Announcements

The medical school’s Student Arts Commission is hosting a “Coffee House Concert” from 5:15-7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 29, in the second floor atrium of the Farrell Learning and Teaching Center. The concert showcases students’ musical and performance talents.

With the change yesterday to standard time, darkness will come earlier in the evening. The Washington University Police Department offers several safety reminders as part of the “Don’t be in the Dark” campaign.

At the annual Founders Day gala Saturday, Nov. 3, six outstanding alumni and two exceptional supporters will be honored for their dedication to Washington University.

The WUSTL Police Department is once again teaming up with the Kurt Warner First Things First Foundation and Operation Food Search for the 12th annual Warners’ Warm-up Winter Coat Drive. The coat drive takes place from Thursday, Nov. 1, through Wednesday, Nov. 14. The WUSTL police station will serve as a drop-off location for new or gently used winter coats for disadvantaged men, women and children.

Former U.S. Rep. Richard A. “Dick” Gephardt (D-Mo.) will discuss the 2012 presidential and congressional elections from 4 to 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 2, in the Danforth University Center (DUC), Room 234. Gephardt’s talk, “A Political Insider’s Guide to the 2012 Election,” is free and open to the public.

Steven S. Smith, PhD, director of the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government and Public Policy and the​ Kate M. Gregg Distinguished Professor of Social Science and professor of political science, will be featured on 60 Minutes at 6 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 4, on CBS talking about partisanship and procedural warfare in the Senate.

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. 

For decades, author, educator, environmentalist and activist Bill McKibben has been telling us things we don’t want to hear — presenting scary scorched Earth scenarios due to carbon emissions in the atmosphere. He also leads a global initiative — 350.org — to try to solve the climate crisis. McKibben will give the keynote address for the Sustainable Cities Conference Thursday, Nov. 1, on campus. 

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.

​Larry J. Shapiro, MD, executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, will host the annual Dean’s Update for all employees Nov. 7 and 9.