The hot housing market in Midtown is squeezing out Wayne State University students who want to live near campus. Officials at WSU say an increasing number of students want housing in the area but are finding it difficult to afford rents targeted to working professionals. “A lot of the apartments, particularly to the south of us and east of us, serve primarily students, and their rents are going up so high because of the desirability of living in Midtown,” WSU President M. Roy Wilson told The Detroit News.

At Wayne State University, Professor Amar Basu is creating a heart rate monitor in the form of an earring, scheduled for release in 2019. “There are certain types of diagnostics, like heart rate monitoring, that are appropriate to do continuously,” he says, “and the advantage of wearable sensors is that they allow you to do that.”

A recent analysis by two Wayne State University professors found that roughly one in three elementary school students changes schools every year — often in the middle of the school year. When the Wayne State professors, Sarah Winchell Lenhoff and Ben Pogodzinski, analyzed data from Detroit district and charter schools in the 2015-16 school year, they found that nearly 60 percent of students who live in Detroit — almost 50,000 children — were enrolled in two or more Detroit schools that year. Many had apparently boomeranged, returning eventually to the school where they started.

Gerrymandering is the political art of "stacking" one party's voters into as few districts as possible, and "cracking" another party's voters across as many districts as possible. Keeping all of one party's voters in few districts is a great way to ensure they don't win many districts, and, therefore, don't get to write the laws. That's "weaponizing" redistricting, says Wayne State University associate political science professor Kevin Deegan-Krause. He travels the state giving presentations on how gerrymandering works, and uses Lego blocks to provide a very useful visual aid.

Sarna Sutradhar, a 15-year-old Cass Technical High School student, has a dream to practice medicine some day. But seeing the long road from high school sophomore to doctor is not easy. Fortunately, a program she participated in last summer, the Community Health Career Pipeline (CHP), supported her goal to become a doctor by exposing her to the Detroit food system and the steps she needs to take to prepare for college. Through CHP, she participated in learning workshops and a work-study apprenticeship at the Wayne State University Farmers' Market, which provided her the opportunity to practice nutrition education, public speaking, and promotions. "Our goal is to provide a five-pillar streamlined and connected career development and community health program to support Detroit high school youth to enter college, obtain well-paying jobs, and change the health, economic, and social trajectories of their communities," says Noel Kulik, project director of CHP, a research fellow in the Center for Health and Community Impact, and faculty in the Division of Kinesiology, Health and Sport Studies Division within the Wayne State University College of Education.  

A new internship partnership is currently underway with MBA students from the Sport and Entertainment Management program at the Mike Ilitch School of Business. Students are participating in and learning from a wide range of real-world experiences with the Tigers and Red Wings. "This rare opportunity gives Wayne State students unmatched access to one of the densest sports and entertainment districts in the U.S., along with professionals at world-class companies," said Scott Tainsky, associate professor of management and director of sport and entertainment management. "By the end of the program, students would have worked on high-profile projects and gained competitive experience in their chosen field. We are excited about bringing on even more students in Fall 2019."

A research team at Wayne State University recently received a four-year, $1.57 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for its project, “Water and Health Infrastructure Resilience and Learning.” The award is part of a multi-institutional $2 million collaborative project funded under NSF’s Critical Resilient Interdependent Infrastructure Systems and Processes program.

Wayne State University’s Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) is offering a new service to Muslim women on college campuses. The new group, which will meet weekly, aims to provide a place for women to identify and discuss the issues and struggles of being a Muslim woman on a college campus. Kaifa Alsoofy, a university counselor at Wayne State who came up with the idea for the group, said in her work as a counselor, she’s seen Muslim women face issues like identity struggles and family, cultural or religious expectations.

A research team led by Arun Iyer, Ph.D., assistant professor of pharmaceutical sciences in the Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences at Wayne State University, has developed a nanoplatform technology that works in combination with existing chemotherapeutic drugs that may reverse drug-resistance in renal cell carcinoma.

Wayne State University is breaking ground on a major project for theater, music and dance. Campus officials and others will gather Thursday night to mark construction of the $65 million Gateway Performance Complex and the future home of the Gretchen Valade Jazz Center. The Performance Complex will have three theaters, production space for students and a cafe for guests who attend performances. Wayne State's Hilberry Theatre will be renovated to become a 200-seat jazz center named for Valade, a Detroit-area philanthropist and granddaughter of the founder of Carhartt Clothing. Valade has committed more than $9 million to Wayne State's jazz program. She founded Mack Avenue Records and owns the Dirty Dog Jazz Cafe in Grosse Pointe Farms.

