The calendar section carries a listing for the Minority Business Celebration organized by the Grand Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce. Dean Frank Wu of the WSU Law School will be the keynote speaker for the Oct. 26 event, which will be held at the Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park .

A story about racial polarization in the Detroit area includes a comment by Lyke Thompson, director of WSU's Center for Urban Studies. "If Detroit is stereotyped as a place of racial conflict," he said, "then it undermines our ability to be a place people want to come and live and see as valuable. And you can't afford that in the kind of global competition we're involved in."

Harvey Kahalas, dean of the School of Business Administration , is quoted in a story about the diminishing manufacturing industry base in Sterling Heights . He said it is too early to sound the death knell for Michigan 's manufacturing industry. "The idea that the auto industry is dead is a little premature," he pointed out. "The auto industry needs to reformulate and reinvent itself - from investors, to labor, to salaried employees, I think everyone needs to pitch in together to work on these issues." But he noted that "the competitive pressures are just unbelievable" and that production costs are forcing many industries to "move to other parts of the globe."

This report in the Flint Journal about a Flint-area development company named Sports Resorts International notes that the company wants to become privately-owned once again after being a public company listed on the NASDAQ index. Randy Paschke, chair of the Accounting Department at Wayne State , says he's not surprised that a small company wants to go private. Companies go public to gain access to additional capital, he pointed out. If that doesn't happen, a company begins to question whether the costs of being publicly traded justify the hoped-for benefits.

The identifier-line at the end of this op-ed piece on education by Tom Watkins lists him as "former state superintendent of public instruction and a special assistant to Wayne State University President Irvin D. Reid." In the piece, Watkins makes several suggestions for improving the quality of education in Michigan and writes that "our biggest fear should not be the outsourcing of jobs to China but the fact that China 's education system is producing 10 times the number of engineers and other knowledge workers as the United States ." Among his recommendations is greater investment in higher education in the state. "The future belongs to those who invest in its people and in high-quality education," he says. "If Michigan is to prosper in the future, we must open our eyes."

An article about the opening of the University of Michigan 's Detroit Center at Orchestra Place in Detroit mentions that U-M owns several properties in Detroit , including the Rackham Building , which was leased to Wayne State University because U-M didn't have a use for it and did not want to pay to renovate the 60-year-old structure.

South Africa may kill wild elephants in the Kruger National Park because of concern that the animals are breeding too fast. The elephant population there may reach 20,000 by 2012, the Environment and Tourism Ministry said. But animal rights groups say the shootings will cause trauma and will disrupt elephant society. The news report mentions a Web site at Wayne State University in Detroit that indicates elephants demonstrate advanced social behavior, such as covering dead animals with leaves and twigs and staying by the body for days.

One of the success stories of Detroit 's TechTown, the high-tech human tissue bank Asterand Inc., has merged with a British firm, Pharmagene plc, and will become Asterand plc. Randal Charlton, CEO of Asterand, will continue to head the merged company. Charlton noted that Asterand will now "have access to significantly larger sums of money that will help us grow, in Detroit and at the Tech One Building . We expect a period of expansion."

With Hurricane Rita taking aim at the east coast of Texas , colleges and universities there began evacuating students, shutting down research projects and securing buildings. Among the Texas evacuees are thousands of students and faculty from flooded New Orleans universities who had just settled into classes at Houston-area higher education institutions. Tulane University officials, who moved their base of operations to Houston in the aftermath of Katrina, packed up late yesterday and moved to Dallas , some 240 miles farther inland.

Wayne State is noted as one of the participants in the Farmington/Farmington Hills Chamber of Commerce annual business-to-business trade show and networking event, called eXpo 2005, scheduled for Oct. 27 in Farmington at Vladimir 's Banquet hall.

Frank Wu, dean of Wayne State 's Law School , expresses optimism about Detroit and Southeast Michigan 's future in a profile story about his career. "When you look at other metropolitan areas like New York City and Washington D.C. , they were in much the same position as Detroit 10 years ago. But they have come back and people are selling properties for five times what they paid just a few years ago," Wu says. "It seems to me that if enough of us take that risk we can bring the city back." A photo of Wu is included.

