A new collection co-edited by Washington and Lee Law professor Robin Fretwell Wilson, Health Law and Bioethics: Cases in Context, explores the human side of the landmark cases in this field and features Wilson's own essay about the death of Jesse Gelsinger, who was the first person to die in a human gene therapy trial.
What, exactly, is Washington and Lee alumnus Brian Castleberry of the Class of 2004 doing in Rwanda? He figured you might ask. So his fascinating blog, titled A Thousand Hills and a River, has a page devoted to "What Am I Doing Here?" The short answer is that Brian, who majored in economics and mathematics, […]
A panel of distinguished academics and journalists will examine questions of partisanship and the Obama presidency in a program co-sponsored by the University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs, Washington and Lee University, and the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation on Oct. 2 at the Miller Center in Charlottesville.
Louis Fisher, Specialist in Constitutional Law with the Law Library of the Library of Congress will deliver the University's Constitution Day address at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 17, in the Stackhouse Theater. All members of the University community and the public are welcome. The title of Fisher's Talk is "Judicial Supremacy: Neither the Intent nor the Reality."
Washington and Lee University will honor those killed in New York City, Washington, D.C. and rural Pennsylvania in the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, by holding "9/11: Never Forget."
The National Law Journal leads its story about legal education reform with the Washington and Lee School of Law's new third-year curriculum. Here's a link to the story titled "Reality's Knocking." Among the other schools that were cited for new law curricula are UCLA, Indiana University, Duke, and the University of California at Irvine. But […]
On Saturday as the 473 members of Washington and Lee's Class of 2013 picked up their room keys and hauled their belongs into their residence halls, several paused long enough to say why they had chosen W&L into the lens of a Flip Cam. There were no real surprises with the answers: beautiful campus, welcoming […]
Washington and Lee University welcomed 473 members of its Class of 2013 to the campus on Saturday, Sept. 5, for the start of a five-day orientation.
The North Carolina Bar Association has honored Washington and Lee law alumnus Walt Hannah of the Class of 1950 with the dedication of the Walter L. Hannah Justice Fund. Walt ws the first associate of the Greensboro firm, which was called King, Kleemeier & Hagan when he joined in 1955. As the article in the […]
About 150 entering Washington and Lee first-years dropped their belongings off in Lexington on Sunday and joined up with 40 upperclass leaders to head out on The Leading Edge, the University's pre-orientation program. Leading Edge has two tracks: Volunteer Venture and Appalachian Adventure. In the case of the latter, students are either backpacking or backpacking […]
The Lettie Pate Evans Foundation has given Washington and Lee University $1 million toward the renovation and restoration of Newcomb Hall-the first of the historic Colonnade buildings to undergo the extensive improvement planned for all of them.
Faculty and administrations from 29 liberal arts colleges from around the country along representatives of three national educational organizations will gather at Washington and Lee University this month for a two-day conference on the role of faculty at liberal arts colleges.
Verna Miller Case, the Charles A. Dana Professor of Biology at Davidson College, will serve as an American Council on Education (ACE) Fellow at Washington and Lee University during the 2009-10 academic year.
Rebecca Makkai, who graduated from Washington and Lee in 1999, will have the second of her stories featured in the "Best American Short Stories" anthology this fall. Rebecca's story, "The Worst You Ever Feel," was selected for Best American Short Stories 2008, the volume that Salman Rusdie edited. Next month "The Briefcase" will appear in […]
If you haven't yet checked the redesigned Washington and Lee athletics site, you need to take a look. There's a new feature on the site that's just getting started, too. It's a blog that will feature a variety of bloggers during the year. But at the outset, W&L sports information director Brian Laubscher has been […]
The Transnational Law Institute at Washington and Lee University School of Law has announced a new partnership with the Carter Center that places current or recently graduated U.S. law students with a variety of institutions in Liberia working pro-bono on access to justice issues.
WDBJ-TV, Roanoke's CBS affiliate, had a heartwarming feature about the homecoming of a Washington and Lee alumnus Quincy Springs after eight years serving in the military, including this last year in Afghanistan. As the story details, Quincy, a captain in the U.S. Army, was married a year ago just prior to his last deployment when […]
Rebecca Benefiel, assistant professor of classics at Washington and Lee University, has spent the last three years studying the more than 11,000 graffiti in Pompeii.
