Coke is King at UMSL. 5 Things to Know About UMSL This Week

While the dog days of summer are keeping many people indoors, there is still a lot of activity going on at the University of Missouri–St. Louis.

Here are five highlights of things happening at UMSL.

• Coke or Pepsi? After five years of being a Pepsi campus, UMSL is switching soda brands. Pepsi product fountains and vending machines will be replaced with the Coca-Cola brand effective July 9. So why the switch? Better service and better value, according to a university official.
  
  

• Gerontology expert Tom Meuser has done some great things since taking over the helm of the Gerontology Graduate Program at UMSL. Many of those were touched on in a recent St. Louis Post-Dispatch profile of the gerontologist.
  
  

• How do flowers in a remote area of China factor into the study of climate change? Since 2009, Robbie Hart, a PhD candidate in biology at UMSL, has been traveling to China’s Yunnan Province to study how rhododendrons in the region are adapting to global warming. His work was recently chronicled by The Christian Science Monitor.
  
  

• UMSL student Joshua McNew thought he’d scouted out the perfect location to shoot the gritty student-driven drama “The Stakes.” One problem, the site was right next to Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. “I knew a little going in,” joked McNew, “but didn’t know everything obviously.” “The Stakes” will premiere July 12 at the Tivoli Theater in University City, Mo., as part of the 2012 Whitaker St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase.
  
  

• The Grammy winning Tedeschi Trucks Band will bring its bluesy Dixie-soul music to UMSL for a concert at 8 p.m. July 14 at the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center. Tickets are $45-$67.50. The band took home a Grammy for Best Blues Album for its debut album “Revelator.”

For more comprehensive coverage of the happenings at the University of Missouri–St. Louis visit UMSL Daily.

UMSL is the largest university in the region. More than 16,000 students from 48 states and 62 countries are enrolled with 50,000 additional students enrolled in non-credit continuing education programs. It employs more than 1,400 full-time and part-time teaching and research faculty members. While its graduates have taken leadership roles nationally and internationally, their influence remains centered in the St. Louis region. More than 75 percent of UMSL’s 80,000 graduates still live and work in the region.