When Laura Turner, the technical services librarian at Leyburn Library, came to work this past Wednesday, she had no idea what awaited her. Early that morning the Associated Press had moved a story about the book that came back and, gefore the day was over, Laura had been interviewed by news outlets from Roanoke to […]
"Storm Warning" by Shenandoah editor R.T. Smith is the featured poem on Poetry Daily, an anthology of contemporary poetry that publishes a new poem from new books, magazines, and journal each day. "Storm Warning" is from a sequence called The Red Wolf, which comprise poems about Flannery O'Connor, many of which are written in her […]
What qualifies as perhaps the longest overdue library book in history found its way back to Washington and Lee University’s Leyburn Library in February, when the first volume of W.F.P. Napier’s four-volume set, History of the War in the Peninsula and in the South of France, was returned to the shelves after an absence of 52,858 days.
Maybe it's not too late for some tax tips from Michelle Drumbl, director of the School of Law's Tax Clinic. You can listen to Michelle's advice on ways to save on your taxes on our Soundbites page. But if you've already filed (and here's hoping you have), you might be interested in the debate on […]
National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell will hold a conversation about leadership in sports at Washington and Lee University on Tuesday, April 21, at 7 p.m..
In response to the recent post about the trip that W&L law grads Kara McDonald, Class of 2002, and Damien DeLaney, Class of 2003, are taking, What's News was reminded by a reader that four alumni are currently sailing around the world on a 51-foot Skye called the Obelisk. The sailors are Jesse Smith (’03), […]
Cleveland P. Hickman Jr., professor emeritus of biology at Washington and Lee University, will receive the Thomas Jefferson Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Natural Science from the Virginia Museum for Natural History Foundation at the organization’s 22nd annual Thomas Jefferson Awards on Earth Day on April 22, at the museum in Martinsville, Va.
A story in Sunday's Charleston Gazette tells the story of how one Washington and Lee alumna has been forever changed by her participation in W&L's Shepherd Poverty Program. You can get details fromthe story but briefly it describes a project that Shannon Bell, a member of W&L's Class of 2000, created for five communities in […]
The Fulbright Association is honoring Washington and Lee alumnus John D. Maguire of the Class of 1953 with its Lifetime Achievement Medal. Maguire, president emeritus of the Claremont University Consortium and director of the Institute for Democratic Renewal,, will receive the award on May 12 in Washington. He's in an impressive group of four recipients. […]
Two Washington and Lee University students — junior Bena M. Tshishiku from Martinez, Ga., and sophomore F. Andrew Tessier Jr. from New Orleans, La. — have been awarded a prestigious Goldwater Scholarship.
Casandra (Casie) Pedroza majored in neuroscience at Washington and Lee and was on a premed track when she made a trip to Texas to work with Hurricane Katrina victims. Things changed. The 2007 graduate may yet make it to medical school. But for the moment, you can see Casie's picture and read a story of […]
When her daughter had a violent reaction to eggs and was diagnosed with a food allergy, Robyn McCord O'Brien, Class of 1993, says she wanted to tattoo a warning across her daughter's forehead so that people would be aware of the danger that certain foods posed for her. That was the start of Robyn's work […]
Prepare to be envious. Late last month two Washington and Lee law graduates — Kara McDonald, Class of 2002, and Damien DeLaney, Class of 2003 — embarked on a year-long round-the-world journey, and they're sharing their travels via a blog titled Running Towards. Kara and Damien (they're married, and he's the son of W&L history […]
Dr. Harry Neel of the Class of 1928 confesses that he doesn't get around like he once did, he is using the cane that his son has insisted upon, and a friend describes him as "just a lively person." Those are just a few of the revelations in a wonderful feature story about Harry that […]
Katie Wall, a 2005 Washington and Lee graduate who majored in biology and studio art, has recently unveiled a new Web site that has a some striking examples of her art work. After W&L, Katie went to the Savannah College of Art and Design to get an M.F.A. and also worked for SCAD as media […]
Back in January a new radio show made its debut on WLUR-FM, the campus radio station of Washington and Lee. Radio IE is the "Voice of International Education" at W&L. Hosted by Laurent Boetsch, professor of Romance languages and director of the Center for International Education, the show features interviews with students who are engaged […]
Washington & Lee journalism students earned seven awards – with an unprecedented three first-place winners – in the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Region II annual collegiate journalism competition.
If the old adage is right (and who could ever argue the point) that a picture is worth all those words, then the Center for International Education has exceeded the word allotment on its Web site these days with four different slides shows displaying photographs that Washington and Lee students took during their various journeys […]
As far as Washington and Lee University senior Eduardo Rodriguez is concerned, communication is the key to peace. That basic premise underlies the proposal that won Rodriguez a $10,000 grant from the Kathryn Wasserman Davis 100 Projects for Peace program.
Washington and Lee safety officer Jamie Brown spent the longest seven minutes of his career when he responded to the Phi Kappa Pi fire earlier this month.
All residents of Washington and Lee University’s Pi Kappa Phi fraternity house were successfully evacuated this morning (Thursday, March 12) when a pre-dawn fire caused major damage to the building at 201 East Washington Street in Lexington.
Thomas W. Pogge, the Leitner Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs at Yale University, will present a lecture titled “Do the Global Poor have Human Rights?” at Washington and Lee University on Tuesday, March 17, at 7:30 p.m. in Northen Auditorium of the James G. Leyburn Library.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas will speak as part of Washington and Lee University’s Contact series of speakers on Monday, March 16, at 7:30 p.m. in Lee Chapel. The program is free and open to the public.
