Dancing dragon Fancy dragon steps were part of the fun for the 320 people attending the Olin Chinese New Year Party presented Jan. 26 in Simon Hall by Chinese students at the Olin School of Business. The celebration of the Year of the Snake, aka the Little Dragon, began with 15 women MBA students wearing Chinese national dress serving a traditional Chinese dinner in student lounges. Afterward, in May Auditorium, there was singing, a presentation on Chinese culture and economic development, a drama, a sample of Huang-Mei opera, a "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" segment, and Chinese dances. There are 40 MBA and several undergraduate students from the People's Republic of China and from Hong Kong at the Olin School. Many of them helped stage the event, designed to show the richness of the 7,000-year-old Chinese culture.

Renovations, repairs and replacements guide infrastructure

At a time of unprecedented new building on both the Hilltop and Medical campuses, the University's investments in infrastructure and its ongoing efforts to repair, renovate and replace its buildings sometimes go unsung.

Cornerstones for three University buildings --Brookings, Busch and Cupples I halls --were laid in 1900, and numerous others are close to that age. McMillan Hall dates from 1906, Ridgley from 1908.

The early buildings, designed by the highly respected Philadelphia firm of Cope and Stewardson in the collegiate Gothic style, formed the heart of a campus that would grow steadily over the century and become an oasis of green space, handsome architecture and intellectual activity in a burgeoning urban area.

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Could Venus have once been a wet planet?

By Trent C. Stockton

University researchers, studying hydrous mineral decomposition rates at extreme temperatures, have concluded that hot and dry Venus may have been a wet planet, like Earth and ancient Mars.

The new evidence suggesting a wetter Venusian history comes from a series of experiments documenting the chemical stability of tremolite for several billion years at temperatures similar to that of Venus' surface, about 740 degrees Kelvin - roughly 870 degrees Fahrenheit.

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WU one of nation's first 'Responsive Ph.D.' institutions

Washington University is paving the way for others with its innovative doctoral programs.

Because of its successful track record, the University is one of three inaugural universities joining with the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation in its "Responsive Ph.D." initiative "to provide a richer purpose for Ph.D. education in the United States." Washington University, the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and University of Washington-Seattle will get the initiative off the ground and begin implementing improvements in doctoral education.

"Washington University in St. Louis is serving as a model for universities across the country," said Robert E. Thach, dean of graduate studies in Arts & Sciences, who will chair a Deans Council, once other participating universities - up to 10 or 12 - are selected. The Responsive Ph.D. grows in part out of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation's Humanities at Work program, which is expanding career opportunities for Ph.D.s from such fields as History and English inside and outside academia.

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6th annual Career Week opens Monday

The prospect of looking for a job can be a daunting experience for many graduating students. However, the Career Center hopes to make the process easier with the help of its sixth annual Career Week starting Monday.

Career Week consists of a variety of panels and programs aimed at helping students explore careers. This year's theme is "Exploring Options and Opportunities," and the primary focus will be panels of professionals with a variety of backgrounds.

"We have a number of panelists coming from many different career fields," said Aimee Wittman, career development specialist at the Career Center. "The program will enable students to explore numerous careers and look at new job opportunities they may not have known existed."

The panelists work in fields as varied as the environment, public relations, technology, the arts, health care, law, nonprofit and the corporate sector.

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