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Students pull out all stops to make ‘The Stakes’

Students pull out all stops to make ‘The Stakes’

Joshua McNew thought he’d scouted out the perfect location to shoot the gritty student-driven drama “The Stakes.” In January, cast and crew set up shop at the Ford Asphalt Company building in Bridgeton, Mo., for a two-day, 24-hour marathon shoot. One problem, the site is right next to Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.

Optometrist talks importance of treating kids

Optometrist talks importance of treating kids

Treating children isn’t always easy for optometrists. One of the most difficult aspects of the job is getting children to the office for a visit, according to the June issue of EyeCare Professional Magazine. Dr. Aaron Franzel, chief of binocular vision and pediatric services at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, told the magazine that parents tend to delay their child’s first eye exam due to confusion or misconceptions on how old the child should be.

Eye on UMSL: Computer part art

Eye on UMSL: Computer part art

Xtreme IT! participants (from left) Cameron Caves, Manyongbe Kamara, Thinh Nguyen and Amani Coleman dig through boxes of old computer parts while looking for pieces to be used in an art project. Vicki Sauter, professor of information systems at UMSL and co-founder of Xtreme IT!, said the goal of the art project was to show the reusability of the computer and its parts

Greek dig makes pages of Archaeology magazine

Greek dig makes pages of Archaeology magazine

Each summer for more than a decade, University of Missouri–St. Louis archaeologist Michael Cosmopoulos has led an expedition of students and volunteers to an area in the middle of an olive grove in southwest Greece for hands-on experience they’re likely to never forget.

Professors talk Olympic Games in recent podcast

Professors talk Olympic Games in recent podcast

As the world gears up for the 2012 Summer Olympics next month in London, reflection on the last summer games continues. University of Missouri–St. Louis scholars Susan Brownell and Richard Wright recently sat down to film a video podcast about the Olympics for the British Journal of Sociology in London.

Instructor shows off international instrument collection

Instructor shows off international instrument collection

Aurelia Hartenberger has been collecting musical instruments for nearly four decades. But, they’re not your average run-of-the-mill ones. They come from all over the world. Her collection features African drums, bells and rattles, plus historical Civil War instruments and one-of-a-kind custom-made modern jazz pieces, including some played by jazz greats Artie Shaw and Clark Terry.

Women are crucial to future of IT in US

Women are crucial to future of IT in US

Information technology is pervasive in our lives. Whether using an app on a smart phone or a program for work, we are increasingly using computers more. In addition to business applications, there are applications for helping us meet people, run our home and plan our finances and even our vacations.

Novelist’s book makes ‘great summer reading’ list

Novelist’s book makes ‘great summer reading’ list

To paraphrase KMOX (1120), you don’t have to travel far from the University of Missouri–St. Louis campus to find great summer reading. “The Inverted Forest” by John Dalton, director of the MFA in Creative Writing program at UMSL, made the radio station’s list of “Books by St. Louis authors to read this summer.”

Media Coverage: June 2012

Media Coverage: June 2012

The University of Missouri–St. Louis makes a significant impact on the St. Louis area. Stories about the university, its scholars and their expertise are often covered by local and national news media.

Xtreme IT! doubles in size thanks to gifts

Xtreme IT! doubles in size thanks to gifts

Next week more than 40 high school students will arrive on the campus of the University of Missouri–St. Louis ready to learn the ins and outs of information technology.

Scholar walks away winner at Madrid Film Festival

Scholar walks away winner at Madrid Film Festival

Niyi Coker’s film “Pennies for the Boatman” took center stage at the Madrid International Film Festival by beating out the competition and taking home the prize for best film script.

Marketing expert talks legacy of ‘Queen of Carpet’

Marketing expert talks legacy of ‘Queen of Carpet’

St. Louisans will no longer be able to get “Rich man’s carpet at a working man’s price,” as the self-proclaimed “Becky, Queen of Carpet” has landed, ending her more-than-30-year reign over the region’s flooring industry.

Celebrated choral groups to converge at Touhill

Celebrated choral groups to converge at Touhill

Many of the world’s best a cappella voices will fill the Anheuser-Busch Performance Hall during a pair of performance June 23 at the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center at the University of Missouri–St. Louis.

