Lindenwood University announced today the appointment of Gaspare Calvaruso, an executive with SSM Health Care, to its Board of Directors.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon will speak at a lunch meeting of the Bates-Krekel Society on the Lindenwood University campus on March 29. The meeting is open only to membership of the group. Nixon, who was elected in 2008, is the first speaker for the new group, which will meet twice a year, in the spring and the fall.

The Lindenwood University School of Communications will host its annual Lindy Awards at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 24, in the Emerson Black Box Theater of the J. Scheidegger Center for the Arts.

The Lindenwood University Board of Directors has announced that the school’s new 119,000-square-foot student center, which is scheduled to open this summer, will be named The Evans Commons in recognition of Lindenwood President James D. Evans.

Lindenwood University has entered into a sister school arrangement with Zhengzhou Huaxin College in the People’s Republic of China. University officials met with a delegation from the Chinese institution in early March to solidify the agreement, which will create unique educational opportunities for students at both schools.

Poet, scholar, and Celtic Christianity expert Dr. John Phillip Newell will headline the continuing 2010-2011 Speaker Series at Lindenwood University at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 22, 2011, at the Anheuser-Busch Leadership Room. Admission is free.

Lindenwood University’s Board of Directors has approved a 2.9 percent increase in tuition, room and board and other fees for undergraduate resident students for the 2011-2012 academic year.

Lindenwood University’s Young Hall Auditorium will be the site of a debate at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 10, between the candidates for mayor of St. Charles in the upcoming municipal election on April 5.

Dan Cathy, president and CEO of Chick-fil-A, will continue the Lindenwood University Speaker Series with a speech at 9 a.m. on Friday, March 18, in the Anheuser-Busch Leadership Room of the university’s Spellmann Center.

The Lindenwood University Board of Directors has unanimously extended the contract of President James D. Evans through May 2015.