Wayne State University Police Chief Anthony Holt was a guest on "American Black Journal" discussing the collaborative efforts of Wayne State's police department with Midtown partnerships. Holt is this year's top law enforcement honoree by Crime Stoppers of Michigan.

Nearly $300 million in aid for Detroit will be announced Friday as Obama administration officials visit the city to discuss what can be done to help eradicate blight, improve transportation, encourage new business and make residents safer. The funding will include $150 million in blight eradication and community redevelopment, including $65 million in Community Development Block Grant funding. An additional $25 million could help hire as many as 150 firefighters in the city. Some $24 million in federal resources that had been tied up will go to repairing buses and installing security cameras, part of an overall $140-million investment in transit systems. Gene Sperling, the head of President Barack Obama's National Economic Council, briefed reporters on some the plans Thursday evening, saying Friday's meeting at Wayne State University is "the first of many efforts that the administration will engage in with the city of Detroit."

Undocumented students will be eligible for in-state tuition at Wayne State University in January, providing they attended and graduated from a Michigan high school. The policy, approved by Wayne State's Board of Governors last week, changes rules regarding residency questions in terms of tuition. WSU joins the University of Michigan in making changes to grant undocumented students in-state tuition. "We are a university of access and opportunity," Wayne State Provost Margaret Winters told the Free Press in a telephone interview. "We think this is another piece of making sure that continues." The new rules set up a three-prong test for being eligible for in-state tuition. The student must be a Michigan resident, an active-duty military member or veteran, no matter where your residency is, and graduate from a Michigan high school after attending for three years, or get a Michigan GED. This eligibility extends for 28 months following graduation.

Wayne State University has received a $1.57 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to teach cancer doctors the latest techniques in radiation therapy. The program, which will combine biology and physics in radiation oncology training, will be first of its kind, said Monica Tracey, associate professor of instructional technology in Wayne State's College of Education. Tracey is co-leader of the project along with Michael Joiner, Ph.D., professor of radiation oncology in Wayne State's School of Medicine. "Since both biology and physics are involved in treating cancer, the integration of these subjects is critical," Tracey said. The physics approach will focus on the body's reaction to radiation treatments, for example. The grant is for five years with an option to renew, Tracey said.

The total number of women in CEO positions in Michigan has fallen by almost 4 percent in the past two years while the number of women in high ranking positions nationwide has remained stagnant among Fortune 500 companies. Margaret Williams, dean of Wayne State University's School of Business Administration, talked with Craig Fahle about the current trends with women in the executive work force.

Wayne State University President M. Roy Wilson vowed Wednesday that he will not ask students for another tuition increase like the 8.9 percent hike approved for this school year. "We cannot do this again," Wilson told The Detroit News editorial board. Speaking on a wide range of issues after his first two months as the university's new president, Wilson noted that the 8.9 percent tuition increase was recommended by his predecessor, Allan Gilmour, in June. The WSU Board of Governors approved the recommendation to address the steep decline in state aid over the years, and bring in extra revenue for research, student recruitment and retention. Wilson said WSU's tuition has been historically low in spite of it being a research institution, and it has been one of the state's public universities with the slowest increases. He stressed that WSU needs to maintain its urban mission. "Where it translates to is ... having a university that on the one hand is a research university strong in graduate sciences, strong in medicine and law," Wilson said, "but at the same time being a university that provides access to opportunity, access to excellence, a place where kids who might not have access to opportunities at some other universities get a chance. And that creates a bit of a challenge. Some people say you can't do both well. I tend to disagree. I think you can become a model for what higher education should be."

The number of patients receiving radiation therapy in the United States for cancer treatment is expected to increase by more than 20 percent over the next decade to almost 600,000 per year. But radiation research over the past decade has decreased substantially, making it more difficult to provide oncologists with the best training in the latest techniques, particularly the integration of medical physics, which is now a required aspect in the clinical practice of radiotherapy. With the help of a five-year, $1.57 million grant from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health, researchers at Wayne State University aim to develop an innovative and advanced education program integrating radiobiology with radiation physics for all oncologists. The project is led by Michael Joiner, professor of radiation oncology in Wayne State's School of Medicine, and Monica Tracey, associate professor of instructional technology in Wayne State's College of Education.

Margaret Winters has been appointed as provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Wayne State University. Winters had served in the position on an interim basis since April, and has agreed to serve as provost through July 2015. Winters previously served Wayne State as associate provost and associate vice president for academic personnel.

Bradford Frost, author of Reveal Your Detroit, was a guest on "The Nine" to discuss his book which will be featured during the Wayne State University Press Celebration of Books on Thursday, Sept. 26, at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Frost noted that he worked at the DIA as part of Wayne State University's Detroit Revitalization Fellows program. "That was a great opportunity to sort of blend the Revitalization Fellows efforts with the museum's community engagement work," he said.

The National Institutes of Health is making available approximately $3.7 million for awards to enhance training opportunities for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars to prepare them for careers in the biomedical research workforce that could take them outside of conventional academic research. Ambika Mathur, interim dean of the Graduate School at Wayne State University, is among the award recipients.

An article highlights a documentary film, Last Will and Embezzlement, which aims to raise awareness about financial exploitation of elderly people. One out of every 20 older adults in the U.S. will be a victim of financial exploitation, and the rates are rising, said Peter Lichtenberg, director of the Institute of Gerontology at Wayne State University. To help, he is developing an assessment to determine whether a senior citizen is at risk of being the victim of financial abuse. He said he hopes to be able to pilot the 61-question assessment by the end of the year.

