Last month, Detroit's emergency financial manager notified the DIA that its art is a municipal asset and might be sold to satisfy creditors. The art world is watching to see what happens next. "This is unprecedented," says Timothy Rub, president of the Association of Art Museum Directors and head of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. "I can't believe anyone is thinking about liquidating this public treasure." The AAMD has strict guidelines that prohibit museums from selling art except for the purpose of acquiring more art. Detroit's art museum is one of America's finest, praised for both particular works and encyclopedic range. "The museum has gone through a long period of struggle, but recently it's been doing everything right," says Jeffrey Abt, an art professor at Wayne State University who has written "A Museum on the Verge," a history of the DIA.

The Michigan Corporate Relations Network (MCRN) Friday announced eight Small Company Innovation Program (SCIP) grant awards that will enable research partnerships between small Michigan businesses and MCRN universities. SCIP provides one-to-one matching funds to support collaborative research projects between small and mid-sized Michigan-based companies and MCRN universities. By awarding matching funds, SCIP helps businesses stretch their budgets for critical, early-stage developments that will move them closer to commercialization. Through a competitive process, the following projects were selected for funding at Wayne State University as part of the latest round of SCIP grant awards: Climate Technologies Corp., NextCat and Stellar Fuels LLC. MCRN consists of Wayne State University, the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Michigan Technological University, University of Michigan-Dearborn, Western Michigan University, and the University Research Corridor.

The opportunity for law students to work and study abroad has never been better at Wayne State University Law School, where the Program for International Legal Studies continues to expand and thrive. Nine Wayne Law students will be traveling this summer to England, the Bahamas, the Netherlands, Mexico and three locations in India. They will advocate for human rights, intern at top international law firms, study with the world leading international law scholars and much more.

New businesses have been started by nearly 1 in 5 alumni of the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University - which is double the national average, according to a report to be unveiled today at the Mackinac Policy Conference. The entrepreneurial activity reached every state and more than 100 countries, with nearly half of the businesses launched in Michigan. U-M President Mary Sue Coleman, MSU President Lou Anna Simon and WSU Board of Governors Chairwoman Debbie Dingell will release the report this morning on the porch of Mackinac Island's Grand Hotel. The report is significant because there has been a lot of talk in Michigan, and across the country, about entrepreneurs and now there is data, said WSU President Allan Gilmour, who was reached by phone. "Every big business started as a small one," Gilmour said. "If we are going to renew ourselves and grow (in Michigan), we've got to be focused on entrepreneurs and put in place the mechanisms to get a small business launched." Notable entrepreneurs among the alumni include Paul Glantz, CEO of Emagine Entertainment Inc. and a Wayne State graduate.

Wayne State University's Forum on Contemporary Issues in Society (FOCIS) will hold two community discussions and workshops on June 6 and 13 at the International Institute of Metropolitan Detroit. The free events, titled "What would you do?," continue the successful FOCIS series, which is designed to educate high-performance (active and registered) voters about historical factors and events that contributed to Detroit's economic crisis. During this year's tabletop exercises, participants will act in the roles of mayor and city council as they deal with the presence of an emergency manager navigating the complex landscape facing city leaders and elected officials. Both scheduled events feature the same format and will run from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. "Detroit's elected leaders continue to face daunting challenges as they collaboratively work to revitalize the regional economy, provide badly needed resources to residents and build a sound foundation for the future of Detroit," said Irvin D. Reid, director of FOCIS and a principal organizer of CitizenDetroit. "Following the recent appointment of an emergency manager, Detroit's elected officials now must work within the new dynamics established under the laws and guidelines of the EM position. This is a considerable challenge, and one that must be met in order to achieve success. The role of Detroit's citizens in this process is critical as they become earnestly engaged in the political process and motivated to initiate constructive action. For this to occur, citizens must be educated about the social and political issues facing Detroit."

Wayne State University received notice of a $820,398 grant from the New Economy Initiative for Southeast Michigan (NEI) that will continue to support the Technology Commercialization Office's efforts to expand and improve the university's entrepreneurial culture and technology commercialization results. With this support from NEI, WSU will continue to expand the activities of its Technology Development Incubator to support the validation of early-stage technologies with significant commercial potential, increase licensing staff, and enhance marketing tools to create awareness of the availability of WSU intellectual property assets to industry and the venture capital community.

Michigan's three automakers and most of its supplier base survived the great shakeout of 2008-09, but that's no guarantee of a prosperous future. That was the clear message at the Mackinac Policy Conference Wednesday from three automotive executives, who said the industry faces a daunting challenge in making the industry attractive to investors and young talent in the future. Colleen Haley, executive vice president of Yazaki North America based in Canton, said the Japanese-owned supplier has forged strong relationships with five Michigan universities - University of Michigan, Michigan State, Wayne State, Lawrence Tech and University of Detroit Mercy - to recruit and mentor talent. Leuliette said the industry also needs to market the automobile as "the largest mobile device a consumer has" - a high-tech, cutting-edge product that offers the potential of careers full of innovation and potential growth.

