Higher Education

Mike Strausbaugh, a graduate student in classical guitar and music composition at MU, has won the Sinquefield Composition Prize for his guitar and cello duet, "Thermopylae."

A review committee found that the evening program no longer meets the need it was created for. The proposal suggests that MU in the Evening be absorbed into the traditional education structure of the university.

Members of the community met Thursday for the third and final Race and Civility discussion. Panelists talked about their personal experiences and ways to improve race relations.

Researches have been studying the treatment of prostate cancer with engineered radioactive gold nanoparticles. These nanoparticles have proven to be effective in reducing the size of prostate cancer tumors in mice.

The First Ladies Reading Program is bringing MU spouses into the the Robert G. Combs Language Preschool to read to 3- to 5-year-olds, most of whom have challenges with language.

Reacting to Gov. Jay Nixon's proposal to freeze tuition, UM System President Gary Forsee says the higher education business model is broken, and MU Chancellor Brady Deaton said a hiring freeze is likely to continue.

Gov. Jay Nixon was in Columbia on Wednesday morning to present his planned tuition freeze, announced Tuesday in St. Louis. UM System President Gary Forsee cautioned that public institutions across the country will continue to face economic challenges. "The higher education business model ... is broken," he said.

Gov. Nixon's proposal calls for a 5 percent decrease in total appropriations for the next fiscal year in exchange for flat tuition rates for in-state undergraduate students at Missouri's public colleges and universities.

Nixon's proposal calls for a 5.2 percent decrease in state appropriations compared to the current fiscal year.

Missouri’s four-year public colleges and universities may see a tuition freeze for the second year in a row.

MU's new Brain Imaging Center, which cost $3.8 million, recently held a dedication celebration, but researchers have already been conducting research there for more than a year. The center is home to the only magnetic resonance scanner in mid-Missouri solely for research purposes.

The Midwestern Higher Education Compact is researching a college-credit exchange program that would store the college credits earned by students from multiple instiutions in a central location. Colleges and universities then could give students the opportunity to enroll and complete their degrees.

Robert Stein announced earlier this year he plans to retire in 2010. His contemporaries have described him separately as "a consensus builder" and someone who "has a style that really builds trust." The search for a new commissioner is set to begin in December.

MU is one of several U.S. universities in talks with South Korea to offer degree programs as part of a new English-intensive university in South Korea.

MU senior Anthony Hernandez's original composition, "Two Roads Diverged," will be performed by the Columbia Civic Orchestra on Sunday at the Missouri Theatre Center for Arts. The piece was inspired by Robert Frost's poem, "The Road Not Taken."

The fall of the Berlin Wall was commemorated by activities at Westminster College on Monday night.

To MU lecturer Olaf Schmidt, who grew up in East Germany, the Berlin Wall seemed an impenetrable barrier. Schmidt said he never expected to hear from friends who had escaped from East Germany; they may as well have been dead.

Westminster College has made a lasting home for a sizable contiguous section of the Berlin Wall. The campus, which was the location of Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech in 1946, is commemorating the 20th anniversary of the wall's dismantling.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates asked military personnel and others to pause for a minute at 1:34 p.m., a day after an Army psychiatrist killed 12 soldiers and one civilian.