A nearly $800 million increase in Washington University’s endowment over the past fiscal year is allowing the University to allocate more funds to departments previously subject to significant budget cuts.

The tea leaves show the beginning of the end for John Boehner, as a combination of stubbornness and conservative forces mix up a lethal brew for the new Speaker of the House. For the last two years when the Republicans were out of power, John Boehner was the point person. He argued against every single agenda item with the simple retort: Where are the jobs?

This week, students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison were given an instruction by the editorial board of The Badger Herald: “At 10 a.m., drop everything.” These students, our peers, find themselves in the state capital that has quickly become the epicenter of a series of troubling resolution attempts to remedy state budget problems.

Washington University Student Union took an official stance against the Office of Residential Life’s new policy of charging for the use of meeting spaces on the South 40 and in the Village.

While the North Side Association has typically not been an active group in the past, the organization has increased its presence on campus this year, despite its smaller budget. The NSA has an almost entirely new board this year that hopes to make the NSA a stronger presence in spite of the budget decease.

Student Health Services has cut Washington University’s Emergency Support Team’s funding by $8,000 due to departmental budget cuts. Though the cut will not affect the services that EST offers, students who want to join EST will have to pay around $1,000 to be trained.

In light of departmental budget cuts, Washington University closed its biology and math libraries this summer, reflecting a nationwide trend in universities to cut satellite libraries that are becoming increasingly obsolete as more materials go online.

The Center for the Study of Ethics & Human Values at Washington University will be discontinued in June 2010 due to budget constraints. A University statement cited deficits in major gifts toward the program’s endowment as a reason for its termination. “While the university regrets the need to discontinue the center as originally conceived, we [...]