The Women Lawyers Association of Michigan Foundation has announced the recipients of this year’s WLAM Foundation Awards for Outstanding Law Students. Besides their academic performance at Michigan law schools, these individuals endeavor to advance women’s roles in essential areas of law, including STEM, social justice, equality, child advocacy, and domestic violence. The recipients include Wayne Law students Dominica Convertino, Fatima Dakroub and Samantha Mackereth.  

By Arash Javanbakht  Arash Javanbakht, associate professor of psychiatry and a trauma and anxiety researcher and clinician, wrote an article for The Conversation about the societal effects of violence following a mass shooting at a Texas elementary school. “In addition to those who experience direct loss, such events also take a toll on others, including those who witnessed the shooting, first responders, people who are nearby and those who hear about it – yet again – through the media,” Javanbakht writes. “While the immediate survivors are most affected, the rest of society suffers, too.” Javanbakht outlines the impacts on immediate survivors, those close by or arriving later to the scene, and those who are not directly exposed to a disaster but were exposed to news coverage. He also offers that some good can come from such tragedies. “We can channel the collective agony and frustration to encourage meaningful changes, such as making gun laws safer, opening constructive discussions, informing the public about the risks and calling on lawmakers to take real action,” he writes. “In times of hardship, humans often can raise the sense of community, support one another and fight for their rights, including the right to be safe at schools, concerts, restaurants and movie theaters.”  

By Rebecca Griesbach and Trish Powell Crain  A federal judge recently ordered R.A. Hubbard high school in Alabama to close its doors – a decision that sparked debate and frustration among many community members. Hubbard will close this summer. Younger students and teachers will be moved out of the majority-Black high school to other schools in Lawrence County. It’s a dilemma that hangs over many other rural, small schools in Alabama and around the country. In addition to losing half of its student population in a short time, the school landed on the state’s ‘failing schools’ list in 2019 after earning an ‘F’ on the state report card. The school has been stuck on the list throughout the pandemic, regardless of the progress they made moving their grade from an ‘F’ to a ‘B’ the following year. The superintendent said there are academic and extracurricular opportunities available at the county’s other schools that are hard to offer at a small high school. “What we learned [from Brown vs. Board], was that the burden of school closures was felt, both socially and emotionally, mostly by Black students,” said Erica Edwards, assistant professor of education at Wayne State University. She said educators in closing schools can face certain stigmas, and that school leaders should make sure that they are investing in culturally responsive practices to ensure a smoother transition. “When these schools close the they begin going to white schools, emotionally you have to bear the brunt of the difference: Being othered, being ostracized, having to prove yourself in ways that predominantly white communities don’t always understand or acknowledge or recognize,” Edwards said.

By Jennifer Hart Jennifer Hart, associate professor of history at Wayne State University and chair of the university’s general education oversight committee and a planning and implementation fellow for gen ed assessment, wrote an opinion piece about the steps colleges can take to create more intentional, intelligible general education programs in light of recent survey results that show disconnects and how institutions can invest in general education. “At a base level, it would require viewing gen ed less as a series of requirements (the language used in the survey) and more as a coherent program with dedicated personnel drawn, in part at least, from the faculty and committed to program improvement. An intentional program requires, at minimum, curriculum management, assessment and policy development. A general education program that cuts across multiple departments and engages all undergraduate students is highly complex and requires unique and often much more intensive forms of communication and coordination than a traditional academic department or program,” she writes. Hart says that thinking about different program elements carefully and investing in personnel and support creates opportunities to further engage faculty and highlight the intentionality of a program. Hart writes that the survey results also raise questions about marketing in the event that that students don’t necessarily understand the value of gen ed. “At Wayne State University, we’ve worked with key campus offices to craft materials and share messages about gen ed before and during orientation and crated a new website called “Engaged Gen Ed” with expanding resources to support students, advisers and instructors. These efforts set a foundation and provide support for ongoing conversations students have with their advisers as they advance through their first year and beyond. Early, ongoing and consistent messaging is critical,” said Hart. She also references WSU’s annual award recognizing instructors for their contributions to the general education program as a way of creating a culture of recognition and appreciation, the celebration of student learning outcomes, and ongoing assessment and improvement efforts to support this vital teaching work.

The Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy has selected three Wayne Law students to serve as legal interns in congressional committee offices in Washington, D.D. this summer. Internship recipients are Kawkab (Kay) El-Moussaoui, Bahar Haste and Yesenia Jimenez. Each internship position involves work with congressional staff from both parties and a bipartisan approach to oversight. Students work under the supervision of an experienced attorney who is engaged in conducting oversight on behalf of a congressional committee. This is the seventh year for the 10-week internship. Collectively, 25 Wayne Law students have participated since the program’s inception.

