General Motors has notified professors at Wayne State's College of Engineering, asking if any Indian nationals earning a degree are interested in positions that the automaker is adding in India. The automaker has posted on its Web site want ads for several jobs at its recently-established research and development lab in Bangalore, India, including positions as research engineer and senior statisticians. However, in Michigan, GM is planning to cut its white-collar engineering staff for a second time this month as it continues to shift some work to emerging markets such as Brazil, where GM is hiring engineers to develop the next-generation small pickup. The job cuts, following last week\'s forced layoffs of hundreds of GM white-collar workers, will be the last round for the engineering department, and Michigan will continue to be the home of GM\'s largest engineering center, a top GM official said Wednesday.

Bernard Brock, professor emeritus of Communication at Wayne State University, will be remembered at a memorial service held by Wayne State on April 23 at St. Andrew's Hall, 431 E. Congress in Detroit. Mr. Brock, an expert in political rhetoric and communication and formerly co-director of WSU's Center for Art and Public Policy, died March 31 from complications of a heart valve infection. He was 77. \"In his field he was a national figure,\" said journalist Jack Lessenberry, a Wayne State University journalism lecturer and colleague of Mr. Brock. \"You didn\'t know that because he was very self-effacing and kind man.\" Memorials may be made to Wayne State University's Center for the Arts and Public Policy.

"StageTalk," a program sponsored by the YMCA of Metropolitan Detroit, brings high school students to live plays where they have opportunities to chat with casts and crews and dinnertime discussions of the productions with fellow StageTalk teens. Recently StageTalk participants attended "Before There was Broadway" at the Studio Theatre at Wayne State University. A photo is included showing StageTalk students visiting at the Studio Theatre.

Awards: Wayne State University Law School honored the following law school graduates at its Annual Treasure of Detroit Gala: Hon. Adam A. Shakoor , a retired 36th District Court Judge and founding partner of Adam Shakoor & Associates; David J. Galbenski , president and CEO of Lumen Legal (formerly Contract Counsel), Royal Oak; Eric Ersher , managing partner of Zoup! Fresh Soup Co., Southfield; Stephanie K. Hoos , a bankruptcy attorney with Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popep PC in New York; and LaRissa D. Hollingsworth , an attorney with Rhoades McKee in Grand Rapids.

\"The Mikado\": Wayne State University Opera Workshop will perform Gilbert and Sullivan\'s comic operetta, 7 p.m. April 6, 7, 20 and 21, at the Schaver Music Recital Hall. \"The Reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act\": Wayne State University Law School symposium, noon April 12, at the Spencer M. Partrich auditorium, with former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer delivering the keynote address. Terry Ao of the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium, Esmeralda Simmons of the Center for Law and Social Justice, Reginald Turner of the National Bar Association and Melvin Butch Hollowell of Allen Brothers law firm will also speak. The discussion will be moderated by WSU Law Professor Jocelyn Benson, an expert on civil rights. \"Stuck in Neutral\" & \"Cruise Control\": Wayne State University\'s Developmental Disabilities Institute will host Printz Honor recipient Terry Trueman, 6 p.m. April 6, at the Spencer M. Partrich Auditorium. Trueman will speak about his young adult novels as well as his own experiences as the father of a child with cerebral palsy.

Softball: Becky Quinn was 2-for-3 with a solo home run and Laura Guzman doubled in two runs as host Wayne State (13-15) edged Ferris State, 5-4.

The eighth annual Let's Play Ball Registration Fair will be held on Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at Wayne State's Matthaei Athletic Complex. The event is open to parents and children ages 6-18 to register for spring and summer sports and recreational activities.

Almost 95 percent of college counseling centers report an increase in the past few years in the number of students who have taken psychiatric medication when they arrive at college. And experts say the college years, ages 18-22, are a common time for those with a mental illness to experience their first bout with depression or first schizophrenic break. Colleges across the country also are reporting an increase in the intensity of mental problems, including depression, stress and self-injury. Experts say reasons for the increased severity of mental illness are mounting academic and parental pressure and the rising financial burden of attending college. Antidepressants are the most commonly prescribed medications on college campuses, and suicide is the second-leading cause of death for college students, following accidents.

The Wayne State University Law School Free Legal Aid Clinic (FLAC) Spring Reception and Fundraising event will be hosted Saturday, April 22. The annual spring event is both an opportunity to raise funds for FLAC and a chance for current and past FLAC students and supporters to meet. Contact information is provided.

