Campus & Community

​The Washington University community is invited to create a time capsule for the cornerstone of the Gary M. Sumers Recreation Center, set to open late next summer. When it is opened in 2065, this time capsule hopefully will fare better than its predecessor – the recently recovered 1902 time capsule from Francis Gymnasium that sustained water damage.

Social problems linked to America’s growing disparities in income and wealth will be a major focus of the re-launched Department of Sociology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, including its first co-sponsored public lecture of the fall semester. ​

Jessica Kuchta-Miller, JD, a certified organizational ombudsman practitioner with extensive experience in dispute resolution, mediation, conflict coaching and training, has been named to the new position of staff ombudsperson at Washington University in St. Louis, announced Henry S. Webber, executive vice chancellor for administration.

The fall lineup of the 18th annual Public Interest Law & Policy Speakers Series, sponsored by the School of Law at Washington University in St. Louis, kicks off with two lectures Sept. 16-17. The yearlong series brings to the university nationally and internationally prominent experts from law and related fields to address issues of access to justice. Melvin Oliver, PhD, opens the series at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 16 Anheuser-Busch Hall’s Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom.

A national conference held at Washington University in St. Louis Sept. 24-27 will begin a conversation on finding a lasting solution to America’s incarceration problem. Organized by Carrie Pettus-Davis, PhD, assistant professor at the Brown School, the conference will discuss and evaluate proposals for sustainable and effective decarceration of America’s jails and prisons.

Timothy Blair Burnight, 28, a doctoral candidate in the Program in Physical Therapy at Washington University School of Medicine, died unexpectedly Sept. 4, 2015, at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

Images captured in and around the Washington University campuses. Click on the ‘i’ in the upper-left corner for captions.

Issues at the crossroads of religion, medicine and law will be the focus as the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics opens its fall lecture series Thursday, Sept. 10, with a talk on “Obamacare and American Values.”

Leading international figures in climate change research, including Peter Raven, PhD, the George Engelmann Professor of Botany Emeritus in Arts & Sciences, will gather at Washington University in St. Louis Thursday and Friday, Sept. 10-11, to examine climate change and what it could mean to future biodiversity. Hosted by the International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability (I-CARES), the Symposium on Biological Extinctions and Climate Change will take place at Hillman Hall on the Danforth Campus.

After receiving a prestigious scholarship from his home country of Singapore, Public Service Commission Scholar Kenneth Sng was able to pursue his dreams of attending a top-flight school.