Newsroom Stories

Staff Day is back, and Danforth Campus employees are invited to relax, have fun and celebrate with co-workers Monday, May 24. Drawings, golf and tours are just a few of the many activities offered at Staff Day. 

John F. McDonnell and the JSM Charitable Trust have made a $60 million gift commitment to Washington University in St. Louis, according to Stephen F. Brauer, chair of the Board of Trustees. Most of the gift — $48 million — will create the McDonnell Academic Excellence Fund. Income from this unrestricted endowed fund will enable the university to respond to new academic opportunities and to launch new initiatives that build on its strengths and maximize its impact on the world.  

A nationwide study has confirmed the benefit of giving estrogen-lowering drugs before surgery to breast cancer patients. The treatment increased the likelihood that women could undergo breast-conservation surgery, also called lumpectomy, instead of mastectomy.

Washington University’s 149th Commencement will be held at 8:30 a.m. Friday, May 21, in Brookings Quadrangle. The university will award 2,809 degrees to 2,706 undergraduate, graduate and professional students. The university also will bestow honorary degrees on five individuals. Steven Chu, PhD., U.S. secretary of energy, will deliver the 2010 Commencement address. During the ceremony, Chu also will receive an honorary doctor of science degree. WUSTL’s four other honorary degree recipients are Brian J. Druker, MD, Joanne Knight, Richard A. Roloff and Strobe Talbott.

Nelson S. “Strobe” Talbott, president of the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., and former deputy secretary of state from 1995-2001, delivered the keynote address during the Washington University School of Law diploma ceremony on Friday, May 21, in Mudd Field.

Three WUSTL students have been awarded a State Department Critical Language Scholarship to study critical needs languages abroad this summer.

Homeland security and other regulatory agencies are creating jobs and a record-breaking budget according to a new study from the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy at Washington University in St. Louis and the George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center.  A Decade of Growth in the Regulators’ Budget: An Analysis of the U.S. Budget for Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011 details the rise in regulatory spending and who gets the lion’s share of this year’s $59 billion federal regulatory budget.

Washington University in St. Louis would like to alert audiences that traffic around the university will be very heavy the morning of Friday, May 21, due to the university’s annual Commencement ceremony.

An index of news coverage related to Washington University’s 149th Commencement