By Naaz Modan  On Wednesday morning, teachers and students nationwide filed into school hallways and classrooms less than 24 hours after news of another mass school shooting poured out of Uvalde, Texas. Students were required to take final exams, and teachers were expected to grade papers and continue instruction. From the outside, maybe, it looked like business as usual. But many teachers were experiencing emotions ranging from fear and helplessness to stress and nervousness. Nothing is new about the range of emotional, physical and behavioral side effects reported by educators across the nation in the wake of the Uvalde massacre. It is a ripple effect that many teachers have described experiencing after similar mass school shootings: Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, Sante Fe, Oxford. That’ because those reactions are all symptoms of trauma response, according to Addison Duane, a former elementary school teacher with a Ph.D. in educational psychology and now a professor at Wayne State University. Duane’s research and expertise includes trauma and racism in schools. The trauma experienced after a school shooting can be layered on top of pre-existing traumas resulting from systemic racism, especially for those who work in or are members of communities that have been historically marginalized, like Black, Hispanic and low-income students. Robb Elementary School is a case in point: It is 90% Hispanic and 87% economically disadvantaged, according to school district data. Layering of trauma is now “a ubiquitous part of the U.S. experience,” Duane said.  

By Matt Williams  At least 19 children and two adults were killed when a teenage gunman shot them at a Texas elementary school on May 24, 2022 – the latest mass shooting in a country in which such incidents have become common. A lot remains unknown about the attack at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, a small, predominantly Latino town in South Texas. Police have not as yet revealed a possible motive behind the attack, in which the 18-year-old went classroom to classroom dressed in body armor and carrying two military-style rifles, according to reports. The frequency of school shootings in the U.S. has increased dramatically over the last few years. The Conversation aggregated stories from their recent archives to explain the history of mass shootings in the U.S. and why the government has failed to take action on gun control. Rebeccah Sokol, assistant professor of social work at Wayne State University, along with University of Michigan scholars Patrick Carter and Marc A. Zimmerman shared their research about how the lack of substantive regulation has led to an ever-increasing number of firearms in the hands of U.S. residents. “Since the onset of the public health crisis, firearm sales have spiked. Many of these firearms have ended up in households with teenage children, increasing the risk of accidental or intentional injury or fatalities, or death by suicide,” the scholars wrote. “Most school shooters obtain the firearm from home. And the number of guns within reach of high school-age teenagers has increased during the pandemic.” 

By Jake Bekemeyer  Wayne State University has selected Virginia Franke Kleist to serve as the next dean of the Mike Ilitch School of Business after a seven-month national search. The WSU Board of Governors approved the appointment that was announced by Provost Mark Kornbluh. She will begin at Wayne State on July 11. Kleist succeeds Robert Forsythe, who will remain as dean until Kleist’s arrival. “We had a number of outstanding candidates for this highly-coveted position, but Virginia’s extensive leadership experience and her preparedness stood out,” said Kornbluh, WSU provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. “She also has a proven track record in supporting faculty research, creating innovative programs, and growing graduate and undergraduate enrollments. And perhaps most important, she has a passion for students like ours with limited resources, but lots of grit.” Kleist comes to Wayne State from West Virginia University, where she served as the associate dean of graduate programs, research, and academic affairs and a professor of management information systems at the John Chambers College of Business and Economics. 

By Kurt Nagl Two business schools in Southeast Michigan have appointed new leadership. Wayne State University named Virginia Kleist as the new dean of the Mike Ilitch School of Business, taking over for Robert Forsythe, who has held the position since 2014. Kleist, who comes to Detroit from West Virginia University, begins her new role July 11. Forsythe will take an administrative leave before returning to the faculty. In her previous job, Kleist was associate dean of Graduate Programs, Research and Academic Affairs and professor of Management Information Systems at the John Chambers College of Business and Economics. “We had a number of outstanding candidates for this highly-coveted position, but Virginia’s extensive leadership experience and her preparedness stood out,” said Mark Kornbluh, Wayne State provost and senior vice president for academic affairs.

