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A series of application workshops will be held for students interested in the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) to be held at Washington University in St. Louis April 5-7, 2013. The workshops will focus on application criteria and developing the required Commitment to Action. A Commitment to Action is a concrete plan that addresses a pressing challenge in one of CGI U’s five focus areas: education, environment and climate change, peace and human rights, poverty alleviation, or public health. The first workshop will be held from 6:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 1, in Brown Hall, Room 118. 

Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton welcomed back two 2009 alums, Harrison Suarez (right) and Michael Haft — now both first lieutenants in the U.S. Marine Corps — who presented the university with a U.S. flag Oct. 20. The two men returned to personally thank Wrighton and the university for helping prepare them to serve their country.

The dance performance for Diwali, the Hindu Festival of Lights celebration, will be held Friday, Nov. 9. and Saturday, Nov. 10, at Edison Theatre. One of the largest student productions on campus, the event features dances from multiple genres choreographed by the South Asian Student Association.

David L. Straight, 57, who worked for Washington University Libraries for more than 30 years, died Saturday, Oct. 13, after suffering a stroke. Straight began working for University Libraries in 1978 as an audiovisual assistant and retired in 2010 as West Campus librarian, managing that facility.

Aron Rodrigue, this year’s annual Holocaust Memorial Lecturer, has put to rest the widely held notion that Sephardim living in the Balkans and other European lands during the Holocaust were not as badly affected as the Ashkenazi in Eastern Europe. The truth is they experienced the same persecution and destruction under Nazi occupation. Rodrigue will speak on campus Monday, Oct. 29.

Students will be escorting little ghouls and goblins through the South 40 residence halls for the annual Safe Trick-or-Treat Saturday, Oct. 27, from 1-3 p.m. on the Danforth Campus. Games, refreshments and face painting is also planned. Open to children ages 12 and under. Sign up by Wednesday, Oct. 24 by calling the Campus Y at (314) 935-5010.

The 2013 health open enrollment for the health/dental plans, the health-care and child-care flex spending plans, the Health Savings Account (HSA) and the Retirement Medical Savings Account (RMSA) will begin on Monday, Nov. 12 and run through Sunday, Dec. 2. This is the only time during the year that employees may enroll in the flex spending plans, HSA and RMSA and may change health plans and/or coverage without a qualifying family status change.

Five new department chairs have been named in Arts & Sciences: Mark G. Alford, PhD, Department of Physics; Mark Rollins, PhD, Performing Arts Department; John Nachbar, PhD, Department of Economics; Hillel Kieval, PhD, Department of Jewish, Islamic and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures; Peter Schmelz, PhD, Department of Music; and Timothy Moore, PhD, Department of Classics.

Hour-long Fall Arbor Tour of trees and gardens on the Danforth Campus begins at 11 a.m., Thursday, Oct. 25. RSVP to kshilling@wustl.edu.

Some 900 students have signed up to dance all night in the 14th annual St. Louis Area Dance Marathon. The 12-hour event begins at 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 3, in the Athletic Complex Field House, and lasts until 2 a.m. the next day. Faculty and staff are encouraged to take part, too, with Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton donating $14 for every employee who attends the reception. Proceeds benefit Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals of Greater St. Louis.