Artist William Christenberry , whose work is currently featured in exhibition in Washington and Lee University's Staniar Gallery, will present an Artist Talk at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, March 11, in the Concert Hall of Wilson Hall at W&L. The lecture is free and open to the public.
What is a bottle of Roundup Weed and Grass Killer doing in Yellowstone National Park? W&L biologist Bill Hamilton and teams of W&L students have been working on projects to keep the prairie grasslands viable for the bison and elk.
Washington and Lee University’s Board of Trustees has elected three alumni as new members. They are John Baker Gentry Jr. of Fort Worth, Texas; Robert E. Sadler Jr. of Buffalo, N.Y., and William M. Webster IV of Spartanburg, S.C.
What would the holidays be without those familiar scents — the fresh spruce tree, peppermint candy canes, mulled cider? The absence of those particular odors in the context of the holidays would create a puzzle for the senses, says Washington and Lee neuroscientist Tyler Lorig, who specializes in the study of the olfactory system.
Washington and Lee University has received $17 million from Gerry Lenfest, an alumnus and Philadelphia philanthropist, to establish two endowments in support of faculty sabbaticals and summer research.
Students and faculty at Washington and Lee University will be teaming with archaeologists from Thomas Jefferson's Monticello this spring on an excavation of the house site of Jefferson's overseer, Edmund Bacon.
Michael Smitka, professor of economics, was interviewed about the state of the U.S. automobile industry by WVTF news anchor Fred Echols on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2008.
A disorderly collapse of the U.S. auto industry would not represent good public policy, but the successful solution to the current crisis requires more than a hurriedly applied Band-Aid, according to a Washington and Lee University economist who specializes in the automobile industry.
Arthur Goldsmith, the Jackson T. Stephens Professor of Economics at Washington and Lee University, has won the new H. Hiter Harris Memorial Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching from the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges (VFIC).
The announcement this week that the Christian Science Monitor was ceasing publication of a daily print edition and would appear online only did not surprise Brian Richardson, head of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications at Washington and Lee University.
As the current economic crisis and pending recession lead to rising unemployment, research by Arthur H. Goldsmith, the Jackson T. Stephens Professor of Economics at Washington and Lee University, warns of the devastating, and possibly permanent, psychological effects of joblessness.
Election officials who interpret their state's prohibitions against electioneering as prohibiting voters from wearing campaign buttons or T-shirts into the polling places on Election Day may be strictly within the law, but a Washington and Lee University expert on the First Amendment believes the interpretation would be unconstitutional.
W&L has named its outdoor athletic complex in honor of Richard L. Duchossois '44 in recognition of his support for the University. Announcement of the naming was made during ceremonies for the rededication of Wilson Field, during Hall of Fame Weekend.
When Lisa Greer, assistant professor of geology, traveled to Houston, Texas, in early October, the impact of Hurricane Ike was still being felt in the region where the storm caused an estimated $31.5 billion in damage.
Washington and Lee University observed the 138th anniversary of Robert E. Lee’s death on Monday, Oct. 13, with a recognition ceremony for donors to the Campaign for Lee Chapel and Museum and a speech by Civil War scholar and author Ken Masterson Brown.
J. Donald Childress of Atlanta, Ga., rector of Washington and Lee University’s Board of Trustees, has made a $5 million gift to the University.
U.S. Supreme Court watchers have noted that this will be an important year for the highest court in the land. The Justices will decide more cases during the 2008-09 session than they have in the previous ten years combined. In addition, as many as three members of the Court may step down at the end of this session pending the outcome of the Presidential election.
James R. Kahn, the John F. Hendon professor of economics and director of the environmental studies program at Washington and Lee University, was a participant in a landmark study that concluded that economic incentives for manufacturing have been responsible for the low rate of deforestation in the State of Amazonas in Brazil.
When Washington and Lee University politics professor Robert Strong decided to create a first-year seminar based on the presidential election of 2008, he figured that the topic would be a draw. He was right.
Washington and Lee University has taken a leading role in the development of a collaborative employment network for faculty, staff, and administrators at 19 leading higher education and research institutions in the Mid-Atlantic region.
As the biggest financial story in United States history has unfolded in recent days, financial journalists have done a generally solid job of reporting in spite of the fact that recent layoffs at major newspapers have left many newsrooms depleted. That is the assessment of Pamela Luecke, the Donald W. Reynolds Professor of Business Journalism at Washington and Lee University.
For Rebecca Harris, the puzzle begged an answer. Why, she wondered, was scientific evidence, ranging from DNA to lie detectors, admitted by the courts in some states and not others?
Between 1941 and 1970, retreating glaciers in the Peruvian Andes caused three floods and two avalanches that resulted in the deaths of about 30,000 people.
Charging political candidates with lying is an extremely serious charge, and judging them to be telling lies rather than exaggerating requires meeting a very high standard, according to a Washington and Lee University philosophy professor who has defined lying for the Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
On the seventh anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, Washington and Lee University has announced the restructuring and expansion of the Schlegel Prize for International Studies, which was created to honor Commander Robert Allan Schlegel, a 1985 alumnus of W&L who was killed at the Pentagon.
Richard Brookhiser, author and senior editor with the National Review, will speak at Washington and Lee University on Thursday, Sept. 18, at 7:30 p.m. in Lee Chapel. He is the first speaker sponsored by W&L's Johnson Program in Leadership and Integrity.
Addressing the annual Fall Convocation at Washington and Lee University on Wednesday, Sept. 3, Suzanne Parker Keen, the Thomas H. Broadus Professor of English at W&L, reminded members of the community that their words carry both power and responsibility.
