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.
State-sponsored college savings plans, often called 529 plans, offer tax incentives to facilitate saving for postsecondary education. Low- and moderate-income families are less likely to have college savings than higher-income families. To address this inequity, a number of states have launched 529 savings match incentive programs. A recently released CSD report examines the program design of all state 529 savings match programs and offers recommendations aimed to facilitate access, increase program participation and perhaps reduce administrative costs.
Mahendra Gupta, PhD, dean and the Geraldine J. and Robert L. Virgil Professor of Accounting and Management, serves up a hamburger during the Olin Business School’s annual back to school cookout in the Simon Hall courtyard Aug. 30. The barbecue, held the first day of classes, welcomed business students to the new academic year and featured food and live music.
Labor Day may celebrate the historical contributions of the American labor movement, but the future of the movement is in question. “Unions are under siege,” says labor and employment law expert Marion Crain, JD, the Wiley B. Rutledge Professor of Law at Washington University in St. Louis. “In the public sector, governors seeking to slash budgets are de-authorizing state labor laws that govern the organizing and bargaining rights of state employees. In the private sector, both the federal legislation that supports union action and the administrative body that enforces the law are under attack. Union density is on a dramatic downswing.” At the same time, wage inequality has not been higher since the Great Depression.
Washington University’s American Cancer Society Institutional Research Grant (ACS-IRG) is now accepting applications from junior faculty for pilot project awards through 4 p.m. Oct. 14.
More than 1,200 Washington University in St. Louis freshmen are expected to participate in Service First, WUSTL’s largest annual community service project, at 12 local elementary schools from 12:30 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 3. Some 100 students will head to each school to complete creative projects developed by the school principals and staff members. The schools are: Central Visual and Performing Arts, Fanning, Ford, Gateway IT, Henry, Jefferson, Long, Mallinckrodt and Sumner in the Saint Louis Public School District; Brittany Woods and Flynn Park in the School District of University City; and KIPP: Inspire Academy.
