Washington University

After protests erupted in Ferguson in 2014, Stacy West, artistic director of the St. Louis-based modern dance company MADCO, looked for a way to respond to the situation. But the timing didn't seem right.

"I felt that there were other artists that could come in more quickly than MADCO with a response to what was going on in Ferguson. Due to the nature of dance and hiring choreographers and booking venues, I didn't feel we were the people to do something quickly," West explains. She found herself thinking about a way to tackle the topic ever since.

Denise Stephens, university librarian at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), has been appointed vice provost and university librarian at Washington University in St. Louis, effective July 1, according to Provost Holden Thorp. Stephens succeeds Jeffrey G. Trzeciak, who left the university last July.