Campus & Community

Tony La Russa, who recently was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame and is considered one of the best managers in baseball history, has been selected to give the 2014 Commencement address at Washington University in St. Louis. The university’s 153rd Commencement ceremony will begin at 8:30 a.m. Friday, May 16, in Brookings Quadrangle.

Murray Weidenbaum, PhD, the Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences and honorary chairman of the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy, died Thursday, March 20, 2014, in St. Louis. He was 87.

Combining new initiatives with long-standing efforts, Washington ­University addresses the national challenges of ­affordability and accessibility in ­higher education.

Amanda Moore McBride, PhD, turned an anonymous donation allowing her to attend the Presidential Classroom into a lifetime of engaging students and the community.

On the Danforth Campus, grotesques and bosses dot the landscape, from halls dating to the 1904 World’s Fair to those only a few years old. Although these creatures are longtime fixtures, the stories behind many of them remain a mystery.

Washington University alumni, across disciplines and genres, tell compelling and unusual tales of interest.

First-time novelist Sarah Bruni, MFA ’07, shares her thoughts on being a book author and the pluses and minuses of the writing life.

Novelist Eric Lundgren, MFA ’06, speaks to Washington magazine about the writing life and getting published.

In Brave Genius, biologist Sean Carroll, PhD, AB ’79, moves beyond science and into World War II history, the French Resistance, philosophy and Cold War politics to tell the story of two Nobel Prize winners, biologist Jacques Monod and writer Albert Camus.

Business professor Jack Nickerson offers a game plan — backed by solid academic research — for mid-level managers charged with leading organizational change.