Business & Entrepreneurship

The Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies will kick off its two business plan competitions on Thursday, Sept. 8. Combined, the Olin Cup and YouthBridge Social Enterprise and Innovation Competitions will award more than $200,000 in funding for new commercial and social ventures.

Mahendra Gupta, PhD, dean and the Geraldine J. and Robert L. Virgil Professor of Accounting and Management, serves up a hamburger during the Olin Business School’s annual back to school cookout in the Simon Hall courtyard Aug. 30. The barbecue, held the first day of classes, welcomed business students to the new academic year and featured food and live music.

Labor Day may celebrate the historical contributions of the American labor movement, but the future of the movement is in question. “Unions are under siege,” says labor and employment law expert Marion Crain, JD, the Wiley B. Rutledge Professor of Law at Washington University in St. Louis. “In the public sector, governors seeking to slash budgets are de-authorizing state labor laws that govern the organizing and bargaining rights of state employees. In the private sector, both the federal legislation that supports union action and the administrative body that enforces the law are under attack. Union density is on a dramatic downswing.” At the same time, wage inequality has not been higher since the Great Depression.

The International Criminal Court, civil rights class actions, gun rights, migration and food security are among topics that will be discussed during the fall lineup for the Washington University in St. Louis School of Law’s fourteenth annual Public Interest Law & Policy Speakers Series. The series kicks off Tuesday, Sept. 6, with “Mea Culpa: The Role of Apologies in Legal Decisionmaking,” by Jennifer Robbennolt, JD, PhD.

The violence against peaceful protesters in Libya and Syria drives home the need for an international convention for the prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity, says Leila Nadya Sadat, JD, international law expert and director of the Whitney R. Harris World Law Institute at Washington University School of Law. “The concerted efforts of the international community have helped to bring about a resolution of the Libyan situation, but the situation in Syria continues to deteriorate,” she says. “Reports of civilian roundups in Syria are reminiscent of Nazi roundups of the Jews during WWII. History shows that widespread human rights abuses lead to ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity and even genocide.”

A recent report by the Partnership for Public Service indicates a strong disconnect between the desire of federal employees to innovate and the degree to which innovation is encouraged in their workplaces. Now beginning its second year, the Master’s of Science in Leadership, offered by Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis in partnership with the Brookings Institution, helps U.S. government employees think strategically about opportunities for innovation, and does it in a way that is very cost effective.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) recently filed a lawsuit against the Camdenton, Mo. school district for using filtering software to block websites targeted to the gay and lesbian community. “The Supreme Court has made clear that school districts have great latitude in choosing what educational materials they make available to their students,” says Gregory P. Magarian, JD, constitutional law expert and professor of law at Washington University In St. Louis. “However, in a case in 1982, a plurality of the Court suggested that schools may not have the authority to remove materials from school libraries based on viewpoint discrimination.”

Investors are highly interested in information regarding corporate political spending, says Hillary Sale, JD, securities and corporate governance expert and the Walter D. Coles Professor of Law at Washington University in St. Louis. “The SEC should address the need for transparency in political spending to better inform shareholders and allow them to protect themselves from hidden political agendas in corporate campaign spending,” she says. 

Kent D. Syverud, JD, dean of the School of Law and the Ethan A. H. Shepley University Professor at Washington University in St. Louis, has been elected chair-elect of the Council of the American Bar Association’s (ABA’s) Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar.

Rebecca Dresser, JD, the Daniel Noyes Kirby Professor of Law and professor of ethics in medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, has been appointed to the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee of the National Institutes of Health. The committee serves a critical role in the oversight of federally funded research involving recombinant DNA.