Jennifer Bonnett, a technology entrepreneur turned startup community builder from Savannah, Georgia, penned a first-person account of being in Detroit this week for the International Business Incubator Association’s e.Builders Forum. During her time in Detroit, they are “meeting at TechTown Detroit which was founded in 2000 by Wayne State University, Henry Ford Health Systems and General Motors. TechTown was originally founded to support tech-based spinoffs from Wayne State University but they realized their services could help strengthen neighborhood small businesses and larger commercial entities. TechTown Detroit is housed in a five-story historic building, nearly 500,000 square feet, which used to be a parking deck. Yup, a parking deck.,” Bonnett writes.

Mildred Gaddis sits down with Darrell Dawsey, Director of Community Communications for Wayne State University, Kenya Swanson, Coordinator of the Warrior Vision & Impact Program and Michelle Hunt Bruner, Director of the Academic Success Center at Wayne State. The four discuss the Warrior Vision & Impact Program, which is designed to help first-year students through a series of early support workshops that address some of the typical challenges students face during their transition to college.

If Andy Appleby shared one tip with aspiring entrepreneurs this would be it said the CEO and commissioner of the United Shore Professional Baseball League, who was recently named this year's winner of the Wayne State University Mike Ilitch School of Business Michigan Executive of the Year Award. "Be willing to take a risk and be willing to support that risk with unending work ethics," added Appleby, who will be honored at the school's 38th Annual Recognition and Awards Program at the Detroit Athletic Club, Oct. 15. "It's a nice award to win. It is even more special given the enormous impact Mr. Ilitch had in our sports and entertainment profession over the years," Appleby said, during an interview at General Sports and Entertainment, taking place almost 20 years, to the day Appleby took one of the biggest risks of his life.

Training future leaders is at the heart of Wayne State’s REBUILD Detroit program, which works to set students from diverse backgrounds on doctoral tracks, said Wilson. He agreed with Bacow that ensuring that talented high schoolers are aware of financial aid and are encouraged to apply to college is crucial. “The audacity that I had to apply to Yale early and apply to Harvard is because one of my teachers mentored me and explained to me that I could do anything I wanted to do,” said Wilson, a glaucoma expert who graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1980. “We’ve got to do that with the kids. It’s all about expectations — setting high expectations and letting them know what’s available out there and having them make that leap so they do apply to the Harvards and the Michigans and the Ivies. Too many kids just don’t even make that attempt, so it’s upon all of us to really help them."

In August, Wayne State University held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new Mike Ilitch School of Business, a $40 million, state-of-the-art facility in Detroit’s Midtown neighborhood. The business school announced another piece of good news this summer when alumnus Russ Belinsky donated $500,000 to establish the Belinsky Entrepreneurial Learning Library, which aims to kick-start student and faculty entrepreneurship. Belinsky’s funding is meant to provide resources, training, and mentorship to students and faculty in order to help them launch investment-ready startups or startups based on the university’s intellectual property.

September 17 is also known as Citizenship Day and Constitution Day. And on the campus of Wayne State University as part of their Civic Festival, there was a swearing in ceremony Monday for new U.S. citizens. "This is the first time we're doing a naturalization ceremony. It has been part of a dream to host a naturalization ceremony at the festival," said Marc Kruman, director of the Center for the Study of Citizenship. Twenty-six people were sworn in during the emotional ceremony. "It is amazingly cool and it is an extraordinary emotional moment not just for the new citizens, their families and friends, but for anyone looking on," Kruman said. Professor Kruman said he hopes this becomes an annual event at the festival, and that it captures exactly what they hope to accomplish at the Center for the Study of Citizenship.  

A dream came true Monday for 25 people who were sworn in as U.S. citizens during a naturalization ceremony at Wayne State University to mark Constitution Day. U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith was the keynote speaker at the event and administered the Oath of Allegiance to the new citizens.

The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) and Coalition of Urban Serving Universities (USU) recently announced grants to eight public universities that are forging community partnerships to improve students' access to and overall success in college. Supported by funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Collaborative Opportunity Grants provide each institution with $50,000 to "collaborate, accelerate and improve implementation efforts," as well as additional support and resources from APLU and USU. Four of the grantees, including Wayne State University, are receiving funding for the first, time. 

If you have trouble falling asleep at night, you may be one of the 30 percent of adults who suffers from insomnia. According to James A. Rowley, a professor of internal medicine at Wayne State University, causes include stress at home and/or work, or a stressful life event such as the death of a loved one, an upcoming exam, or a big move. Other common reasons include an irregular sleep/wake pattern, excessive alcohol use, and drinking caffeinated beverages or smoking before bed.

A Chesterfield Township senior living community is welcoming medical students from Wayne State University as part of a pilot program aimed at offering educational opportunities for both residents and physicians in training. The Village of East Harbor is one of four Presbyterian Villages of Michigan sites selected to take part in the program. Physicians in training from the Wayne State University School of Medicine are invited to the facilities for an overnight stay to learn about the challenges of aging and experience the qualities exhibited by elderly patients. Students provide educational opportunities on fall prevention, strength and balance exercises, properly managing medications, regular vision checks and how to make their living environments safer.