In the news

The move by print media to Web formats in Detroit

Channel 20 reporter Dave Leval reported on the move by print media to predominantly Web formats in Detroit. Ben Burns, Wayne state University journalism professor, commented during an interview about the changes that are necessary in classroom instruction. He noted that students must focus on multiple tasks such as video, audio and print when researching and writing their stories. Video of Burns' feature writing class was included as well as an interview with a WSU student.
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Michigan Tops $1.3 billion In NSF Grants Since 2000

Hilary Ratner, vice president for research, is quoted in an article about National Science Foundation grants. Researchers in Michigan brought more than $1.3 billion in NSF grants to the state between 2000 and 2008. The vast majority of the grants, an average of $147.5 million per year, were generated by Michigan's University Research Corridor institutions, including Wayne State. Ratner mentions that the university looks to NSF for support in many critical research areas.
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Documentary about Detroit focuses on roots

Wayne State University\'s Detroit Orientation Institute plans to premiere a 30-minute documentary, "Regional Roots: The Birth and Evolution of Detroit and its People" May 21 at Compuware Corp. headquarters in Detroit. The film\'s trailer is available online at www.doi.blip.tv/#1854882. The film includes interviews with community leaders and scholars and concludes with segments on the need for the area to act regionally in the future, said Ann Cuddohy Slawnik, DOI director. "So goes Detroit, so goes the region," she said. "We\'re all Detroiters and all part of the region."
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Alliances between universities, community colleges ease student troubles

Wayne State University plans to open a new facility at Macomb Community College\'s Warren campus to serve as the home to WSU\'s advanced technology and business programs at Macomb. Students there can obtain a 4-year degree or master\'s degree in those programs without ever stepping foot on the main WSU campus, said Lois Valente, marketing coordinator for educational outreach. \"It\'s a big change in the educational paradigm,\" she said.

Even the super rich prone to suicide

Steven Stack, Wayne State University criminal justice professor, researches and writes about the link between various occupations and their vulnerability to suicide. \"Generally speaking, suicide risk tends to be higher among the low-status occupations such as laborers, truck drivers and carpenters,\" he says. \"Persons in higher status occupations, in terms of the broad occupational categories that we have actual data on, have lower suicide rates. The main exceptions are dentists and physicians.\"

A new ranking of law schools' effects on other law schools

Columnist Robert Morse comments on a new law school ranking published recently as part of an article that studied the social structure of the "legal academic community." The university of Michigan researchers who developed the rankings based them on placement, or connections, of each law school's graduates as legal academics at 184 law schools surveyed. Morse says it is "noteworthy that there is a very strong relationship between the new \"outdegree\" law school rankings and the current U.S News law school rankings. But he notes there are some notable exceptions, such as Wayne State, Howard and Syracuse, which all have far higher "outdegree" rankings than in the U.S. News rankings.