profitability of new regulations would be hardly noticeable.

Washington University’s Lifelong Learning Institute (LLI) will host an information session titled “Show Me LLI” for prospective members from 1-3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 15, at the university’s West Campus. The LLI is at 9 N. Jackson Ave. in Clayton, Mo. The event, which will feature an overall orientation followed by several sample classes, is free and open to senior adults ages 55 and older.