Newsroom Stories

A proposal by two WUSTL students to introduce turf reduction, large bio-swales, more cisterns and even sheep “lawnmowers” to campus as part of plan to make landscaping more sustainable at the university won the $5,000 first prize in the annual Olin Sustainability Case Competition.

Mike McLaughlin, MBA student Olin Business School, will spend the day in a hammock Feb. 15, doing homework, reading and raising funds and awareness for his 2,500-mile six-month hike4kids.com hike through the entire Appalachian and Ozark trails beginning in late February.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, led by Philip Stahl, PhD, professor of cell biology and physiology have identified a potent regulator of sensitivity to insulin, the hormone that controls blood sugar levels. The new findings may help scientists find better treatments for type 2 diabetes, obesity and other health problems caused by the body’s inability to properly regulate blood sugar.

WUSTL’s Lifelong Learning Institute (LLI) will host an information session titled “Show Me LLI” for prospective students at 1 p.m. Friday, Feb. 24, at West Campus. The event, free and open to senior adults ages 55 and older, will feature an orientation followed by several sample classes.

The City of New York recently subpoenaed a Twitter account as part of an ongoing Occupy Wall Street criminal case. The Occupy protester named in the case is challenging the subpoena. Privacy law expert Neil Richards, JD, professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, says that it’s not surprising that law enforcement groups are interested in accessing the volume of records relating to our speech that social media platforms generate. “By and large, this data should remain private, and online companies should keep the data confidential and not share it any more broadly than we as users and speakers want it to be shared,” Richards says.

War. Terrorism. International expansion. President William McKinley is frequently overshadowed by his charismatic successor, Theodore Roosevelt, yet McKinley’s presidency was arguably the more action-packed, with lasting implications for American power and its role in the world. So argues Scott Miller, author of The President and the Assassin: McKinley, Terror, and Empire at the Dawn of the American Century (2011). At 5 p.m. Monday, Feb. 20, Miller will discuss McKinley and his legacy for the Center for the Humanities’s third annual Presidents’ Day Lecture.

The Gephardt Institute for Public Service at Washington University in St. Louis has announced faculty scholars receiving Innovation Grants for Community-Based Teaching and Learning. The grants provide faculty members with financial support for curriculum development and implementation.

The No. 3 men’s tennis team defeated NCAA Division II No. 19 Drury University 5-4 Feb. 12 at the Creve Coeur Racquet Club in Creve Coeur, Mo. The victory over Drury was the Bears first in four tries under head coach Roger Follmer. Updates also included on men’s and women’s basketball and track & field.

Washington University in St. Louis Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton issued a statement Feb. 13 following the release of President Barack Obama’s budget proposal for 2013 in which Wrighton noted the importance of our nation’s continued investment in scientific research.

Hundreds braved an arctic chill the evening of Feb. 10 to experience the warmth generated by Parker Palmer, best-selling author and educator, who teamed up with singer/songwriter Carrie Newcomer inside Graham Chapel to deliver a unique message of delivering democracy with an open heart. The event was the opening of the spring 2011 Assembly Series.