Humanities & Society

Over the past five years, corporate governance has undergone historic changes. In addition to new policies enacted by state judiciaries and attorneys general, Congress adopted the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission enacted important securities law reforms, and the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ reformed listing standards. The world’s leading experts on corporate governance will come together to discuss the impact of these changes during a conference at Washington University in St. Louis Sept. 29 – Oct. 1.

What does the U.S. Constitution mean to you, and is it relevant today? These and other questions will be covered at “We the People: The Constitution and You, a conversation led by former Congressman Richard A. Gephardt and professor emeritus James Davis from 2-3 on Sept. 19 in the Women’s Building Formal Lounge. The event is free and open to the public.

It will feature remarks by Richard Gephardt, a keynote lecture by internationally renowned economist Hernando de Soto and a reception.

Millions of Americans suffer from food allergies, and those numbers are quickly rising. Allergic reactions can range from rashes to life-threatening anaphylactic shock. WUSM physician James Wedner reveals a number of details about food allergies in the following St. Louis Post-Dispatch article.

The Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy will kick off its fall forum series with a half-day symposium on “Taxing Temptation: Excise Taxes and Health” from 9 a.m.-noon Sept. 23 in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom in Anheuser-Busch Hall. The series, which is free and open to the public, also includes forums on education finance (Nov. 4) and monetary policy (Nov. 30).

On Wed., Sept. 14, at 4 p.m. in McMillan Cafe (Room 115) in McMillan Hall, an interdisciplinary panel of Washington University professors will hold a conversation about the meaning and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

StaudtThe devastating conditions in the Gulf Coast have left many Americans asking, “Why did the government fail when Katrina hit?” “The answer to this question can be linked to the organizational changes that occurred in the federal government after September 11, 2001,” says Nancy Staudt, professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis and expert on government decision-making. “At that time, the federal government began to worry about fragmented and uncoordinated relief efforts and sought to create a more streamlined approach to dealing with national disasters. FEMA was placed in a mammoth bureaucracy with less authority to respond to natural disasters; its power was diluted by the growing concerns for terrorism.”

Below is a link to the Washington University news release about the U.S. News & World Report undergraduate rankings for 2004-05: http://news-info.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/3627.html To view a full listing of U.S. News magazine, book and Web-only rankings for 2004-05, please visit the U.S. News & World Report site: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/rankindex_brief.php

As the Senate prepares to consider nominees for two Supreme Court vacancies, some liberals fear that President Bush will use the opportunity to pack the High Court with conservative-leaning justices, pushing the law of the land dramatically to the right for years to come. However, a new book on the history of America’s judicial nomination process offers compelling evidence that a president’s ability to perpetuate personal political legacies through court appointments tends to be both short-lived and unpredictable. When it comes to the politics of Supreme Court nominees, president’s don’t always get what they want, suggests WUSTL Supreme Court expert Lee Epstein.

He’s the author of the Academic Bill of Rights, a manifesto intended to protect academic freedom by removing partisan politics from the classroom.