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About 500 students attended the first 2012 presidential debate viewing party Oct. 3 in Tisch Commons, Danforth University Center. The event featured free food, games and prizes. Parties also are planned for the remaining debates at 8 p.m. Oct. 11, 16 and 22.​​

Deep research into sustainability, memory and other compelling topics becomes clearer with the debut of Hold That Thought, a new podcast series from Arts & Sciences. The Hold That Thought website debuted Oct. 1 as a way to make in-depth faculty research and overarching ideas  more accessible to the general public.

The 2012 participants of the Global Diversity Overseas Seminar Program will share their experiences during two brown-bag lunch presentations next week. The winning staff members traveled to WUSTL study abroad locations in Paris, France, and Shanghai, China, this summer. The presentations will be held Tuesday, Oct. 9, and Thursday, Oct. 11, for Shanghai. 

Law students and women lawyers, judges and faculty members gathered Sept. 20 to celebrate the anniversary of WUSTL’s first woman law graduate, Phoebe Couzins, who earned a degree in 1871. The special event featured “speed mentoring” and networking sessions with law students and women attorneys.

The inaugural BioEntrepreneurship Core IdeaBounce elevator pitch competition will be held at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 16, at the Holden Auditorium at the Farrell Learning & Teaching Center at the Medical School. All members of the university community are encouraged to attend and to pitch ideas for new products or businesses for a chance to win prizes.

A newly renovated Umrath Hall opened for the fall semester on the Danforth Campus. Umrath Hall originally was built in 1902 as a men’s dormitory and featured small rooms, narrow hallways and limited entrances and exits. The yearlong renovation, which began in June 2011, retained Umrath’s historic exterior but included a complete reconstruction of the building’s interior and a new roof.

WHAT: Celebration of Mike McLaughlin, Olin Business School MBA student who recently completed a 2,500-mile hike for charity, becoming what is believed to be the first person to through-hike the Appalachian and Ozark Trails back-to-back.

Barry Commoner, a biologist at WUSTL from 1947-1981, died Sept. 30, 2012, in Manhattan. He was 95. Commoner was a professor of plant physiology and of environmental studies, both in Arts & Sciences. According to The New York Times, Commoner was “a founder of modern ecology and one of its most provocative thinkers and mobilizers in making environmentalism a people’s political cause.”

“Creating a strong environment at Washington University that stimulates, encourages and rewards both innovation and entrepreneurship can enhance the benefit that the university brings to our students, our region, our country and, indeed, our world.” —Chancellor’s December 2011 Report to the Board of Trustees

There’s no debating the fact Washington University in St. Louis experts know presidential politics. The university hosted presidential debates in 1992, 2000 and ’04, as well as the VP debate in ’08. As President Barack Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney prepare to debate this week, you’re preparing your coverage. Washington University professors are ready to comment — over the phone, on air, on camera – to help clarify the issues that will define the 2012 campaign.