Susan LeRoque Davis has joined the faculty of Wayne State 's Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy Health and Sciences (EACPHS) as an assistant professor in the pharmacy practice department. Davis is also an infectious disease pharmacy specialist at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit . Background statement about EACPHS and a photo of Davis is provided in the story.

Wayne State \'s Justin Kessler, a senior from Ionia , is GLIAC men\'s runner of the week. He finished second in 25:07 at the 8,000-meter Midwest Collegiate at Wisconsin-Parkside, leading the Warriors to a first-place tie with Calvin College at 44 points.

Wayne State University has been named the recipient of a $186,469 award from the Toyota USA Foundation. The award will allow the university to add a second six-week Math Corps summer camp that will give junior and senior high school students in the Detroit area the chance to participate in an intensive and rigorous mathematics study program. The Toyota award will provide funding for an additional 200 students to take part in this successful summer program developed and directed by Wayne State University faculty members. Housed on Wayne State \'s main campus, the second Math Corps Summer Camp will replicate the initial program established in 1992.

South Africa may kill elephants in the Kruger National Park for the first time since 1994 on concern the world\'s biggest land mammals are breeding too fast. African elephants can weigh as much as 6.5 metric tons and live for 70 years. They demonstrate complex social behavior, such as covering dead animals with leaves and twigs and staying by the body for days, according to the Web site of Wayne State University in Detroit .

When Johnny Kline was, well, globetrotting with the Harlem Globetrotters in the 1950s, he didn\'t realize what he was a part of. When you\'re in your 20s, you\'re thinking about having fun and little else. It wasn\'t until years later, when NBC\'s Tim Russert reported that China \'s Madame Chiang Kai-Shek had died at the age of 105, that Kline knew life had taken him on a special trip. "I told my brother, who I was watching TV with, that I knew that lady,\" Kline said Tuesday. \"I had lunch with her and her husband in 1953 and 1956."We were in their temple or castle, whatever you call it, as members of the Harlem Globetrotters. Looking back, this was a tremendous adventure.\" Kline, now 73, fully realizes the impact of his latest accomplishment. On Thursday night, Kline, an All-American basketball player at Wayne University (now Wayne State ) before his Globetrotters days, and eight others will be inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame at Cobo Hall.

Alexandria Idziak and Lindsay Pipp were the recipients of the 2005 Children\'s Trust Fund Scholarships awarded by the Metro East Chamber of Commerce. The students were chosen for their academic achievement, financial need and dedication to the community. Idziak graduated from Roseville High School and is a student a Wayne State University .

Jack Moss, who retired as Kalamazoo Gazette sports editor three years ago, is one of nine inductees into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame. Moss, who started with the Gazette as a sports writer in 1948, joins golfers Leo Diegel and Calvin Peete, Detroit Lions owner William Clay Ford Sr., University of Michigan football player Ron Johnson, Wayne State basketball player Johnny Kline, NFL All-Pro Paul Krause, jockey Julie Krone and Michigan State/Pittsburgh Steelers football coach George Perles as the Class of 2005.

Jean Davis, interim assistant dean for Adult Health and associate professor At Wayne State, is conducting a study on the effects on menopausal sleep disturbances. The study, which has revealed a connection between exercise and sleep, is funded by a $1.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. "What I'm basing this on is (that) not only are sleep aids not doing any good, most women are not using hormone replacement therapy, which has been shown to help (sleep disturbances)," Davis said. "What we're hoping to come up with is a basis for custom exercise 'prescriptions' that meet the needs of the individual." A photo of Wayne State graduate students Lindsay Sammut and Schawna Thaxton assisting a study participant is included.

Michele Valerie Ronnick, associate professor of classics, Greek and Latin at Wayne State , will speak at Mt. Union College on "13 Black Classicists," and will also display a photographic exhibit, which has traveled the country for several years, on the subject. Ronnick is the author of "William Sanders Scarborough - An American Journey from Slavery to Scholarship."