Newsroom Stories

A recent display showcased photos taken by participants of the Photovoice project hosted by Siteman Cancer Center’s Program for the Elimination of Cancer Disparities. Participants used photos to remind people of the need for colon cancer screenings. Pictured is participant Ronald Rancher and the photo he submitted.

Surveillance is everywhere, from street corner cameras to the subject of books and movies. “We talk a lot about why surveillance is bad, but we don’t really know why,” says Neil Richards, JD, privacy law expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. “We only have a vague intuition about it, which is why courts don’t protect it. We know we don’t like it, and that it has something to do with privacy, but beyond that, the details can be fuzzy.” Richards’ new article on the topic, “The Danger of Surveillance,” will be published in the next issue of the Harvard Law Review.

A group of some of the country’s top scholars in First Amendment law recently gathered at Washington University in St. Louis to discuss pressing challenges being faced by the first of our Bill of Rights. Three issues rose to the top of the list for Washington University’s first amendment experts: free expression in a digital age; impaired political debate; and weakened rights of groups.

During a recent reception to mark the beginning of the Loop Student Living Initiative’s construction phase, Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton thanked University City and City of St. Louis government officials, business owners and residents for their role in the project’s progression. The celebration was held at the Three Kings Public House on Delmar Boulevard, which is in the same block as the construction.

When Carl Neureuther, a 1940 graduate of Washington University, set up an endowment in 1987 to support library collections, he was also ensuring support for something more: a lifelong love of reading. The results are in for this year’s Neureuther Student Book Collection Essay Competition sponsored by Washington University Libraries.

On March 26, the Campus Diversity Collaborative and Human Resources Department teamed up to offer a panel discussion in College Hall on “Diversity in Recruitment, Hiring, and Retention: Challenges and Resources.” More than 80 staff and faculty members heard from panelists who discussed their research expertise and professional experience related to diversity and inclusion.

On a recent visit to Washington, D.C., graduate and professional students of the McDonnell International Scholars Academy had the opportunity to hear from and meet with outgoing U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu.

Parents must learn to accept the people their children are, as opposed to the people we wish them to be. A difficult lesson—all the more so when that child is a centaur. In “Sagittarius,” author Greg Hrbek follows a young couple frantically searching for their missing newborn—who is either a child with profound birth defects or a miraculous, mythological creature.

Featuring more than 100 students from the WUSTL Choirs and WUSTL Symphony Orchestra, the annual Chancellor’s Concert is among the university’s largest performances of the year. “American Voices,” the 2013 concert, which takes place April 7, will feature music by Leonard Bernstein, Randall Thompson, Aaron Copland and Howard Hanson.

The American Academy of Neurology issued new guidelines last week for assessing school-aged athletes with head injuries on the field. The message: if in doubt, sit out. With more than 3 million sports-related concussions occurring in the U.S. each year, from school children to professional athletes, the issue is a burgeoning health crisis.