Toronto Star
Think stilettos are hazardous? Check out these heels
9/10/2010
‘On a Pedestal,’ an exhibit currently showing at Toronto’s Bata Shoe Museum, examines two of the most extreme forms of Western footwear, the 16th century chopine and its successor, the high heel. No sensible shoes here. The more impractical, the sexier. Both the chopine and heel kept women at home, “under control, restricted,” argues Dr. Elizabeth Bernhardt, a historian and women’s studies professor at Washington University. The shoes restricted women’s movement to the degree that it was difficult, maybe even painful, to walk, says Bernhardt. Link to Article
Savannah Morning News / Savannah Now
Art & Soul: Cindy Towers’ ‘Abandoned’ documents industrial decay
In “Abandoned,” a solo exhibit on display at the Savannah College of Art and Design’s Alexander Hall, WUSTL art instructor Cindy Tower documents the aftermath of America’s industrial decline, painting decaying interiors and crumbling exteriors of massive factories. Spaces that once produced goods and provided well-paying jobs for U.S. workers now harbor the detritus of the American dream. With intricate brush strokes, Tower paints the abandoned factories, like the legendary Armour meatpacking plant in East St. Louis, emphasizing the decaying infrastructure that seems to symbolize America’s post-industrial decline. Link to Article
Archinect
The extraordinary vs. the everyday catastrophe: Part 1
09/12/2010
Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon oil explosion have each brought into focus the more insidious everyday catastrophes that plague the Gulf region. In this three-part blog series, several members of Washington University’s Sam Fox School discuss infrastructure and system challenges, and the role design and design education can play in addressing these catastrophes. Later this semester, Derek Hoeferlin and Stan Strembicki will be taking students from their respective disciplines – architecture and photography – to New Orleans for documentation and research. Link to Article
SPACE.com
Arvidson: Rover to set Mars record
09/12/2010
A historic milestone could be made on Mars this week. On Thursday, NASA’s beleaguered Spirit rover could become the longest-running mission on the surface of Mars, surpassing the Viking 1lander’s record of six years and 116 days of operation on the Martian surface — if it’s still alive, that is. “Being part of the team that will break the VL1 [Viking Lander 1] record will be exciting,” said Ray Arvidson of the Washington University in St. Louis, who led the Viking Lander Imaging Team way back when and now serves as a member of the Spirit science team. “It means to me personally that I will have participated in two historical events.” Link to Article
STLtoday.com
Normandy, Jennings school districts are close to failing
09/13/2010
Academic snapshots are raising fears that failures typical of urban schools are pushing deeper into the suburbs. William Tate, head of the department of education at Washington University, said academic performance in many north St. Louis County suburbs has suffered from low incomes and high unemployment among residents, while schools in more affluent metro area are meeting standards. “In St. Louis, it is a wall,” Tate said, referring to the geographic divide in school quality. Declining home values in poorer school districts are sapping their financial means to deal with the issue, Tate said. “Unless something is done to inherently change the system, it is going to continue.” Link to Article
KTVI-TV (St. Louis)
Fox 2 News Sunday Morning (4/4)
Ewan Harrison, an assistant dean in the College of Arts and Sciences who teaches courses on international relations at Washington University, talks to Charles Jaco about U.S. foreign policy in the post 9/11 era. Link to Broadcast
STLtoday.com
Clearing up a secondhand smoke screen
09/13/2010
As St. Louis voters prepared to cast their ballots on clean indoor-air laws last fall, opponents argued that modern filtration systems have all but eliminated the dangers of secondhand smoke, Unfortunately, it turns out not be true. Washington University researchers measured nicotine levels in 10 bars and 10 restaurants in St. Louis County. Their results were released last week: Places that allow smoking had 31 times more airborne nicotine than those that don’t. Link to Article
News in higher education
Wall Street Journal
Employers prefer hiring from state schools
9/13/2010
U.S. companies largely favor graduates of big state universities over Ivy League and other elite liberal-arts schools when hiring to fill entry-level jobs, a Wall Street Journal study found. In the study, Pennsylvania State University, Texas A&M University and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ranked as top picks for graduates best prepared and most able to succeed. Of the top 25 schools as rated by these employers, 19 were public, one was Ivy League (Cornell University) and the rest were private, including Carnegie Mellon and University of Notre Dame.
New York Times
U.S. schools attract smaller share of international students
9/13/2010
Although the United States is still the favored destination for students who want to study abroad, the share of international students coming to the country has been declining steadily since the year 2000, according to a study released Tuesday by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Link to Article
Boston Globe / The Associated Press
Colleges: Freshmen looking for career advice now
9/12/2010
As college freshmen nationwide continue exploring their campuses — finding dining halls, laundry rooms, bookstores and gyms — officials at many schools say the newbies are increasingly finding their way to career centers. Once considered the place for panicked seniors to look for jobs ahead of graduation, college career offices are reporting dramatic hikes in use by first-year students looking for the earliest possible jump on the employment market. Link to Article
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