Humanities & Society

​​​Ida Early, secretary to Washington University in St. Louis’ Board of Trustees (left), and Virginia Braxs, senior lecturer in Spanish in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures​, were recognized as 2014 St. Louis Women of Achievement.

The Gephardt Institute for Public Service maintains the Community Counts database to track community service activities by WUSTL schools and organizations. It’s time to submit initiatives from the 2013-14 academic year. The deadline is June 30. Each submitted initiative will be entered into a drawing for $500 to support the project.

In preparation for an upcoming summit on working families, Robert Pollak, PhD, an expert on family economics, recently attended a meeting at the White House with other academic leaders and senior administration officials. They gathered to discuss the implications of demographic and other changes for 21st-century workplaces.

Parking fees for most Danforth Campus WUSTL employees and students will increase this year. As parking grows more scarce, employees are urged to try carpooling, Metro, cycling or another alternative transportation program. Alternative transportation coordinator Andrew Heaslet offers personal transportation consultations.

A half-century after the Civil Rights Act, unequal access to resources continues to afflict the St. Louis area, resulting in billions of dollars lost in health-care costs and wages. But a multidisciplinary, landmark study called “For the Sake of All: A Report on the Health and Well-Being of African Americans in St. Louis,” led by the Brown School’s Jason Purnell and released May 30, proposes solutions informed by evidence and community input and includes a call to action to community members and stakeholders.

Noted American essayist and culture critic Gerald L. Early, PhD, has fond remembrances of when he introduced Maya Angelou before one of her three speaking engagements at Washington University in St. Louis. She delivered talks in Graham Chapel in 1981, 1984 and 1990.

Media Advisory: A community conference that coincides with the release of a yearlong, groundbreaking study called “For the Sake of All: A Report on the Health and Well-Being of African Americans in St. Louis.” At the conference, the final report will be released that includes policy recommendations for the region. The conference will also include panel discussion of report topics, and invite community feedback on implications and next steps.

“The Surrounding Game” is a documentary film about the game of Go co-directed by WUSTL graduate student Cole Pruitt. It follows two of America’s top young players as they compete to obtain professional rank in this subtle and elegant game. Implicit in the story is a larger question: Can a game this subtle and difficult, which has been pursued as a fine art in Asia for millennia, be transplanted to America, which does not have the culture or the training system to support it?

Washington University in St. Louis is pleased to announce the first cohort of its College Prep Program, a new multi-year initiative that will prepare high-achieving high school students with limited financial resources for college.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recognized Washington University in St. Louis for reducing its waste. Among other efforts, used cooking oil is recycled into biodiesel to fuel Bon Appétit campus delivery trucks. Here, executive chef Patrick McElroy (far right) explains the process.