Washington and Lee University history professor Molly Michelmore assesses the legacy of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy in an op-ed that appeared in both the Richmond Times-Dispatch and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The Campus Kitchen at Washington and Lee University was awarded $1,000 in the national online True Hero™ Competition.
We're guessing that Washington and Lee alumnus Brent Beshore (Class of 2005) doesn't necessarily have three-martini lunches a la Don Draper of Mad Men. But an article in the Columbia (Mo.) Business Times suggests that Brent's early success as an adman is mindful of TV's Draper, the creative director of Sterling Cooper. In Brent's case, […]
Jonathan Keiler is a 1984 graduate of the Washington and Lee School of Law. After four years as an Army Judge Advocate General officer and then moved to a private law firm in Bethesda, Md., before he changed course altogether and began teaching social studies at Bowie High School in Prince Georges County, Md. Earlier […]
Coye Nokes graduated from Washington and Lee in 1997 with a major in business administration and worked for a time in London as a financial consultant. As the story goes, the part of the job that Coye found most difficult was finding a pair of shoes that were appropriate for her business attire and didn't […]
What are you craving? That's what Washington and Lee alumnus Brys Stephens of the Class of 1995 wants you to ask yourself when you go to the Web to search for a recipe. Brys and a longtime friend Chip Brantley are the creators of the Web site, Cookthink. As they explain, "We wanted to create […]
Kaylee Hartung Earlier this year CBS News began a new Web-only video feature called Washington Unplugged, a weekly, 15-minute program hosted by veteran newsman Bob Schieffer. More recently, they've added a new segment called "Unplugged Under 40," which is hosted by Washington and Lee alumna Kaylee Hartung of the Class of 2007. Kaylee is Schieffer's […]
Modern Patrons: Donations of Twentieth Century Art to the University Collection opens on Sept. 1 in Staniar Gallery in Wilson Hall on the campus of Washington and Lee University. Curated by W&L Art History Professor Pamela H. Simpson, the exhibition focuses on significant donors by examining the nature of their collections, their connection to Washington and Lee and the historical context of their gifts.
When Hannah Kate Mitchell, a senior business administration major at Washington and Lee, returns to Lexington and is asked what she did during her summer vacation, she can simply point people to one of the more popular videos on YouTube in the past month. Hannah Kate spent the summer in Boulder, Colo., as a full-time […]
Unity Dow, the first woman appointed as Justice in the High Court of Botswana, will deliver a public lecture at Washington and Lee School of Law on Thursday, Aug. 27.
Jane Ellen Reid has contracted with Washington and Lee University to provide services as the first university ombuds. She offers a neutral, independent, informal and confidential way for all employees of W&L to address work-related or other campus concerns.
When third year students return to Washington and Lee Law School this week, they will be met with a brand new curriculum, one unlike any other in the country.
The paperback version of Washington and Lee Professor of Romance Languages Domnica Radulescu's acclaimed debut novel, Train to Trieste, is out this month and features praise from Bernhard Schlink, author of the international best-selling novel The Reader. Schlink, who spoke on the Washington and Lee campus last year, said this about Domnica's novel: "A coming […]
Washington and Lee University English professor Lesley Wheeler's new book of poetry, Heathen, is the culmination of 10 years of poetry writing.
Washington and Lee alumnus Alex Jones of the Class of 1968 is a newspaperman at heart — a fourth-generation newspaperman, in fact, from Tennessee. In his new book, Losing the News, Alex explores what is at stake if we lose the fact-based reporting that was once the standard for the news business. On Tuesday, Alex […]
When Vanity Fair published its 2009 International Best-Dressed List this month, Washington and Lee folks might have expected that at least one prominent University alumnus might be among those chosen for their stylish couture. But they might not have guessed which alumnus that might be. In fact, it's not the man in the white suit. […]
With the return of students to its campus imminent, Washington and Lee University is launching an information campaign to alert the community to the threat of the novel H1N1 influenza, commonly known as swine flu.
