Newsroom Stories

The Campus YMCA, the largest student-volunteer organization at Washington University in St. Louis, celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. Since its incepiton, Campus Y was one of the few places where male and female students could collaborate on community-wide projects, such as 1938’s International Bazaar that evolved from an exhibition to sales of global handicrafts. Events kick off at 6 p.m. Friday, April 8, in Holmes Lounge with a dinner and anniversary celebration.

Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor and human rights activist, has been selected to give the 2011 Commencement address at Washington University in St. Louis, according to Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton. The university’s 150th Commencement will begin at 8:30 a.m. May 20 in Brookings Quadrangle on the Danforth Campus. Wiesel will address approximately 2,800 members of the Class of 2011 and their friends and family members.

In an editorial in the April 6 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, co-author Graham Colditz, MD, PhD, cautions against estrogen-only hormone therapy in women who have had a hysterectomy because of longstanding evidence that it raises the risk of breast cancer.

Margo Jarrell has been named assistant vice chancellor for human resources, benefits and compensation at WUSTL, effective July 2, 2011, announced Ann B. Prenatt, vice chancellor for human resources. Jarrell arrived on campus April 4 and will replace Thomas W. Lauman, who will retire July 1.

The National Research Council is conducting a series of “Town Hall” meetings across the country to roll out the Planetary Science Decadal Survey 2013-2022 Wednesday, April 6, and the McDonnell Center for Space Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis will be hosting one of the events at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 6, in Room 201, Crow Hall. It will consist of a one-hour presentation by Amy Simon-Hall of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, who was a member of the survey’s steering committee, followed by a one-hour question-and-answer period.  

Fox News political analyst Juan Williams will present “The Capacity of America to Address Its Most Pressing Domestic Issues” for the Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government and Public Policy’s annual dinner at 8 p.m. Monday, April 4, in the main dining room of the Charles F. Knight Executive Education Center. A media briefing will be held at 5:45 p.m.

Andrew Stewart, PhD, the Nicholas C. Petris Professor of Greek Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, will deliver this year’s John and Penelope Biggs Lecture in Classics as part of the Assembly Series. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held at 4 p.m. Thursday, April 7, in Steinberg Hall Auditorium on Washington University’s Danforth campus.

Students, faculty, staff and members of the St. Louis community are invited to the fourth annual Faces of Hope, a celebration of civic engagement and community service, at 4 p.m. Thursday, April 7, in Whitaker Hall Atrium and Auditorium. The event is sponsored by the Gephardt Institute for Public Service.

The meltdown of private pension plans, 401(k)s and Individual Retirement Accounts during the recession demonstrates that Social Security is more essential than ever, says Merton C. Bernstein, LLB, the Walter D. Coles Professor Emeritus at Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. Bernstein discussed the crucial role of Social Security in a report for the university’s Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy.

WUSTL sports updates for the week of April 4, 2011.