While the University announced in May that they implement changes to campus mental health crisis response, a recent Student Life investigation found that the future of this initiative is uncertain.

Washington University plans to adopt some of the recommendations the Public Safety Committee made in February, including training for mental health professionals to handle mental health crises instead of Washington University Police Department officers and the establishment of a 24-hour team of on-call mental health professionals.

Washington University’s faculty and staff hiring freeze implemented in March was lifted Nov. 1. Individual schools can now begin to fill open positions.

Washington University will subsidize up to two Uber rides to and from campus per day for students living north and south of the Delmar Loop and in the Skinker-DeBaulevaire neighborhoods after entering into a contract with the ride-sharing company, Executive Vice Chancellor and Chief Administrative Officer Hank Webber wrote in an email to Student Life Sunday.

Administrators highlighted Washington University’s efforts to cut costs without affecting services at a public forum on Wednesday morning, At the beginning of 2013, the University retained the services of Huron Consulting Group to find methods to reduce expenditures in four areas where other universities have implemented similar measures.

Washington University officials are working to fill the position of Vice Chancellor of Public Affairs. The position was vacated at the end of September when Fred Volkmann retired after working at the University for 31 years. Volkmann sent an email to select members of the community on January 10, 2010 announcing his decision to retire on September 30, 2011.

The long-awaited Strategic Plan for Environmentally Sustainable Operation was finally released, but we are less than overwhelmed with the substance within the plan. Green Action President Peter Murrey pretty much summed it up at Wednesday night’s Senate meeting when he called it “a good plan—but not outstanding.”