News highlights for March 16, 2011

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.

Los Angeles Times

Aftershocks prompt fears of major Tokyo quake
03/15/2011

The pattern of aftershocks in Japan appears to be shifting south toward Tokyo, raising concerns among scientists that the temblors could transfer stress to nearby faults. The fear is that the initial quake and the series of large aftershocks will transfer geophysical stress into nearby faults, causing some near Tokyo to shift violently, said Michael Wysession, a seismologist at Washington University in St. Louis. Link to Article See also Chicago Tribune, Seattle Times, Hamilton Spectator (Canada).

The Washington Post

No matter what happens in NFL labor negotiations, the players pay the price
03/15/2011

No matter how well the NFL players’ union bargains, most players will end up broke — and broken in body. Recently, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis released the results of interviews with 644 former players who played in the league between 1979 and 2006, who averaged 48 years in age. The survey found 93 percent of them suffered some level of pain, and 73 percent described that pain as moderate to severe. Link to Article

Scientific American

How radiation threatens health
03/15/2011

The developing crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has raised concerns over the health effects of radiation exposure: What is a “dangerous” level of radiation? How does radiation damage health? What are the consequences of acute and long-term low-dose radiation? “We are nowhere near levels where people should be worried,” says Susan M. Langhorst, a health physicist and the Radiation Safety Officer at Washington University in St. Louis.Link to Article

Brookings Institution

Ten-year impacts of individual Development Accounts on Homeownership: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment
03/15/2011

With the housing market still recovering from the subprime crisis, a key question for policymakers is how and whether to encourage homeownership and the role of down payments in the initial homeowner purchase. A new research paper, co-authored by Michael Sherraden and Mark Schreiner of Washington University in St. Louis looks specifically at the long-term impact of an experiment with an Individual Development Accounts (IDA) program, which provide matching funds for qualified savings withdrawals, including housing down payments. Link to Article

Ingram’s

The specialized MBA
03/16/2011

While general-business MBA programs are still commonplace, it is more likely that the adult student today will focus on something a little more specific. Washington University’s Olin School of Business, for example, offers courses not only from its home base in St. Louis and its Kansas City satellite branch, but halfway around the globe with an executive MBA in Shanghai. That program, nearly a decade old, is a partnership with Fudan University, and is ranked by Financial Times as No. 1 in its class in China. Link to Article

IRB Advisor

University facilitates more CEnR involvement
03/01/2011

As Washington University in St. Louis, MO, expanded its interest in community-engaged research (CEnR), officials realized that both the researchers and their community partners needed to better understand human subjects protection requirements. In response, they’ve developed a program that not only ensures community groups are trained to help conduct research ethically, but guides researchers through the sometimes overwhelming Institutional Review Board (IRB) process. Read Full Text

theday.com

Research unit going to China, Pfizer says
03/16/2011

Pfizer Inc. plans to move its antibacterials research unit in Groton to Shanghai, China, but said some local scientists involved in the research will remain in Groton for up to two years as the company builds the new Shanghai unit. Pfizer also said it plans to continue a collaboration with Washington University in St. Louis that enlists academics’ help in finding new uses for Pfizer’s established products. 
Link to Article
Related news release on WUSTL-Pfizer agreement http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/20770.aspx

Saint Louis Beacon

Five questions with R. Marie Griffith
03/15/2011

In July, R. Marie Griffith, 43, will become director of Washington University’s John C. Danforth Center for Religion & Politics. She brings to St. Louis varied academic and leadership experience at top schools, including Princeton University. Griffith, who is completing a book due out next year titled “Christians, Sex and Politics: An American History,” responds to five questions from Beacon editor Donna Korando. Link to Article

KPLR-TV

News 11 at Noon (1/2)
03/15/2011

St. Louis University’s health law program is again ranked number one in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. It’s the eighth straight year the SLU law school has been number one. In the overall rankings, the Yale and Harvard are the top two law schools. Washington University is number 18. Link to Broadcast



News in Higher Education

New York Times

Loan study on students goes beyond default rates
03/15/2011

For each student who defaults on a loan, at least two more fall behind in payments, a new study has found. The Institute for Higher Education Policy, a nonprofit organization, said in a report that two out of five student loan borrowers were delinquent at some point in the first five years after they started repaying their loans. Link to Article

New York Times

U.C.L.A. student’s video Rant Against Asians Fuels Firestorm
03/15/2011

Since recording a three-minute video of herself ranting about Asian students and posting it to YouTube, Alexandra Wallace, a third-year political science student at U.C.L.A, has achieved a sudden, unwelcome celebrity: her video has been viewed by millions of people, and she has become the subject of nationwide condemnation and the catalyst of a debate about racial intolerance and free speech. Link to Article

Boston Globe

Advocates for blind want college review
03/16/2011

The National Federation of the Blind filed a complaint with the federal government yesterday accusing New York University and Northwestern University of discriminating against blind students by adopting Google e-mail and other programs that aren’t fully compatible with technology that translates written words into speech. Link to Article

For additional higher education news (subscription may be required):
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Inside Higher Ed
University Business

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