New efforts are underway to combat what aging experts say has become one of the top threats facing elders: losing their savings to con artists and financial predators. Gerontologists at Wayne State University have created, for the first time, a potential victim profile that could alert professionals and families to which seniors are most psychologically vulnerable to fraud. And a bipartisan bill filed last week by U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch, a Democrat from Boca Raton, and two other representatives would create a federal advisory office dedicated to protecting elders from fraud and ensuring victims' complaints are handled efficiently and quickly. Deutch's bill mandates that the Federal Trade Commission, which would house the new office, "immediately" funnel elder fraud and exploitation reports to appropriate local law enforcement or regulatory agencies for investigation, something the FTC is not required to do now. The new office also would alert elders to new scams and educate them about investment fraud. Peter Lichtenberg, director of Wayne State University's Institute of Gerontology and the researcher behind the elder fraud victim profile, commented in the story.

In a story calling for nominations for the 2013 Shining Light Awards, sponsored by the Detroit Free Press and the Metropolitan Affairs Coalition, it is mentioned that Wayne State University President Allan Gilmour was last year's recipient of The Neal Shine Award. The honor was "for decades of community service and stepping into the breach when WSU was looking for new leadership."

Tucked inside an incubator lab, a startup company has developed technology aimed at helping researchers discover better treatments for cancer, and eventually offering patients a less-invasive alternative to a biopsy. The device, created by DeNovo Sciences Inc., uses blood drawn from a patient to identify rare blood cells with information about the cancer. The technology has since found its way into a clinical setting at Karmanos Cancer Institute. There, a Wayne State University researcher has started experiments using the device with blood from cancer patients to help DeNovo improve the product. The business-research collaboration was made possible through a grant awarded by Michigan Corporate Relations Network, an alliance of six of the state's 15 public universities. The network includes Wayne State University, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and Dearborn, Michigan State University, Western Michigan University and Michigan Technological University. Together, the six universities represent a wide geographic area and more than $1.8 billion in research expenditures, or about 98 percent of academic research in the state.

Wayne State University received notice of a $820,398 grant from the New Economy Initiative for Southeast Michigan (NEI) that will continue to support the Technology Commercialization Office's efforts to expand and improve the university's entrepreneurial culture and technology commercialization results. With this support from NEI, WSU will continue to expand the activities of its Technology Development Incubator to support the validation of early-stage technologies with significant commercial potential, increase licensing staff, and enhance marketing tools to create awareness of the availability of WSU intellectual property assets to industry and the venture capital community. "The grant from the NEI has allowed Wayne State to re-invent technology commercialization on our campus," said Hilary Ratner, vice president for research at WSU. "It will allow us to translate innovative early-stage technologies from academia to the marketplace that ultimately will benefit our local economy through workforce development and job creation, growth of entrepreneurial enterprises, and attracting federal and venture funding to the region." Joan Dunbar, associate vice president of technology commercialization at Wayne State said: "With the support of the NEI, we have been able to initiate new programs that are helping us grow our invention disclosures and facilitating a new pipeline of start-up company opportunities."

Celebrating a new partnership with the Michigan-based Meijer Foundation, which is committing $500,000 to sustain Wayne State University Press's Made in Michigan Writers Series, a group of Michigan-based authors took to the state's highways this past weekend. Wayne State University Press hosted four literary events in four cities across the southern and central parts of the state within a 24-hour period Friday and Saturday. The Michigan Writers Series Tour kicked off Friday evening with a "Books & Beer Backyard Bash" at Detroit's Old Miami Bar, where WSU authors Gloria Whelan (Living Together, March), Ron Riekki (The Way North, May), and Chris Dombrowski (Earth Again, Feb.) read from their new releases. On Saturday, 10 WSU Press authors participated in a "Mad Libs" poetry session at the Ann Arbor District Library, which was followed by a group appearance at Schuler's Books & Music in Okemos. The tour concluded with a reading at the Grand Rapids Public Museum.

