Newsroom Stories

William K. Bixby, the namesake of Bixby Hall, home of the School of Art, uses a trowel to assist with the cornerstone-laying ceremony in 1925. Also shown are (from left) Chancellor Herbert Spencer Hadley; Edmund H. Wuerpel, the second director of what was then known as the School of Fine Arts; and Holmes Smith, professor […]

Mary ButkusStudents participated in various service projects throughout the St. Louis area Aug. 30.

He was elected to the Board of Trustees in 1965, served as a member of the Educational Policy Committee and was elected an emeritus trustee in 1977.

Jeff M. Michalski Julie D. Morris Barry A. Siegel Janice M. Huss Michael Sherraden Adam S. Kibel Roger Phillips Guido L. Weiss Deborah L. Lerner Christine Floss Colin G. Nichols Tuan-hua David Ho Kenneth F. Kelton John K. McGuire Rachel D. Roberts Dennis E. Hourcade Ronald S. Indeck Richard K. Wilson James E. Galvin Steven G. Krantz Alexis M. Elward Rebecca Treiman Angela Miller Shankar M. Sastry and Richard LaForest

Former president Jimmy Carter delivers an address as a guest of the School of Law in 1975 while he was still governor of Georgia. Carter returned to the University to speak as part of the Assembly Series on Feb. 28, 1991, when he gave an address in the Field House titled “Social Responsibility: Caring About […]

ParedesWith the final provision of Sarbanes-Oxley now in effect, lawyers are required to report corporate wrongdoing. Although many lawyers are concerned that this may breach attorney/client privilege, Troy Paredes, associate professor of law at the Washington University School of Law, says, “The requirement that lawyers report ‘up the ladder’ if they are aware of a material violation is an important part of the Sarbanes-Oxley reforms.” Paredes notes that lawyers are an important gatekeeper that the market depends on to help oversee management.

GuptaLessons learned by startups during the dot-com hiring frenzy may have lasting benefits, according to a study conducted by Washington University Olin School of Business professor Mahendra Gupta. His paper, “Venture Capital Financing and the Growth of Startup Firms,” which focuses on the role human capital plays in starting a company, has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Business Venturing. Journal editor Sankaran Venkataraman called the paper noteworthy in its comprehensive examination of how human capital relates to success, the internal processes of a firm, and team characteristics. Companies able to get venture capital funding had an advantage over those who were able to find funding resources but not thru v.c. funding.

Panchapagesan”Decimalization” – the pricing of stocks in dollars and cents instead of fractions – lauded by proponents to be a good thing for investors when it was adopted by the U.S. stock markets in early 2001, is under fire. Critics say it costs institutional investors big. But in a study co-authored by Venkatesh Panchapagesan at Washington University’s Olin School of Business, direct institutional trading costs appear to have declined by about 23 basis points (roughly 5 cents a share) after decimalization. In economic terms, this decrease translates to an average monthly savings of about $133 million in institutional trading costs, the study finds.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hold an unusual four-hour session Sept. 8 to hear constitutional challenges to the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002; some suggest the case could determine which political party wins the White House in 2004. D. Bruce La Pierre, a law professor who argued a Missouri campaign finance case before the Court in 2000, suggests the Court should use the BCRA case to rethink two recent decisions that have severely eroded First Amendment protection for political speech. It’s time, he argues, for the Court to send a clear message that campaign contributions are firmly protected by the First Amendment.

PooleIn a wide-ranging analysis of bond market fundamentals, St. Louis Fed President William Poole said the focus should be on long-term interest rate basics. “Longer-run fundamentals tend to get lost in a welter of short-run considerations that fade into oblivion quickly as a new set of short-run concerns dominate the news,” he said. Poole spoke to a group of financial analysts at Washington University’s Olin School of Business on”Prospects and Risks in the Bond Market,” Sept. 4.