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Spring 2024

WSM staff

Summer 2011

Don’t be a stranger—use Coug connections to break into a new community

In 2006, when David Cox ’05 moved 1,200 miles from Pullman to Phoenix, he didn’t have many ties to the community. Hungry for new friends, he emailed the Washington State University Alumni Association and learned that Lisa Steele-Haberly ’99 in Tucson could help him track down local alumni. It turned out that she was head of the area’s chapter of the alumni association. Cox immediately offered to help organize outings. “We just started coordinating,” he says. “She would plan alumni events in Tucson, and I would organize things in Phoenix.” He helped pull together networking events, game viewing parties, and Northwest wine tastings at local … » More …

Summer 2011

Letters in the Summer 2011 issue

 

Moral capital

Kudos to Jennifer Sherman for her good article summarizing her research and book about real-life experiences in Golden Valley. It describes the price of economic disaster in a rural atmosphere in a revealing and provocative way.

Moreover, we were struck by the completely unnecessary cause of this disaster in the first place. It seems that the collapse of the timber industry in the Pacific Northwest was “due in large part” to placing the protection of the spotted owl over the welfare and economic well being of the entire human population of not only Golden Valley, but also other communities in the logging … » More …

Spring 2011

True to his school long after graduating

Robert Williams ’79, a banking executive, is the current president of the WSU Alumni Association. He started volunteering with the University in the 1980s by joining the advisory board for the College of Business and later found his way to the Alumni Association. He is also on the Board of Trustees for the WSU Foundation. Recently, Williams met with WSM’s Hannelore Sudermann to talk about his time as a student and what he enjoys about volunteering with the Alumni Association.

Why did you choose WSU? In high school, I was a four year track and field letterman. … » More …

Spring 2011

Letters in the Spring 2011 issue

 

Civility 

Professor Cornell Clayton’s article in the winter issue, “Understanding the Civility Crisis” is thought-provoking. However, he betrays the liberal bias common to the majority of today’s college professors. All of the examples he mentions depicting “incivility” in political discourse are attributed to conservative commentators or politicians, as if the right had a monopoly on it.

Hardly. He fails to mention, for example, the current king of media incivility, MSNBC’s character assassin Keith Olbermann, who regularly violently trashes anything conservative and has in the past called President Bush a liar and told him to shut up. The current climate of political discourse was … » More …

Winter 2010

Honoring alumni and volunteers

This year, the WSU Alumni Association had tremendous support from its volunteers, especially those serving as president, members of the board of directors, chapter leaders, and Alliance representatives. In keeping with a tradition established in 1999, the WSUAA at its spring 2010 board meeting recognized eight outstanding alumni with Alumni Ambassador Awards.

As WSUAA president this past year, Gina Meyers ’85 led the effort to approve new association bylaws. But her work as president is just one piece of the time and attention she’s offered WSU over the years. The Bellevue resident has also found time in her busy schedule as … » More …

Winter 2010

Letters for Winter 2010

 

Walla Walla Sweets

I really enjoyed your article on Walla Walla Sweet Onions in the Fall 2010 Washington State Magazine. It brought back a lot of memories of working at the Walla Walla Produce Company, a wholesale fruit and produce company that my Dad ran, as I was growing up in the 1940s and 50s. I spent a lot of summers loading 50-pound bags of Walla Walla Sweet Onions delivered by the growers to our warehouse into rail cars that were being sent to the midwest and east coast. But your article stated that the onions were “not called Walla Walla Sweets until 1960.” … » More …

Fall 2010

Spiritual landscapes

Contemporary Aboriginal Paintings

From the Collection of Margaret Levi and Robert Kaplan

WSU Museum of Art, October 1–December 11, 2010

Ngamaloo, 2008Ngamaloo, 2008, acrylic on linen by Elizabeth Gordon (Balgo Hills region)

Although the details and relationships vary amongst Australian Aboriginal groups, in the beginning the landscape of the world was formed by mythical ancestral beings. Every action of these ancestors had landscape consequences. According to the fine … » More …

Summer 2010

WSU Big Ideas, Discoveries, Creations, Conceptions, People (a suggestive list)

The Uniqueness of Pacific Northwest Flora and Fauna
C.V. Piper

Largely self-taught as a naturalist, Piper believed he needed to classify the flora and fauna of the PNW so other scientists could better understand the uniqueness of area. Published Flora of the Palouse Region (1901), Flora of the State of Washington (1906), Insect Pests of the Garden, Farm, and Orchard (1895), and many other books, including works on hay, soybeans, and other crops.

Allopolyploid formation as a mode of speciation
Marion Ownbey

Ownbey’s work on Tragopogon (goat’s beard, salsify, or oyster plant) on the Palouse was a first, seminal … » More …

Summer 2010

Letters for Summer 2010

 

North Cascades

Loved the article in Washington State this issue, on Cascade Pass archaeology, with Bob Mierendorf. The big mystery at the end, comparing the photos from 1910 and today and showing MORE trees NOW than back then, implying that nothing was “pristine” when whites arrived is probably fine, but the answer is also probably quite simple: FIRE suppression by whites (the cult of Smokey the Bear) has allowed smaller trees to live in places that fire would have burned them routinely over the millennia. Natives also burned, but natural fire was enough to do the job, most agree.

Philip Fenner

 

I … » More …

Summer 2004

New digs fo plant scientists

The corner of Stadium Way and Wilson Road (across the street from French Ad) is looking more downtown with the ongoing construction of the Plant Biosciences Building. Campus leaders have high hopes for the research potential the $239-million, 93,000-square-foot building represents. And this is just Phase 1 of a planned biotechnology research and education complex clustered around Johnson Hall. The new building will house 30 research laboratories on the top three floors and four teaching labs on the ground floor. About one-third of those labs will go to USDA Agricultural Research Service scientists.