An obit on Cheryl McCall, who parlayed her love of children into a career defending their rights as an attorney, mentions her experiences as a student at Wayne State, where she caused a stir on campus as the first freshman and first female editor of The South End student newspaper. While at WSU, she participated in marches on Washington , D.C. , and hitchhiked to Berkeley , Calif. "As students," she once explained, "we were consumed by the war; we were digging into all the university's alliances into what we believed was the wrong side."

Detroit News business columnist Daniel Howes says in a feature piece on page one of the business section, that Wayne State University is an example of what it takes to get people back in Detroit . He attributes much of the university's success to President Irvin D. Reid and his "voice of educational entrepreneurialism." Reid is meeting with hotel development companies to discuss his vision of a hotel and conference center that would draw from the university community and visitors to Detroit's two large medical complexes nearby - Detroit Medical Center and Henry Ford Hospital. "What do we bring to the partnership? We bring the land and a substantial number of customers," Reid says. "Emphatically, yes, people are coming here." Howes writes that when Reid arrived in 1997, Wayne State had 1,200 occupied beds in residence halls. Today it has 3,200. Within 15 years, according to its long-range plan, it wants to have as many as 8,000 students living on campus. Howes concludes that " Wayne State is offering tuition-paying customers what the next mayor must provide if he hopes to rebuild Detroit 's weak tax base and stem the exodus to the suburbs - safe streets, a good education and solid services and amenities at lower tax rates.

Wayne State 's Journalism Institute for Minorities (JIM) is noted as one of the beneficiaries of scholarships offered by the Rosa Parks Scholarship Foundation. The foundation was established in 1980 by the Detroit News in partnership with the Detroit Public Schools. Contact information about the foundation and JIM is noted in a sidebar.

Melba Joyce Boyd, professor in Wayne State 's Department of Africana Studies, commented about the life of Rosa Parks and her contributions to the civil rights movement and society. \"When people reach that level of impact, that\'s what happens. It\'s because what she did got to the core of what was wrong with American society.\"

High-tech systems and lower-tech systems often don\'t work well together. Flight delays, network crashes and the blackout of 2003 are prime examples. A new report from Detroit \'s Wayne State University examines problems caused by such \"technological peripheries.\" A group of researchers, organized by Wayne State and sponsored by the National Science Foundation of the United States and el Consejo Nacional Ciencia y Tecnología of Mexico, met last year in Mexico City to examine the challenges of large-scale systems, focusing on air transport networks. The workshop found that the development of technology in the developed world was outstripping the diffusion of that technology to developing countries. The mismatch will continue to lead to disasters until the world air transport system gets better at managing the introduction of technology, Wayne State University officials say.

Wayne State University and the University of Michigan received a combined 297 patents between 1999 and 2003, according to a report released by Automation Alley. The study, titled "Driving Southeast Michigan Forward," analyzed six industry areas: advanced automotive, advanced manufacturing, chemical and material, information technology, life sciences and other technologies. NextEnergy, a non-profit corporation that promotes the advancement of alternative energies, has also acquired more than $13 million in federal research funds to support research and development in homeland defense, hydrogen, fuel cells and clean diesel fuel (biodiesel).

Asterand Inc., the Detroit-based supplier of human tissues and related services, last week announced it will distribute nine new cell lines for cancer research. The cell lines were all developed at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute of Wayne State University and will be of interest to researchers seeking a cure for several types of leukemia, lymphoma and pancreatic cancer. The Wayne State lines will be added to a portfolio of cell lines that are currently distributed by Asterand. The Asterand tissue bank now contains more than 330,000 samples.

