St. Louis University

A new research collaboration is focusing on how and why students leave St. Louis city schools before the end of the school year.

A new report highlights schools that have seen student growth in academics, despite higher percentages of students who qualify for a free or reduced-price lunch. It’s part of a push to focus on more than achievement scores.

The lingering COVID-19 pandemic prompted Molly Wilson to seek a deeper understanding of vaccine hesitancy — and the possibilities for breaking through such hesitancy. She joins “St. Louis on the Air” as many parents are now weighing a big decision about vaccinating their kids.

St. Louis University honors Zadie Smith this week as the 2021 recipient of the St. Louis Literary Award. Smith’s 2019 story collection, “Grand Union,” is this year’s campus read.

Zadie Smith comes to St. Louis this week to receive an award from St. Louis University. She’s in good company: From Shelby Foote and Eudora Welty to George Plimpton and Chinua Achebe, the annual award has drawn heavy literary hitters to town since 1967.

This episode is the first of a two-part tribute to a man whose passion for social justice and cultural memory impacted hundreds of people in the St. Louis region: Dr. Jonathan Cedric Smith, who died this year on Juneteenth. Among many community roles, he served on the board of St. Louis Public Radio. Last year, Lauren and Jia Lian had the opportunity to interview Dr. Smith about his perspective as Co-Chair of the Slavery, History, Memory, and Reconciliation Project. To introduce you to this project and Dr. Smith’s role in it, we speak with Marissanne Lewis-Thompson, afternoon newscaster and general assignment reporter at St. Louis Public Radio. Then, we travel back in time to share Jonathan’s own words about what the Slavery, History, Memory, and Reconciliation Project meant to him. Finally, historian Dr. Kelly Schmidt will explain how Jonathan’s care for descendant communities shaped the project and his youngest brother, Jacques, will share how Jonathan’s passion for cultural memory, ancestry, and history began.

Jonathan Smith, the vice president for diversity and community engagement at St. Louis University, has died. Smith, 61, served as an assistant professor of American Studies and African American Studies, and would later become the university’s first chief diversity officer.

In March, the Jesuits and a group of Georgetown University descendants announced a new foundation with a plan for racial healing, but some St. Louis descendants say they had no input in a plan to allocate $100 million.

St. Louis University is converting its African American Studies program into a full department this fall. Faculty and students have championed the effort since the early 1970s and say it’s a big step for equality.

Washington University is the latest on a growing list of universities and colleges nationwide looking into the role they may have played in slavery.