2010-11 tuition, room, board and fees announced

Undergraduate tuition at Washington University in St. Louis will be $39,400 for the 2010-11 academic year — a $1,600 (4.2 percent) increase over the 2009-10 current academic tuition of $37,800. The required student activity fee will total $394, and the student health fee will be no more than $580. Barbara A. Feiner, vice chancellor for finance, made the announcement.

Brown School professor survives Haiti earthquake

Two days before the Haiti earthquake, Lora Iannotti, Ph.D., nutrition and public health expert from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, traveled to Port-au-Prince and Leogane, Haiti, to continue her research about undernutrition and disease prevention in young children. The massive tremor changed her focus from research for the future to survival, with her team helping children in the aftermath of the quake.

Spring Assembly Series: Everything from A to Z

The Assembly Series annually serves up topics for almost every appetite, and this spring the series offers speakers from A to Z. Representing the broad interests of the Washington University community, the Assembly Series begins Wednesday, Jan. 27, with environmentalist Amory Lovins and concludes April 21 with playwright and director Mary Zimmerman.

Supreme Court’s campaign spending decision delivers blow to political process

The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn campaign spending limits for corporations “strikes a serious blow against efforts to stem the dominance of corporations in our political process,” says Gregory  P. Magarian, J.D., constitutional and election law expert at Washington University in St. Louis.  “The Court overruled a longstanding decision that had struck a sensible, carefully drawn balance between the self-interest of corporations and interests of integrity and fairness in the political process.“

Ira J. Hirsh, one of the founders of audiology, dies at 87

Ira J. Hirsh, Ph.D., who did pioneering research in human hearing, auditory perception, communication, speech, language and communication disorders, died Jan. 12, 2010, of cardiopulmonary failure at Hillcrest Convalescent Center in Durham, N.C. He was 87.

HIV infection prematurely ages the brain

HIV infection or the treatments used to control it are prematurely aging the brain, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of California-San Diego have found. Blood flow in the brains of HIV patients is reduced to levels normally seen in uninfected patients 15 to 20 years older.

Challenging economy focus of financial seminar at Brown School

In remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Society of Black Student Social Workers at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work will host the fourth annual “Financial Freedom Seminar: Tying Loose Ends—Becoming Financially Secure,” from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 23, in Brown Hall, Room 100.

Woman’s Club celebrates centennial

The Woman’s Club of Washington University marks its centennial in 2010, and the club will celebrate by offering special meals, lectures, exhibitions and gifts and creating a new endowed scholarship for undergraduate students. The centennial celebration kicks off Jan. 29 with “Honoring the Past,” a 1910-style luncheon featuring opera star Ann Hoyt, at 11:30 a.m. at the Saint Louis Woman’s Club.

Single-stream recycling debuts in time for RecycleMania 2010

Nearly all recyclable items can now be placed in one bin for recycling throughout the Danforth, West, North and South campuses. This change from the previous recycling system of separate bins began in January and comes in time for the 2010 RecycleMania competition. Those on most WUSTL campuses now will see only waste bins labeled “Recycling” or “Landfill.” Comingled recyclable items will be sorted off-campus by a vendor.