James E. Moliterno, the Vincent Bradford Professor of Law at Washington and Lee School of Law, travels the globe helping foreign legal systems develop ethics codes and training programs that guide lawyers, judges and law students through the conundrums they face in their professional careers.
A new Web site for Washington and Lee's 23 varsity athletics teams has been unveiled at generalssports.com. According to Brian Laubscher, W&L's sports information director, the site will have several new features, integration of video. There will also be enhanced photography and scoreboards, a new blog and newsletter. An archives of W&L athletics will continue […]
In This Issue: A Lucky Man: John Warner '49, By Andy Thompson '00
A blog post on a site called College Explorations that is written by an independent counselor, Nancy Griesemer, is bound to interest Washington and Lee graduates (and current and future students, too). As Nancy explains in the blog, she toured W&L recently and heard the tour guide refer to the University's swimming requirement. The guide […]
We know that as people age their responses and decision-making processes slow down. What we don't know exactly is why this happens. Wythe Whiting, associate professor of psychology at Washington and Lee University, hypothesizes this may be due to a breakdown of the brain's neural circuitry, resulting in what he calls "neural noise."
No Loneliness, the first book of poetry by Washington and Lee alumnus Temple Cone of the Class of 1995, has just been published by FutureCycle Press, which awarded Temple its first annual FutureCycle Poetry Book Prize. Although this is his first book of poetry, Temple is the author of five chapbooks of poetry and has […]
About five days after Mark Zavatsky graduated from Washington and Lee in 1987, he started teaching summer school back at his secondary school alma mater, the Linsly School in Wheeling, W.Va. He's still there, teaching math but also coaching the golf team. As a feature article in the Wheeling Intelligencer and News-Register noted this week, […]
Readers of the Miami Herald's business section have probably gotten accustomed to seeing Joel Poelhuis's by-line this summer. Joel, who is from Evansville, Ind., starts his senior year as a journalism major at W&L this fall. At the Herald since June, he has written about everything from the "Cash-for-Clunkers" program to a Miami hot dog […]
What may prove to be a new species of salamander is being investigated in the George Washington National Forest by a Washington and Lee University professor and his students.
Are you on Twitter? Two Washington and Lee alumni are currently Tweeting from their respective news desks in Atlanta, and their Tweets are both worth following. Tricia Coughlin Escobedo of the Class of 1995 is a news writer at CNN where she writes mostly about international news. (You can also sample her non-Tweet writing by […]
When you think about research into global economics, the cost of lipstick and toilet paper is hardly the first thing that comes to mind. But that is precisely what Katie Boiles and Ian Sturdy, both economics majors and R. E. Lee Research Scholars at Washington and Lee University, have been researching this summer. Along with light bulbs, bottles of wine and toasters, they are looking at the prices of nearly 200 products around the world.
Robert J. Grey Jr., a 1976 graduate of W&L's School of Law and a current member of the Board of Trustees, has been nominated by President Barack Obama to the board of the Legal Services Corporation. Announcement of the nomination was made on Thursday in a news release from the White House. Robert, who is […]
Tyler Suiters, a member of Washington and Lee's Class of 1991, has a blog called "Energy on Capitol Hill" where he posts items dealing with his work as a reporter and anchor for Clean Skies News, which covers events and trends at the intersection of energy and the environment. Tyler's work can be seen both […]
Within the blink of an eye, or so it seemed, the view up West Washington Street was altered dramatically on Tuesday when Howard House came tumbling down. As preparation work ramped up for the construction of W&L's new Hillel House on the site, the old white house that had been home to numerous and varied […]
Robert McAhren, professor of history emeritus at Washington and Lee University, died Tuesday at Stonewall Jackson Hospital. He was 73.
The Honorable Pamela J. White, a 1977 graduate of the Washington and Lee School of Law and a former trustee of the University, has been appointed by Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine to the board of her other alma mater, Mary Washington University. White graduated from Mary Washington in 1974. She served on W&L's board from […]
What are the lessons that Abraham Lincoln might be able to teach us today? That is the question that a prestigious series of speakers from around the nation will consider at a conference, Lincoln for the Ages: Lessons for the 21st Century, which will be held at Washington and Lee University on Sept. 25-26 as part of the bicentennial celebration of Lincoln’s birth.
