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Summer 2024

WSM Winter 2003

Winter 2003

New Deal at the library

The Works Progress Administration (WPA), established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935 as part of his New Deal reforms, was designed to put Americans back to work at a time when the country was suffering massive unemployment from the Great Depression. Now the results of one WPA program can be found on Washington State University’s Web site.

Historians working for the WPA in the 1930s and 1940s clipped and archived more than 300,000 newspaper articles dealing with issues and events in the Pacific Northwest from the 1890s to 1940. But it was the inspiration of Ingrid Mifflin, system librarian with the WSU Libraries, … » More …

Winter 2003

Tim Pavish new head of WSU Alumni Relations

Tim Pavish has been named executive director of Washington State University Alumni Relations and the Alumni Association. The 1980 graduate of WSU’s Edward R. Murrow School of Communication was selected from 50 applicants in a national search. He began his new job September 8, succeeding Keith Lincoln, who is retiring.

“Tim has been a tremendous friend of our university over the years. We have greatly appreciated his loyalty, his hard work, and his wise counsel. He is an ideal choice to continue the job of building the association and meeting the needs of our alumni,” says WSU president V. Lane Rawlins.

Before accepting the WSU … » More …

Winter 2003

A magnet for entertainment: Beasley celebrates 30th anniversary

As Beasley Performing Arts Coliseum marks its 30th anniversary this year, there’s been much to appreciate about the multi-purpose building. It has a great sound system and sightlines. The entertainment is big time and varied—Broadway shows (Jesus Christ Superstar, 1988) to Cougar basketball games and crafts and job fairs. One wonders how the University managed before the $8 million facility opened for commencement in 1973.

Capacity is 12,000, or 4,700 in a mini-arena configuration, and 2,500 in the theatre at the coliseum’s west end. Basketball made its debut in Beasley in 1973, and George Raveling’s 1982-83 Cougars (23-7) went undefeated in the coliseum.

Comedians, including … » More …

Winter 2003

All for one, one for all

In the president’s conference room I have placed a Smithsonian Institution poster showing a group of about a dozen meerkats. For many years I have been fascinated by these small mammals, about the size of prairie dogs, that survive in the harsh conditions of the Kalahari Desert. I first learned of them in an article in the Smithsonian magazine in the early 1980s. Since that time there have been a number of studies, magazine articles, and at least three television specials on these small members of the mongoose family. They have been the subjects of extensive study, not just because they are small, cute, and … » More …

Winter 2003

What is this drug, and what does it do?

On a typical day, a dozen pharmacists, physicians, and other health care practitioners will call the Drug Information Center (DIC) in Spokane for some help.

“The questions run from easy ones we can answer right away to ones where three days from now we still don’t have an answer,” says Danial E. Baker, DIC director and a pharmacy professor at WSU Spokane.

The center, which was started in 1973 and is primarily funded by grants and contracts, also serves as a teaching laboratory for up to four pharmacy students at a time. Students in their final year of pharmacy school spend six weeks … » More …

Winter 2003

A new method for measuring heart risk

Almost 500,000 people in the U.S. die each year from coronary artery disease, the most common type of heart disease. Half of those people didn’t even know they were at risk or had any symptoms of the condition, according to the American Heart Association.

This could change, however, with the adoption of more accurate ways to identify who has the disease, instead of relying on less consistent risk factors like cholesterol levels.

During the past 10 years, more than 1,000 Washington State residents have participated in the Spokane Heart Study, which might do just that—change the way coronary artery disease is identified. Every two years, … » More …