Media Coverage: June 2012

Media Coverage: May 2012

The University of Missouri–St. Louis makes a significant impact on the St. Louis area. Stories about the university, its scholars and their expertise are often covered by local and national news media.

Piano students to hold benefit concert

Piano students to hold benefit concert

A group of University of Missouri–St. Louis piano students will soon travel to Russia and to help defray the costs they are holding a special benefit concert June 15 at Christ Church Cathedral in St. Louis.

Women are crucial to future of IT in US

In defense of the F-word in K-16 education

Recently I received an email from a student unlike any message I have received in 40 years as a college professor. It is worth noting for what it says not so much about this student as about the culture we have now created within K-16 education in America. Commenting on the failing grade the student received in one of my courses, the individual wrote that s/he had “complied” with the paper and tests and that it was I, the instructor, who had failed insofar as I had not done what it took to enable a passing grade and had not given adequate warning of failure. The student concluded that “you should be embarrassed to give a student an F and demanded a refund of the money charged for the course.

Alumna earns Optometrist of Year honor

Alumna earns Optometrist of Year honor

Dr. Karen Aldridge recently earned the highest award an optometrist can receive from the Kansas Optometric Association. The University of Missouri–St. Louis alumna (OD 1992) was recognized as the 2012 Optometrist of the Year for personal sacrifices to advance the profession and the welfare of the public.

Media Coverage: June 2012

Media Coverage: April 2012

The University of Missouri–St. Louis makes a significant impact on the St. Louis area. Stories about the university, its scholars and their expertise are often covered by local and national news media.

Musicians learn from best at UMSL’s Jazz Camp

Musicians learn from best at UMSL’s Jazz Camp

Student and adult musicians interesting in studying with some of the finest and most talented jazz musicians in the county need look no farther than the University of Missouri–St. Louis. The Division of Continuing Education at UMSL will present the Jazz Combo/Improv Camp June 10-15. It includes musical instruction from beginner to advanced, jazz improvisation and combo playing, instrument master classes, ear training and daily concerts.

Film with UMSL ties scores coveted Cannes showing

Film with UMSL ties scores coveted Cannes showing

A movie with ties to the University of Missouri–St. Louis has scored a major coup. The thriller “Fatal Call,” was recently screened at the Marché du Film, a film market that is part of the Cannes Film Festival in France. Jack Snyder, a lecturer in media studies at UMSL wrote, produced, directed and edited the film. He also makes a cameo in it.

Marketing expert talks legacy of ‘Queen of Carpet’

Economist discusses local housing crash

The continuous decline of the housing market is spurring the increase of bargain prices for potential buyers and investors, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Media Coverage: June 2012

Media Coverage: March 2012

The University of Missouri–St. Louis makes a significant impact on the St. Louis area. Stories about the university, its scholars and their expertise are often covered by local and national news media.

Eye on UMSL: Habitat for Humanity

Eye on UMSL: Habitat for Humanity

Patricia Zahn, director of the Des Lee Collaborative Vision at UMSL, moves a ladder May 23 at a house construction site on Bates Street in south St. Louis. Through the university’s Employee Volunteer Program and the nonprofit organization Habitat for Humanity Saint Louis, Zahn and nine other volunteers from the university spent the day framing the upstairs walls and installing insulation on two houses.

Instructor sheds light on Pentecostalism, tongue-speaking

Instructor sheds light on Pentecostalism, tongue-speaking

While it might sound like gibberish to the untrained ear, there are actually two varieties of tongue-speaking among Pentecostals, according to Peter Marina, a visiting assistant professor of sociology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Women are crucial to future of IT in US

Crime mapping can lead to more effective law enforcement

The fragmentation of police services is a problem inherent in the organization of many communities across the county. St. Louis is no different, as there are a multitude of jurisdictions—many of which have their own police departments. This fragmentation has the potential to reduce the ability of law enforcement agencies to collectively combat crime and disorder and provide effective community services.

Accounting alumna wins 2011 Elijah Watt Sells Award

Accounting alumna wins 2011 Elijah Watt Sells Award

When Nguyen Ngo received word she was a recipient of the 2011 Elijah Watt Sells Award, the University of Missouri–St. Louis alumna was excited to share the news with the faculty who helped make the honor possible.