When a Washington Post reporter was beginning to research a story on what it's like to drive Interstate 81 on a regular basis, he called Washington and Lee's public affairs office to see if he could locate some folks who could relate tales of traffic and tailgating trucks. He was put in touch with both […]
Shepherd Alliance interns discussed their experiences during their summer internships as part of the Shepherd Poverty Program when they returned to Lexington for a conference in August.
At 5-feet-0 and 107 pounds, Melina Bell looks more like, say, a college philosophy professor than a champion bodybuilder. As it happens, she's both. And to prove it, Bell just won a major bodybuilding title to go along with the several scholarly papers she has written on the philosophy of women's bodybuilding.
Spending your summer gathering data on how the U.S. government has funded social programs to combat poverty over the past 50 years would hardly seem to qualify as a day at the beach. But Washington and Lee University senior Caroline Head, an economics major with a minor in poverty studies, has discovered that such data mining is not as dull as it might seem, especially when you consider the stories that are behind the data.
Family Adventure Program brings Washington and Lee alumni back to the campus with their children or grandchildren for a weekend of exploring science.
For Washington and Lee junior Marshall Olszewski, the first time was more than a charm. In his first competition in Lei Tai, full-contact Kung Fu fighting, at an international Kung Fu tournament last weekend in Hunt Valley, Md., Marshall won his division at 153 pounds and earned a spot on the United States team that […]
Tim Gavrich is a junior English major at Washington and Lee and a member of the Generals golf team. And he's parlaying those two interests — English and golf — into an interesting Internet gig as a local "examiner" in Hartford, Conn., for the Web site called Examiner.com, which is a "content aggregator" based in […]
Caesar Andrews, one of the Detroit Free Press staff that won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, is the newest Reynolds Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communications.
Mackenzie Brown graduated from Washington and Lee in June with a major in environmental studies and a minor in poverty studies. She headed back to her home town of Kingwood, W.Va., but only for a couple of months while she prepared for her big adventure — a year running an after school program at St. […]
Skip Epperson, a member of Washington and Lee's Class of 1983, has gone a long way since his days of building sets at the old Troubadour Theatre. Currently chair of the theatre arts program at California's Cabrillo College, Skip is also the set designer for Cabrillo Stage, a professional summer stock musical theatre company in […]
Anne Spencer Olivo, a member of Washington and Lee's Class of 1997, met her husband, Juan Carlos, in Peru in 2003. Together, they began volunteering with various Peruvian organizations — an orphanage, a women's homeless shelter, a hospital. Eventually they would move from Peru to the States, working at Bard College at Simon's Rock, where […]
Remember John Snedden? He's the Class of 1981 premed major turned barbecue chef extraordinaire that we blogged about in December. In honor of mid-summer and the weekend, we couldn't help but bring John back for an encore. And that's because the latest feature stories about him and his Washington, D.C. , restaurant Rockland's Barbecue and […]
As colleges and universities prepare to open the year with continuing warnings about the H1N1 virus, or swine flu, this promises to be a challenging year for student health centers. But Dr. Jane Horton, director of student health and counseling at Washington and Lee University, says that the keys for students to stay healthy are not really different despite the swine flu's presence.
Stepping on a nest of yellow jackets is just part of Meredith Townsend's experience during her summer research project at Washington and Lee University.
Rebecca Benefiel Rebecca Benefiel, an assistant professor of classics at Washington and Lee, was cited in a USA Today article last week that focused on research being undertaken to show what daily life was like in the ancient city of Pompeii. Rebecca's work is unusual enough that it obviously caught the eye of the USA […]
When Darrold A. Cannan Jr. died Sunday, Washington and Lee lost a loyal alumnus and Texas broadcasting lost a pioneer. Cannan went directly from his graduation at W&L in 1953 into broadcasting, joining his father at KDFX-TV in Wichita Falls, Texas. That station had gone on the air only months earlier. As the obituary in […]
Aaron Baker of Charlottesville, Va., has been named recipient of the 2009 Shenandoah/Glasgow Prize for Emerging Writers, awarded annually by Shenandoah and Washington and Lee University, for his book Mission Work from Houghton Mifflin (2008).