A shortage of baby formula started in the early days of the pandemic and has only worsened after a plant in Sturgis, Michigan was shut down earlier this year. With low stock and high demand, the lack of available baby formula has created a crisis for parents reliant on the infant food source. Supply chain experts point to several factors leading to the shortage – including the concentration of production. Only a handful of companies are approved makers of baby formula in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration. To alleviate the crisis, the Biden administration invoked the Defense Production Act to boost domestic production of formula. Kevin Ketels, assistant professor of teaching in global supply chain management at Wayne State University, participates in a discussion about what families need to know about the shortage, how the industry operates under a consolidation of production, and what else the Biden administration is doing to alleviate the crisis. Ketels discusses how long it would take for factories to get more formula on the shelves at stores. “What we’re looking at is a consent agreement for the Abbot facility in Sturgis, Michigan to start back up. They have to go through some procedures to get started. Once they get started, they’ve told us it will be about 6-8 weeks before formula starts to hit shelves. The facility hasn’t been restarted yet, it’s expected in the next week or week and a half, so it’s going to take a little bit of time before we start to see the impact,” he said. “They have to line up all the resources and make sure all protocols are followed. They have to go through the production process and the distribution process, and that takes a long time. I think that everyone is going to go as quickly as they can, but they also don’t want to cut corners because we’ve got to make sure that quality and safety are 100%. Everyone’s going to be watching very carefully to make sure we don’t have any more problems and we don’t have any more babies who are adversely affected.”  

The Wayne State baseball team’s record-breaking season won’t include a regional championship. Wayne State spotted No. 21-ranked Illinois-Springfield a six-run lead, including a five-run six, losing 6-3 in the Division II regional championship round Sunday at Harwell Field on the Warriors’ campus. No. 25 Wayne State, which set the program record for victories in a season with a win Saturday over Walsh, finishes at 37-19.  

Wayne State’s men’s tennis team, seeking the program’s first national championship, fell to third-seeded Barry, 4-1, in Altamonte Springs, Florida Sunday. Wayne State, the fourth seed, finishes the season at 26-5. It was a rematch of a March 17 showdown won by Wayne State, 4-3, in Miami Beach. Daniel Grey won Wayne State’s lone match, defeating Barry’s Ignasi Forcano, 6-4, 6-3. Wayne State reached the national title match, coming from behind to defeat Columbus State, 4-3, in Saturday’s semifinals.  

Rudy Ramirez was a freshman on the last team to come close. And on Friday at Harwell Field, with his team’s backs against the wall, Wayne State’s senior right fielder wanted to make sure that the Warriors didn’t have to face coming up short again. Wayne State missed a chance Thursday to tie the single-season program record for wins for a second time. Ramirez drove in four runs and threw out a runner at the plate during a pivotal moment in the second inning to set the tone in what would become a 10-3 win over Ashland Friday in a Midwest Regional elimination game. The victory tied the program wins record for Wayne State (36-18) and kept the season alive. “We came up a little short (in 2019) and it kind of was a big idea in our head that we missed out on,” Ramirez said. “Getting to 36 this year was a huge stepping stone.” Both Ramirez and Wayne State head coach Ryan Kelley were quick to note that there are still much bigger games to play for the season. And yet, accomplishing the milestone is not lost on them. “There’s a lot of work that’s been done behind the scenes with this team. So when they look back at it, and they see they have a piece of Wayne State baseball history with the wins and the season, I think that’s something they can look back with pride on,” Kelley said.  

By Kevin Ketels  Kevin Ketels, assistant professor, teaching, of global supply chain management at Wayne State University’s Mike Ilitch School of Business wrote an article for The Conversation analyzing the factors that have contributed to the baby formula supply chain issues, which have left retailers with dwindling supplies and parents across the country traveling or paying exorbitant sums of money to obtain formula for their babies. Ketels says that the conditions that led to a shortage of baby formula were set in motion long before the February 2022 closure of the Similac factory tipped the U.S. into a crisis. News that the Food and Drug Administration and Similac-maker Abbott have reached a deal to reopen the formula factory in Sturgis, Michigan, is welcome news for desperate parents, but Ketels says it will do little to alleviate the shortage anytime soon – in no small part because of the very nature of the baby formula industry. “The closure of the factory may have lit the fuse for the nationwide shortage, but a combination of government policy, industry market concentration and supply chain issues supplied the powder,” he writes.  

Wayne State University associate professor Kidada Williams, who also hosts and produces the podcast “Seizing Freedom,” joins Stateside to shed light on the life of Malcom X and his legacy in Michigan. Malcom X isn’t as frequently discussed as other civil rights leaders. “I think we don’t talk about Malcom because a lot of people don’t understand who he was and what he really stood for. I think that the root of that is that he was unapologetic in his love for Black people and his willingness to point out the harms of white supremacy and the moral bankruptcy at the root of it. That makes a lot of people uncomfortable.” Williams said she teaches her students about Malcom X, and more importantly, she said she has them read his work. “A lot of them come with these preconceived ideas – they’ve been told Malcom hates white people, and they don’t like people who hate. So they come with these preconceived notions of who he was and what he stood for. But when they read his work for themselves, when they see what he stood for and what he actually said and tried to do, they have a much deeper appreciation for him as someone who believed in justice and liberty, and was willing to fight for it...”  

