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Campus life

Summer 2006

Foreign stories

Crista Ames and Junko Matsumura are both bright, friendly, and soft-spoken. They are just a few months apart in age. And both want to go out and see the world.

It was these common interests that brought the student from Kennewick and the student from Osaka together at McCroskey Hall last winter. They’re roommates in a program that pairs international students with American counterparts to foster greater understanding between cultures. The residence hall, a former women’s dormitory that was remodeled in 2001, is home to close to 70 students, half of whom hail from places like Japan, France, Wales, China, and Bahrain. In all, WSU … » More …

Spring 2006

The Clothesline Project

Haunting and colorful, the Clothesline Project usually stops students in their tracks as they head across the Glenn Terrell Mall to class. It’s a display of several hundred t-shirts made by people connected to Washington State University with messages about how violence, particularly against women, can affect individuals, families, and communities. For a week last October, the campus community had a chance to read the words of victim/survivors and their friends.

Fall 2008

CUB’s new, too!

This fall, visitors and alumni returning to Pullman will see that campus has changed all around the stadium renovation. In fact, a far bigger project, the $86 million renovation of the Compton Union Building, is wrapping up. The ’60s and ’70s décor is gone, but the 1951 architectural shell remains. Now it holds a brighter, more open student union and a very large bookstore to boot.

The CUB was closed in 2006, and for two years students had to go elsewhere for food, entertainment, and to just hang out. With six floors and 235,000 square feet to renovate, the project involved rebuilding stairways, removing walls, … » More …

Fall 2008

If you don’t ask…

Tiffany Ludka ‘04 has a piece of advice for students with big bills: It never hurts to ask for help.

During her first year of medical school at the University of Washington, the Colfax native hit on the idea of asking the medical community in her hometown to consider paying some of her medical school bills if she agreed to go into practice there. She’d known for a long time that she wanted to practice in a small town, preferably the one she grew up in.

Colfax, 13 miles north of Pullman, has a bustling downtown and is the county seat, but with a … » More …

Fall 2008

A new college guide

The market is full of books on how to get into and succeed in college, but few of those books are targeted at students who may be the first in their family to go beyond high school. Even fewer are targeted specifically to the needs of Native American students.

Two faculty members at Washington State University have sought to fill that need with a handbook titled The American Indian and Alaskan Native Student’s Guide to College Success, published in 2007.

The book is for students, but it’s also for “quite a range of stakeholders,” says Michael Pavel, the author and associate professor in the … » More …

Spring 2006

Cell phones help students and parents stay close—Sometimes too close

Michael Johnston (’08 Bus. Admin.) switched his cell-phone plan in October. And the incentive wasn’t just the free, high-tech phone or the low text-messaging fees.

“I can get those mobile-to-mobile minutes with my family now,” says Johnston. “Now I don’t have to worry as much about the minutes I use with them.”

Johnston says he talks to either his mom or dad each day, for at least 15 to 20 minutes.

He’s not the only one. He’s part of the millennial generation for whom there is no typical, mandatory Sunday evening phone call home.

Now parents are getting the 9 a.m. Saturday call, the … » More …