The Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies will kick off its two business plan competitions on Thursday, Sept. 8. Combined, the Olin Cup and YouthBridge Social Enterprise and Innovation Competitions will award more than $200,000 in funding for new commercial and social ventures.
James E. McLeod, vice chancellor for students and dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, died Tuesday, Sept. 6, 2011, at Barnes-Jewish Hospital of kidney failure after a two-year battle with cancer. He was 67. In a letter addressed to the WUSTL community Sept. 6, Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton announced that “Washington University has lost one of its greatest citizens and leaders.”
German artist and photographer Thomas Demand will discuss his work Wednesday, Sept. 14, as part of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts’ fall Public Lecture Series. The talk is held in conjunction with the exhibition Precarious Worlds: Contemporary Art from Germany, which opens at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum Sept. 9. Also opening Sept. 9 is Tomás Saraceno: Cloud-Specific. Additional museum events this fall will include a talk by Saraceno as well as film screenings, panel discussions and an all-ages Community Day.
Because the Sept. 11 attacks happened on U.S. soil, it makes sense that they might have had a more profound impact in the United States than in Western Europe. But key differences in how Muslims were perceived before 9/11 in the United States and Western Europe also played a key role in how much — or how little — attitudes on Muslims changed after 9/11, says John R. Bowen, PhD, an anthropology and religious studies professor, both in Arts & Sciences, at WUSTL.
The football team posted a 28-10 win at Knox College in its 2011 season opener Sept. 3 at the Knosher Bowl in Galesburg, Ill. Updates included in volleyball, women’s and men’s soccer and cross country.
A letter to the WUSTL community on the Sept. 6, 2011, passing of James E. McLeod, vice chancellor for students and dean of the College of Arts & Sciences.
Charlie Robin, the affable, bespectacled, red-haired, 6-foot-6 executive director of Edison Theatre, is responsible for the slate of shows that make up the annual Edison Ovations and ovations for young people series. It’s a challenge, each year, to come up with a schedule that is intellectually stimulating and fits the mission of Washington University in St. Louis. “A lot of my job is curating a season that is not only about finding good work,” he says, “but one that will develop the openness and interest of the audience to be more expansive, more adventurous and willing to have fun.”
A search committee to identify candidates for the position of vice chancellor for public affairs has been appointed by Provost Edward S. Macias, PhD, executive vice chancellor and the Barbara and David Thomas Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences, and Henry S. Webber, executive vice chancellor for administration. M. Fredric Volkmann, the current vice chancellor for public affairs, will retire Sept. 30, 2011.
Mounting casualities in America’s nearly 10-year-old wars in Iraq and Afghanistan might seem to serve as a catalyst for people to denounce the war and demand a way out. But a Washington University in St. Louis study into the psychology of “sunk-costs” finds that highlighting casualties before asking for opinions on these wars actually sways people toward a more pro-war attitude. This sunk-cost mindset may also expain why losers stay in the stock market.