Donna Remer, editor of the Voice Newspaper Group in New Baltimore, and former Macomb Daily editorial page editor Mitch Kehetian will be honored Thursday when Wayne State University's journalism program hosts Journalism Day 2006. Featured speakers for the event will be M.L. Elrick, an investigative reporter for WDIV TV-4, and Tim Kiska, a producer at WWJ AM 950. Both will be honored as Wayne State's Journalists of the year. Ticket and contact information is provided.

In a front-page story, Alan Reinstein, professor of accounting at Wayne State, questioned General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Rick Wagoner's explanation for the automaker's accounting mistakes that has placed GM under federal scrutiny. Wagoner said the accounting errors occurred because \"by and large, people were doing what they thought was right but either didn\'t refer to the specific accounting rules or thought they knew the rules and didn\'t know them.\" Reinstein said, \"It\'s difficult for me to believe that a company with GM\'s experience and reputation would have so many people who allegedly do not fully grasp the accounting rules.\"

Chemists at the University of Notre Dame (ND) and Wayne State University have revealed the complete structure of the molecule that makes up the bacterial cell wall and protects it like a fortress. It\'s been known for a half-century that the molecule, called peptidoglycan, serves as the basic building block for bacterial walls. A new paper by the researchers, published last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reveals its three-dimensional structure for the first time. Ultimately, it is hoped that researchers will be able to exploit the discovery to invent new kinds of antibiotics.

Highlighting the case of an African-American couple from Michigan, a civil rights group is expected to release a national report today that says real estate agents in metro Detroit and across the country often steer home buyers toward neighborhoods based on their race. The report by the National Fair Housing Alliance reveals that three out of four testers in metro Detroit were pushed toward certain communities because of their skin color. George Galster, professor of urban affairs at Wayne State who has studied racial steering for three decades, said that the report is troubling, but not surprising. \"At an individual level, it\'s a violation of fundamental human rights,\" Galster said. \"At a social level, steering perpetuates racially separate neighborhoods.\"

Longtime professor of political communication, Bernard Brock, who taught at Wayne State University for 35 years, died of a staph infection of the heart valve Friday in Detroit. He was 73. Mr. Brock also was codirector for many years of Wayne State's Center for Arts and Public Policy. He retired from WSU in 2001 and began teaching part time at Oakland University.

Auto executives gathered at the annual Society of Automotive Engineers conference at Cobo Center say education, attitudes and expectations are the key to Michigan's manufacturing health. This Detroit News editorial suggests that Michigan has a lot of work to do, however, to compete with other states for manufacturing jobs. Since 2000, more than 110,000 manufacturing jobs have left the state and the unemployment rate here is among the highest in the nation - and it is likely going to get worse as more low-skilled manufacturing jobs are shipped overseas. Fortunately, according to the writer, Michigan has the infrastructure to change its fate with the state\'s colleges and universities which are among the best in the nation, and Southeast Michigan still is thought of as the automotive capital of the world. "The state university system and community colleges should be working closely with the auto manufacturers and suppliers to turn out the workers the industry will demand in the future."

Larry Hermann of Troy responds in a letter to the editor to a recent Detroit News story discussing salaries and benefits for Michigan's professors. Hermann says, "The gravy train for university tenured professors must be stopped to reverse the costs of higher education. Many of these pampered elites spend three hours a week lecturing 60-80 students, and another five to seven hours with related detail…For this they are paid $80,000-plus and other benefits."

The exhibit "Real Players: Game Installations by Willie Cole," at Wayne State 's Elaine L. Jacobs Gallery is examined in this article by arts writer Roger Green. Location and hours for the gallery and a contact number are given.

Wayne State University journalism graduate Pablo Bello has been named managing editor of the weekly newspaper Noticias Libres, which serves Spanish-speaking residents of Northwest Arkansas . He has worked as a community journalist in several cities, including Detroit , Mexico City and in Texas . In the Detroit area, he has written for The South End and El Central.

This online newsletter out of Australia carries an article about researchers at Wayne State who have found that attaching the cancer drug methotrexate to a dendrimer nanoparticle can overcome the resistance that some cancer cells develop to the drug. The research team was led by Rangaramanujam Kannan of the Chemical Engineering Department here. The team's work was reported in the journal "Bioconjugate Chemistry."

In an editorial, The News calls for universities in the state to boost the number of online course offerings, calling this method of delivery, "the future of education." The editorial notes that schools are no longer required to deliver at least half their courses on campus in order to qualify for federal student aid. "The (federal) rule will encourage more competition in higher education and boost schools with expertise in distance learning, including for-profit institutions," the newspaper points out.