News highlights for February 11, 2011

Chronicle of Higher Education

Dumped on by data: Scientists say a deluge Is drowning research
02/10/2011

The Human Connectome Project will allow researchers to navigate freely available data to come up with new ideas about the brain. “The insights emerge from comparing across a whole collection of studies looking at similar, but not identical, questions,” said David Van Essen, a commentary co-author and neuroscientist at Washington University in St. Louis. “In the long run, suitable investments in the data-mining and informatics infrastructure will actually accelerate progress in understanding and treating diseases.” Link to Article See also Live Science

The Christian Science Monitor

Hidden costs of light rail

02/11/2011

Art Carden, a recent graduate of Washington University, discusses St. Louis light rail options in this blog post. He likes the MetroLink in St. Louis because he prefers taking trains to taking cars. In November, he went to a conference at Washington University and was able to take Greyhound from Memphis to St. Louis, and then Metrolink between Wash U, his hotel, and the parts of St. Louis he wanted to visit. Link to Article

Writing Without Paper 
(blog)
All art Friday

02/11/2011

For its first commissioned installation, the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts asked Ann Hamilton to create an “artistic statement” for its headquarters building in St. Louis, designed by Pritzker Prize winner Tadao Ando. Students from Washington University constructed thousands of papier-mache hands used in the installation and assisted with printing of banners and flyers for the project. Link to Article

KSDK-TV

Wash U students in Egypt forced to evacuate

02/10/2011

President Obama spoke about the crisis in Egypt earlier today. The crisis forced two Washington University students studying abroad to evacuate. One student was in Alexandria for weeks before he was forced to leave so quickly he left most of his belongings behind. He says he has respect for Egyptian people and hopes for a quick and peaceful resolution of the crisis. Link to Broadcast

Daily RFT

Let’s talk … without Bristol Palin

02/11/2011

Remember that Wash U panel that was supposed to feature Bristol Palin, until she bowed out in the face of protest? It turns out that the students who fought for her ouster weren’t exactly gung-ho about the panel, which addressed reproductive health and ethics. According to an article in the university’s student paper, the Feb. 7 event drew a weak crowd — as in more than half the room was empty. Link to Article

St. Louis Review

The culture of chastity

02/10/2011

Father Gary Braun, director of the Catholic Student Center at Washington University, discusses changing attitudes on campus and other issues related to the recent controversy over the proposed speech on abstinence by Bristol Palin. He said the university’s efforts to change the name of the awareness week is a positive development, one that allows the Jewish and Catholic communities on campus to focus the conversation on emotional intimacy in a relationship. “Perhaps we’ve made a dent, or perhaps the culture is changing,” he said. 
Link to Article

St Louis Chinese American News

LNYF of Washington University presented Chinese New Year Show

02/11/2011

The student group Lunar New Year Festival (LNYF) of Washington University in St. Louis presented its spectacular annual student-run production on February 4th and 5th at 7PM at Edison Theater. This year’s show delivered a glimpse into Asian culture through the innovation and allure of the Arts. Lunar New Year Festival at Washington University promotes cultural awareness of Asia’s assortment of different countries. Link to Article

St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Artist reflects on casualties of war in Hoffman LaChance show

02/11/2011

In his first show outside of an academic setting, Washington University graduate student John Talbott Allen explores the themes of war and our modern distance from it in two picture books and three sculptures. “If you don’t know any people (in the military), you’re watching as a voyeur. I started thinking about something as terrible as war being almost trivialized,” he said. Link to Article

News in Higher Education

Kansas City Star

Missouri Colleges to Cut 116 Degree Programs
2/11/2011
More than 100 degree programs will be eliminated at Missouri state colleges and universities as part of a cost-savings review ordered by Gov. Jay Nixon. The University of Missouri-Columbia, the state’s largest university, tops the list with 19 programs on the chopping block. Link to Article

Bloomberg Businessweek

Yale to Create Peru Center for Machu Picchu Objects
2/11/2011
Yale University will help establish a study center in Peru to house Incan artifacts taken from Machu Picchu in 1912, ending a decade-long fight between the university and the Andean nation over ownership. The artifacts were removed from Machu Picchu by Hiram Bingham, an explorer and adjunct professor at Yale who rediscovered the site in 1911. Under the agreement, the new center will lend “a small number of artifacts” to Yale for display at the Peabody Museum of Natural History on campus. Link to Article

Wall Street Journal

More students fail advanced placement tests
2/10/2011

A record numbers of high-school students are taking and passing Advanced Placement exams, but a rising percentage are scoring at the lowest level possible, according to national data on 2010 graduates released Wednesday. Experts attribute the low scores to the recent national effort to push more students into AP courses, school districts that have watered down the AP curriculum to accommodate lower-performing students and students who sign up simply to pad their college applications. Link to Article

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