Student graduates with more than degree

Student graduates with more than degree

Travis Abbott graduated from the University of Missouri–St. Louis Saturday with more than just a degree; he also took with him the title of published author. Abbott, a double major in computer science and mathematics, has co-authored three papers along with Uday Chakraborty, professor of computer science at UMSL. The most recent paper was published in the prestigious journal Energy, an international, multi-disciplinary journal in energy engineering and research.

Partnership between UMSL and Missouri Institute of Mental Health is one to be ‘proud of’

Partnership between UMSL and Missouri Institute of Mental Health is one to be ‘proud of’

It’s 8:30 a.m. and Joseph Parks has already fielded four conference calls, all of them while driving into St. Louis from his home in Columbia, Mo. Parks is the director of the Missouri Institute of Mental Health at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. Once a week, he makes the trip to MIMH, which is housed on the grounds of the old St. Louis State Hospital.

Teacher of music teachers enters hall of fame

Teacher of music teachers enters hall of fame

Fred Willman, Curators’ Teaching Professor of Music and Education at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, has influenced music education and music educators for almost half a century. His contributions were recognized in January with his induction into the Missouri Music Educators Association Hall of Fame.

Women are crucial to future of IT in US

Character education: You got a case

I was recently asked how to convince people that character education actually works. The cynicism, skepticism, and conservatism out there often astound me. Amy Johnston, the award-winning principal of 2008 National School of Character Francis Howell Middle School in St. Charles, M0., expresses the same frustration.

Eye on UMSL: Hybrid teaching

Eye on UMSL: Hybrid teaching

Mimi Duncan, lecturer in information systems at UMSL, helps Lucas Matecki, a junior business major, on May 3 during Duncan’s course Computers and Information Systems 1800. The hybrid class combines online lessons and weekly in-person teaching at Express Scripts Hall. CIS 1800 is a pilot course funded by a grant from Next Generation Learning Challenges, a nonprofit initiative that’s working to improve college readiness and completion with technology.

Chancellor announces Monsanto gift, redesign of Natural Bridge

Chancellor announces Monsanto gift, redesign of Natural Bridge

With a $1 million gift to the University of Missouri–St. Louis, Chancellor Tom George announced the Monsanto Company will fund a community education center in the university’s new building in Grand Center. George also announced funding of the “transformative” redesign of a portion of Natural Bridge Road from Hanley to Lucas and Hunt roads that runs through the campus in North County.

Students Greece-bound for summer excavation project

Students Greece-bound for summer excavation project

A lack of experience turned out to be a boon for two University of Missouri–St. Louis anthropology students. Seniors Amanda Anderson and Timothy Meyer will take part in a Greek excavation project this summer courtesy of a grant from the National Science Foundation program called “Research Experience for Undergraduates.” The grant is specifically targeted at undergrads who’ve never done archaeological field work. They’ll head to Greece in mid-June, and be there for several weeks.

Arianna String Quartet mentors high school chamber groups

Arianna String Quartet mentors high school chamber groups

The Arianna String Quartet is taking a hands-on approach to fostering music education in the area. The Arianna, composed of four associate professors of music at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, is the university’s resident quartet.

Health care focus of outsourcing professionals meeting  at UMSL

Health care focus of outsourcing professionals meeting at UMSL

Health care is a growing global concern. Insurance costs, doctor bills and prescription fees continue to increase. The recent meeting of the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals’ Midwest Chapter meeting held at the University of Missouri–St. Louis focused on outsourcing of health care services.

UMSL’s first poet laureate: Jennifer Tappenden

UMSL’s first poet laureate: Jennifer Tappenden

Jennifer Tappenden works by day making small databases for researchers to track study data. By night, the 42-year-old New York native hones her poetry skills while in pursuit of her master’s of fine arts in creative writing at the University of Missouri–St. Louis. She’s scheduled to graduate in December, but before then she’s spending her final year at UMSL as the university’s first poet laureate.

Women are crucial to future of IT in US

The Challenge

“Educate and inform the whole mass of the people … They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.” “Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.” –Thomas Jefferson