News highlights for September 30, 2010

p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman';} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} CisionPoint news monitoring provides this small sampling of the university's daily news coverage. Click headline to read full text via Cision or link directly to the online article where available. For questions or comments about this service, or to add or delete a name from the mailing list, please contact Gerry Everding.

The Wall Street Journal Online
Olin School vaults to No. 2 in Wall Street Journal’s 2010 rankings of executive MBA programs
09/29/2010

The journey of the typical E.M.B.A. student has grown more complicated since The Wall Street Journal’s first ranking of executive M.B.A. programs in 2008. Consideration for students’ needs on the career front helped vault Washington University’s Olin School to No. 2 in this year’s E.M.B.A. rankings. In the past year the program has added a full-time career counselor and a career-coaching component to its curriculum. This was the Olin School’s first year in the survey. The Wharton School of Business claimed the No. 1 spot. Link to Article See also St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Other WSJ rankings stories mentioning WUSTL:


Peer to peer
Washington University’s Olin School
received the 4th highest scores from surveyed alumni for their classmates’ contributions to the learning experience. Link to Article


Hiring outlook for new MBA graduates is improving

Washington Universitys Olin Business School paid for hotel rooms to get cash-strapped recruiters to make a stop at the suburban St. Louis campus. The effort helped 98% of the Olin class land internships this summer, says Associate Dean Mark Brostoff. Link to Article

E.M.B.A. career coaches help students find work

A new crop of E.M.B.A. career coaches are quickly coming on board at business schools to work exclusively with this more senior group of students, including Frans VanOudenallen, who was hired last year by Washington University’s Olin Business School.

CNN.com
Travel, have fun, do good
09/29/2010

What are volunteer vacations anyway? Really, anything that combines travel and volunteer work. And as global crises, such as the earthquake in Haiti, become more visible, interest in “voluntourism” appears to be growing. A recent study from Washington University in St. Louis, suggests that more than 1 million Americans volunteered abroad in 2008, a 14 percent uptick since 2004. Link to Article

Advance for Speech-Language Pathologists & Audiologists
What you can’t hear will hurt you
09/29/2010

Wind turbines are becoming popular as a “green” energy source, but some claim turbine noise makes them feel sick. Alec Salt, a Washington University researcher who studies the inner ear, is looking into what causes the problem, commonly called “wind turbine syndrome.” “The biggest problem people complain about is lack of sleep,” he said, but they can also develop headaches, difficulty concentrating, irritability, fatigue, dizziness and pressure in the ear. Salt suggests both an explanation and a solution for the problem. Link to Article

AARP The Magazine
The easiest exercise
09/29/2010

Walking is one of the easiest — and safest — activities for burning calories and tuning up the cardiovascular system. In a study at the Washington University School of Medicine, a group of men and women, ages 60 to 70, engaged in a nine- to 12-month exercise program that consisted of walking or jogging. Both men and women lost weight, primarily in the abdominal area. It goes to show that a simple exercise program such as walking can melt off abdominal fat, which creeps on as we get older. Link to Article

National Institutes of Health News

NIH transformative research project awards hasten innovation
9/30/2010

The NIH will award up to $64 million over five years to encourage exploration of exceptionally innovative and original research ideas that have the potential for extraordinary impact. The awards allow investigators to sidestep conventional stumbling blocks they often face when applying for funding for high-risk research. Among the 20 recipients of this year’s awards are Washington University School of Medicine researchers Eugene Oltz, PhD, and Jacqueline Payton, MD, PhD, for work on epigenomic signatures in non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. The research aims to Identify master control regions within non-Hodgkin lymphoma cells that simultaneously activate multiple cancer-causing genes, and use epigenetic (processes that control genes) therapy to target and kill the cancer cells. Link to Article

Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News
WUSTL awarded $18 million to treat heart, lungs with nanotechnology
09/29/2010

An $18 million research program headed by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis will research therapies and diagnostic tools for heart and lung diseases that use nanotechnology. The award, from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, will fund five years of research at Washington University and four collaborating institutions: Texas A&M University, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and the University of California, Santa Barbara and Berkeley. Link to Article Related news release http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/21238.aspx

Public International
Money alone can’t solve problems at the SLPS
09/29/2010

The St. Louis Public School District has not met reading and math standards for six years, but that’s correlation, not coincidence, said William Tate, chair of the education department at Washington University. “School achievement actually is a combination of school finance resources and family resources combined,” he said. The district tries to address some of the impacts of poverty, but its students just start off too far behind. That’s why the district remains so far behind state academic performance standards, Tate said. “It’s a massive difference.” Link to Article

STLtoday.com
Diabetes education program aims for convenience
09/29/2010

St. Louis diabetes researchers are taking diabetes education to gathering spots such as churches and coffee shops with hopes it will help people control the disease. The program, funded in part by Washington University and BJC HealthCare, will offer free workshops to provide information about diet, exercise, medications, blood glucose monitoring, goal setting and effective communication with health care providers; patients also can sign up to meet one-on-one with an educator. Link to Article

News in higher education

New York Times

Opinion: Elite colleges, or colleges for the elite?
9/30/2010

Today’s populist moment, with a growing anger directed at the elites who manipulate the system to their advantage, is an opportune time to examine higher education’s biggest affirmative action program — for the children of alumni. At our top universities, so-called legacy preferences affect larger numbers of students than traditional affirmative action programs for minority students, yet they have received a small fraction of the attention. Link to Article

New York Times

A reprieve for stem cell research
9/29/2010

A federal appeals court made the right choice on Tuesday when it allowed the Obama administration to keep financing embryonic stem cell research while legal arguments continue over whether to uphold or reject a temporary ban imposed by a lower court judge. Even a brief ban on financing would have disrupted research that scientists hope will lead to cures for devastating ailments like Parkinson’s disease and spinal cord injuries. Link to Article

Wall Street Journal

How college health plans are failing students
9/25/2010

The first big pieces of the new health-care overhaul are in effect, including rules mandating that insurance companies offer coverage to adult children until the age of 26. But one major player was notably absent from these new rule changes: colleges. They have managed to sidestep, at least for now, the regulatory clampdown that has sent hospitals, insurers and corporations scrambling. How’d they pull it off? Since student plans for the 2010-11 school year were negotiated before Sept. 23, they aren’t subject to the regulations this year. And if industry and university groups succeed, the plans will be exempted permanently from many elements of the new law. Link to Article

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The Chronicle of Higher Education
Inside Higher Ed
University Business

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