Plastic waste may be a bigger problem in the Great Lakes than we realize. Researchers from the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University met in Traverse City on Monday to discuss the impact that micro-plastic pollution has not just on the Great Lakes, but for us. 22 million pounds of plastic go into the Great Lakes every year. As researchers work to lower that number, the Watershed Center Grand Traverse Bay says the amount of trash in the bay increases every year. The micro-plastics found in the water can also be harmful to our health. “We know historically that micro-plastics, one of the many issues, is that they can carry molecules that can be harmful or toxic to organisms, including people,” said Dr. Rodrigo Fernandez-Valdivia, professor at the Wayne State University School of Medicine. It’s estimated we swallow microscopic plastic materials that add up to a credit card a week. “You can find it in food, as well as beverages, so you don’t know, you’re not aware of it, but you are actually ingesting micro-plastics,” said Fernandez-Valdivia. Single-use plastics seem to be the biggest culprit. “I think probably most people are most familiar with the plastic bags at grocery stores or other types of stores, having your own bag to use, using paper instead – could be a better choice, but it’s also single-use meaning little bags for sandwiches, bottled water,” said Britany Affolter-Caine, executive director of Michigan’s University Research Corridor.  

When Timmy Nelson isn’t working as a digital design specialist for Wayne State University’s Office of Alumni Relations, he loves to play video games, draw and entertain. These interests are at the heart of his Twitch livestream, trueTIMfoolery, which he uses to raise money for local children’s hospitals through the nonprofit organization Extra Life. Since he began streaming in 2019, Nelson and his followers have raised more than $17,000 by playing video games and board games – and participating in a variety of incentives aimed at bringing in extra money. “Extra Life allows me to do the things that I really enjoy, but also teach people that philanthropy can be a hobby,” said Nelson. “You don’t have to be a Fortune 500 CEO that’s giving all this money out to people. Every single dollar counts. Anyone can do it.”  

By Jim Kiertzner  With every mass shooting, there are elements that are closely examined: why it happened, and could it have been prevented? In Buffalo, New York, that starts with the white 18-year-old alleged shooter who targeted Black customers inside a grocery store, based solely on race and hate. “First, they study what other people have done. And either because they want to emulate them, or because they want to out-compete them or somehow achieve something bigger,” said Pontus Leander, director of the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies at Wayne State University. The evidence in the Buffalo case is the alleged shooter wrote about what’s called “The Great Replacement” to target Black people. The extremist theory can also be used to attack others, including Jewish people. “They’re looking to express a certain set of motivations in a certain way,” Leander said. “Especially if they’re in a state where they’re looking to blame others or to offload problems onto other groups and justify engaging in certain actions, such as violence against those groups.” Leander said that potential copycat threats send the message that “we have a lot of work to do.”  

For small business owners who depend on the warmer months for the majority of their revenue, time is money. From landscapers, restaurants and summer camps to house painters, public relations firms and swim clubs – they all need additional help each summer. And they’re all competing for a smaller pool of workers, whether it’s students on break or adults looking for full-time or supplemental income. Businesses are using financial incentives like higher pay and signing bonuses as well as some now-sought-after perks like flexible hours and hybrid office-remote work models to attract talent. Adding to full-time payroll takes away some flexibility, according to Matt Piszczek, Wayne State University assistant professor of management. Still, Piszczek, who specializes in employee relations and human resource management, sees seasonal employment as a major benefit to small business owners because it allows them to avoid hiring too many full-timers who may not be needed in the off-season. However, small and seasonal businesses are facing new staffing problems, Piszczek said. “Businesses are generally facing the opposite problem. They need more full-time staff over the long term, not just temporary help over the summer,” he said. “Competition for seasonal workers will be stark this year, but rather than thinking of them as a stopgap to wait out the ‘Great Resignation,’ businesses may want to consider this as an opportunity to convert some of those seasonal workers into permanent employees in order to fill now-persistent gaps.”  

Graduating Wayne State University Law School student Muthu Veerappan set the school record for the highest number of pro bono hours donated by a single student. Veerappan reached 1,020 total pro bono hours with the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office as part of the Warrior Pro Bono Pledge. The graduating class donated nearly 2,400 pro bono hours. “It was remarkable because I learned a lot working there over the past year,” Veerappan said. “I have done everything from preliminary exams, motions, briefs, and a jury trial to watching a victim’s 8-month-old child while they were testifying. Prior to completing his pro bono hours, Veerappan worked at Wayne Law’s Free Legal Aid Clinic, Asylum and Immigration Law Clinic, and completed a public service externship.