Wayne State University received notice of a $820,398 grant from the New Economy Initiative for Southeast Michigan (NEI) that will continue to support the Technology Commercialization Office's efforts to expand and improve the university's entrepreneurial culture and technology commercialization results. With this support from NEI, WSU will continue to expand the activities of its Technology Development Incubator to support the validation of early-stage technologies with significant commercial potential, increase licensing staff, and enhance marketing tools to create awareness of the availability of WSU intellectual property assets to industry and the venture capital community. "A key focus for the New Economy Initiative is to increase tech transfer and commercialization throughout the region, and Wayne State is central to those efforts," said David O. Egner, executive director of the New Economy Initiative. "As a driver of innovation and new ideas - - from the Colleges of Engineering and Medicine to the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences - - Wayne State continues to produce intellectual property that ultimately leads to company and job creation. We're thrilled to support the university's efforts to increase commercial outputs and entrepreneurial activity as a whole, while helping build an innovation corridor right here in Detroit that benefits the entire region."

In an opinion piece, John Bare, vice president of the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation and executive-in-residence at Georgia Tech's Institute for Leadership and Entrepreneurship wrote: "When others dismissed Detroit as a falling knife unworthy of investment, David Egner saw something else. Egner imagined Detroit regenerating from within, with damaged civic tissue repairing itself to foster new life and commerce. As president of a foundation named for a patriarch who emigrated to Michigan 130 years ago and immediately launched a business, he was in a position to test his idea. The secret, Egner figured, is harnessing the collective power of what he calls "anchor institutions": in this case, Wayne State University, Henry Ford Health System and Detroit Medical Center. Through what emerged as the Midtown Project, Egner's Hudson-Webber Foundation, alongside other funders, is finding ways to hitch the fortunes of these institutions to the fortunes of the surrounding neighborhoods."

Wayne State University's EcoCAR 2 team was featured during a segment on Fox 2's morning news program. The WSU team is in the third year of a three year challenge to turn a Chevy Malibu into a more eco-friendly car by changing the engine and other key components. General Motors donated the car for this competition sponsored by GM and the Department of Energy. The 40 or so students and grad students involved are studying mechanical and electrical engineering.

Hilary Ratner, vice president for research at Wayne State University, announced the appointment of Joan C. Dunbar as associate vice president of technology commercialization in the Division of Research. Her appointment comes after a competitive national search in which she emerged as the transformational leader the university sought. In 2012, Dunbar joined WSU's Division of Research as interim associate vice president of technology commercialization. In just a year, Dunbar nearly doubled faculty invention disclosures, facilitated the pipeline of nine start-up opportunities with the anticipation of several companies launching in the near future, initiated a mentors-in-residence program, created an innovation fellows program, began the Technology Development Incubator, and strengthened partnerships with WSU's TechTown. These significant achievements were powered by grant funds, projected to be $2.5 million over a three-year period that Dunbar secured from the New Economy Initiative (NEI). "The grant from the NEI has allowed Wayne State to re-invent technology commercialization on our campus," said Ratner. "With the help of the NEI, Dr. Dunbar is re-energizing our faculty and students to translate their research in even more productive ways that benefit not only the university but the region, state and nation as well. Dr. Dunbar's deep knowledge and experience will serve Wayne State and our faculty well as we advance the mission of the Wayne State's Technology Commercialization Office."

Students ages 14 and up interested in possible careers working with electric vehicles can attend a four-day academy at Macomb Community College to be held June 24-27 at MCC's South Campus in Warren. The academy features an interactive workshop for those interested in cars and electronics and includes instruction in the principles of battery electric and other alternative-fuel vehicles. The CAAT is a collaboration between Macomb Community College and Wayne State University, designed to provide the spectrum of educational opportunities necessary to support and leverage the emerging alternative energy vehicles industry in southeast Michigan.

Bloomfield Hills mother Sabrina Shields would never have thought she would be graduating from college at the same time as her daughter, and one semester after her stepson, but the timing just worked out that way. Sabrina, 52, along with her daughter, Raycene Nevils, 26, graduated from Wayne State University with master's degrees in different subject areas. Nevils received her master of arts in language learning, with a certificate in peace and security, while Shield got her master of arts in teaching. Last December, Shields' stepson, Stephen Shields, 25, also graduated with a bachelor of science in electrical engineering from Tuskegee University in Alabama.

A feature story profiles Wayne State University baseball player Jeremy Carrell who just completed his freshman season starting 44 of 46 games with a .315 batting average, four doubles and 23 RBI's with a .470 on base percentage. The Warriors finished the season 32-18 before losing in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Conference Tournament semifinals to top seed Grand Valley State University. Carrell has decided to major in kinesiology and hopes to become an athletic trainer or physical therapist.

An interview with Wayne State University President Allan Gilmour was featured on the front page of the Michigan Chronicle. The story provided a list of several accomplishments during President Gilmour's tenure including the awarding of a 10-year, $166 million Perinatology Research Branch contract; new admissions guidelines; construction of the Multidisciplinary Biomedical Research Building; new AAUP Contract; several administrative improvements; and the McGregor Memorial Conference Center Reflecting Pool.