Wayne State University has been awarded a $9,100 grant from the United States Golf Association for research into the potential impact golf can have on individuals with mental illness. Dr. John Dziuba, assistant professor of psychiatry at Wayne State , has designed a program to teach golf to schizophrenia patients as a tool in the treatment of the disease, which afflicts 2.2 million Americans. The WSU Medical School and Sinai Grace Hospital are working on the research effort. Dziuba said the goal is to show that golf \"can help our patients\' self esteem and self confidence, their ability to concentrate and socialize and improve their overall quality of life.\"

Wayne State University is holding a conference Nov. 4 to discuss why women continue to lag in earnings, benefits and rank within U.S. businesses. The conference comes on the heels of the Michigan Women\'s Leadership Index report, released earlier this week, that shows that Michigan \'s top female executives make 49 cents to every dollar male executives make. It also revealed that just 5.7% of all top-compensated executives are women. The conference, called Gender and Corporate Citizenship, runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

Delila Owens, assistant professor in the Theoretical and Behavioral Foundations Department, received the 2005 NCACES small Research Grant from North Central Association of Counselor Educators and Supervisors. Owens also was recently appointed to the Professional School Counselors editorial review board. The journal is published by the American School Counseling Association.

Wayne State University School of Social Work appointed Anna Maria Santiago as director of a new doctoral program leading to a doctor of philosophy in social work.

Kevin Christensen, a sophomore at Wayne State , helped the Warriors Cross Country team to a second-place finish at the GLIAC Championship this past weekend as he placed eighth overall with a time of 27:10.

Career counselors at U.S. universities have been noticing a significant increase in the number of seniors eager to take a break after graduation, saying they were not ready to commit to graduate school or a career. Many seniors have applied for community service programs like the Peace Corps and Teach for America in the last two years. Students who take a time out are still a minority but the number is expanding. Cultural patterns have changed with fewer people getting married immediately after college and fewer taking jobs with companies at which they expect to for their entire careers.

The federal government is requiring hundreds of universities, online communications companies and cities to overhaul Internet computer networks to make it easier for law enforcement authorities to monitor e-mail and other online communications. The order is intended to help catch terrorists and other criminals. The action has unleashed protests and the threat of lawsuits from universities, which argue that it will cost them $7 billion.

Wayne State University President Irvin D. Reid has announced this year's Research Enhancement Program seminar titled "Wayne State University President's Conference on Health Disparities." According to Reid, "This event will explore the underlying cause of the disparity in health outcomes, particularly those related to chronic diseases among medically underserved and ethnic minority populations living in an urban environment." The seminar will be held on Oct. 10 -11 in the McGregor Memorial Conference Center .

The WSU School of Law is hosting the American Constitution Society's symposium on diversity Oct. 27. WSU's Law School is hosting a roundtable on the Ten Commandments, Nov. 10. The WSU Law School will host reunions for the classes of 1970, 1975, 1980, 1990 and 2000 on Nov. 9.

The Times picked up an AP article about the role of minority contractors in the Hurricane Katrina clean-up effort. John Chichester, who heads the Procurement Technical Assistance Center at Wayne State, pointed out that subcontractors are often left "picking up the scraps" while larger contractor's get the bulk of the jobs. Chichester advises small businesses on how to win government contacts.

Wayne State University on Thursday will officially rename one of its residence halls after Yousif Ghafari. The university will rename North Residence Hall after the chairman of Dearborn-based Ghafari Cos. in recognition of his support of the school. Ghafari, a WSU alumnus and member of the WSU Foundation board and capital campaign committee, pledged $9 million to the university in the spring. His donation will help support the university's new engineering development center and endowments for student programs and scholarships, mathematics, engineering and medicine.

Wayne State employees offered comments in a story about the death of Rosa Parks. Anglenn Perryman, 38, a groundskeeper and political science student, called Parks \"a symbol of strength at a time we really needed it. We needed someone like her, a black woman all by herself, to stand up. By standing up that gives us motivation and the inspiration to this day." Rodney Redmond, 48, a parking attendant, said she was a brave, brave person. \"They need to do her right,\'\' in celebrating her homecoming, he said."They ought to do her like they did Coleman Young or Martin Luther King. There should be a holiday for her, too.\'\'

Performing: Guitar virtuoso Ana Vidovic in concert at 11:45 a.m. Nov. 18. at Wayne State University \'s Schaver Recital Hall, 480 W. Hancock, Detroit . The event is free; for additional, info call 313-577-1795.