A study from Inforum and from the Wayne State University School of Business found that it's still a man's world in the boardrooms and corner offices of Michigan's top public companies. The study analyzed the top 100 public companies with Michigan headquarters and found that of the 850 board seats, women hold just 98, and for women of color, the number is only 12.

West Bloomfield resident Shelly Jo Kraft, an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Sciences & Disorders at Wayne State University, recently traveled to Torino, Italy, to accept the prestigious Manuel Garcia Prize for her research. She received the 2013 award in recognition of the article "Genetic Bases of Stuttering: The State of the Art, 2011." The article, which gives a historical overview of research done on the genetics of stuttering, is recognized among the top contributions to the IALP's official journal Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica.

Former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer is using his leftover campaign contributions to pay back his community. Archer, who served as mayor of Detroit from 1994 to 2001, is donating $1 million in scholarship money to both of his alma maters. Recipients of the scholarship money will be minority students who are attending either Western Michigan University or Wayne State University. Archer's decision to fund the scholarships was influenced by his own experience of pursuing a higher education while holding down a job. Dr. M. Roy Wilson, newly elected president of Wayne State University, believes that students deserve all of the help that they can get. "I've begun to think that this is the most effective use of money that we can do," Wilson said. "In my six weeks here, I've really come to appreciate the difficulty that many students have, where just a few dollars makes a big, big difference. It can mean the difference of whether they stay in school, whether they don't stay in school, whether they can get books or not, or live in student housing."

Dr. Roberto Romero, physician and chief of the National Institutes of Health's Perinatology Research Branch at the Wayne State University School of Medicine, has been appointed editor in chief for Obstetrics of the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, a preeminent forum in the discipline, publisher Elsevier Health Sciences announced. Romero is one of the world's foremost authorities in the study of pregnancy and its complications.

Michigan's legal community gathered last night in Lansing to hand out major awards to attorneys and a retired judge. The banquet, part of the State Bar of Michigan's annual meeting, honored Detroit-area attorney Eugene Driker, who is getting a Champion of Justice Award, partly for his service to Wayne State University and Wayne State's law school.

A groundbreaking study in multiple sclerosis focusing on "remyelination in the brain" has been initiated by Omar Khan, M.D., professor and chair of neurology at the Wayne State University School of Medicine. "This is a novel approach in the treatment of multiple sclerosis, which is characterized by diffuse demyelination and axonal loss in the central nervous system," said Khan, who also serves as director of the Multiple Sclerosis Center and director of the Sastry Foundation Advanced Imaging Laboratory. "In this study, we are targeting remyelination in the central nervous system." Khan noted that there are 10 United States Food and Drug Administration-approved treatments for multiple sclerosis, none with any well-characterized reparative or remyelinating potential. Those treatments primarily focus on altering the behavior of the immune system and target inflammation.

One out of every 20 older adults in the U.S. will be a victim of financial exploitation this year, and the rates are rising. Prevention is the best defense against this exploding problem. But first we must pinpoint who is most at risk. Peter Lichtenberg, director of the Institute of Gerontology at Wayne State University, has created the Lichtenberg Financial Decision-Making Rating Scale to do just that. Initial studies confirm the scale as a reliable tool in determining older adults' vulnerability to fraud and ability to manage their money. "We aren't trying to usurp a person's independence," Lichtenberg said. "We want to balance autonomy with protection and determine how best to educate and support older adults most at risk of being exploited." Lichtenberg will discuss his findings as part of the "Safeguarding the Golden Generation" panel and movie preview Sept. 30, from 6:30-9:30 pm at the Berman Center for the Performing Arts, in West Bloomfield. The evening analyzes the multiple ways older adults are exploited and kicks off with the screening of a documentary titled "Last Will and Embezzlement." The film will also be shown on Sept. 25 at the Italian American Cultural Center in Clinton Township. Among the presenters are Jocelyn Benson, interim dean of Wayne State University's Law School.

Wayne State University's School of Business Administration and General Motors are bringing some of the leading business students from across the country to Detroit for an in-depth look at the supply chain systems that support the automotive industry and its high-tech vehicles. The third annual General Motors/Wayne State University Supply Chain Case Competition will bring 20 university groups to the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center from Sept. 19 - 22. The program will introduce students to the issues and challenges involved in producing leading technology vehicles through a case study. "This is an opportunity to showcase Southeast Michigan's automotive industry and supply chain management careers in this region, as well as an opportunity to provide students an outstanding real world educational experience," said John Taylor, associate professor and chair of the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management at Wayne State University's School of Business Administration. "Additionally, students will have time to actually interview with automotive companies and participate in several panel sessions on supply chain careers," said Taylor.

With help from National Science Foundation (NSF) funding, Wayne State University will join other universities across the country aiming to improve teaching methods in the STEM disciplines, ultimately supporting those students with an interest in STEM fields and improving their graduation rates. The project, "Evaluation of WSU's use of evidence-based methods in STEM instruction," will receive $250,000 from NSF over the next two years to study the current classroom practices associated with STEM courses in four disciplines: biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics. "The program will create faculty development workshops to facilitate the transition from lecture-based to evidence-based instructional methods, ultimately expanding the use of methods like peer-led team learning on campus," said Mathew Ouellett, associate provost and director of the Office for Teaching and Learning at Wayne State. "In addition, we will implement improved tracking of our students to understand where the problems in our curricula are that lead to attrition from STEM majors and poor graduation rates."