November: Briefly in the News
$2.4 million
A $2.4 million gift to the University of Missouri School of Medicine will be used to further cancer research at the MU School of Medicine and Ellis Fischel Cancer Center.
Scholarship gift
1954 William Woods University alumna Janice Gartshore has left a gift of $2.7 million to the university to be used as scholarship money for business, law and music students.
Record enrollment
MU welcomed its largest student body in history this fall. The university set all-time records for undergraduate enrollment, minority and international student enrollment and the highest-ability freshman class in the history of the university with an average ACT score of 25.9.
EveryEventGives
EveryEventGives is a local online ticketing startup that will pair with nonprofits and event planners to donate 50 cents of ticket fees to charity. The company, which recently completed its proof-of-concept phase, moved in to the seed-funding round, where it aims to raise $500,000.
No. 2
US News ranks William Woods University second in the United States for least amount of graduate debt.
Ice Bucket Challenge
Telephone and Internet service provider Socket made a donation totaling $600 to ALS research for its 25 employees who completed the Ice Bucket Challenge.
Library of Congress
Columbia-based American Blues Scene Magazine will be included in the Library of Congress.
Flag design
The city of Columbia is offering both amateurs and professionals the chance to become a part of city history. The Columbia flag design contest will accept proposals for a new city flag design, which will then be available for public vote, and the top three designs will be up for selection from City Council. Residents will be able to vote for the flag design for one month, starting Nov. 17, on the city website or in person at City Hall.
Capital campaign
Woodhaven publicly launched its $1.9 million “Building on Our Strengths” capital campaign, which aims to raise funds for two new buildings, a health services building and a training building.
244.55 meters
Candace Sall, associate curator for the MU Museum of Anthropology, set a new archery world record at the National Flight Archery Championships.
Flight archery measures the distance an arrow can fly as opposed to using targets. Sall shot her arrow 244.55 meters, crushing the previous world record of 207 meters.
International collaboration
MU, the government of the City of Rome, the Capitoline Museums of Rome and Enel Green Power North have partnered to bring historic Italian artifacts to MU for analysis.
The partnership, which Chancellor Loftin calls “international collaboration at the highest levels,” will transport some of the more than 100,000 artifacts at the Capitoline Museums in Rome to the university for analysis by the Archaeometry Laboratory at the MU Research Reactor as well as by Ph.D. and undergraduate students in collaboration with the MU Museum of Art and Archaeology.
The artifacts, most of which have remained untouched since being discovered during citywide excavation projects in the 1870s, date back as far as the fifth to first centuries B.C.
New design!
A new sandcastle-shaped MRI machine at MU Children’s Hospital aims to relieve some of the anxiety that comes with the procedure. The room’s design, complete with palm tree paintings, an ocean floor and beach chairs for parents, transforms the area into something much less intimidating.
“We have taken something that can be a daunting procedure for the kids, and it is now looked at as fun and exciting,” says Paula Rathz, a certified child life specialist at the hospital. Children are also given special video goggles and headphones to block out the noise and mask the frighteningly confined space of the MRI machine.