Skip to main content Skip to navigation
Spring 2024

WSM Winter 2009

Winter 2009

Letters in the Winter 2009 issue

 

We want our print edition

I doubt that I pull up the Summer 2010 version of Washington State Magazine, though I may. I generally read the magazine over lunch, when I’m taking a break from a day in front of the computer — I don’t want to have lunch with the machine! I may pick it up some other time, but that’s pushing it. I have no doubt of the economic necessity of only putting the issue on line — I’m only glad I went to WSU 40 years ago when I could afford it! — but it doesn’t work well for me.

Ruthann … » More …

Winter 2009

Cultivated thought

Cultivated thought :: Near the end of an otherwise lackluster speech to the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society in September 1859, Abraham Lincoln suddenly shifted gears heading into his peroration.

Having compared two conflicting theories of labor, he continued, “This leads to the further reflection, that no other human occupation opens so wide a field for the profitable and agreeable combination of labor with cultivated thought, as agriculture.”

Although my son would likely question the intellectual appeal of spreading manure, Lincoln’s observation resonates, at least in moments when the laborer/scholar is not exhausted.

Lincoln went on to suggest what fields might provide food for agricultural contemplation. … » More …

Winter 2009

Fast boat

It may look like a child’s model, but the four-foot boat skimming the surface of the Snake River is a prototype of a new kind of watercraft—a boat that can run up on shore to be unloaded, scoot over marshy ground without tearing up the sensitive vegetation, and zoom over snow on its way to remote outposts.

Designed and built by Konstantin Matveev, an assistant professor in Washington State University’s School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, and mechanical engineering students Zach Malhiot ’07, Ryan Soderlund ’08, and Alex Ockfen ’07 B.S., ’08 M.S., the vehicle can go much faster than conventional cargo boats carrying the … » More …

Winter 2009

A century of friendships

The 1909/1910 Chinook yearbook devoted a full page to “The Installation of the Kappa Sigma.” In the text W.M. Coulter, a founding member of the first national fraternity at Washington State College, notes that the event “marks a new epoch in the fraternal life of the College.”

Indeed, according to William Stimson’s student history of WSU, Going to Washington State, by 1918 there were seven national fraternities on campus and four national sororities, in addition to a handful of local fraternal groups. Concerned that students were spending more time on their social lives than their studies, the faculty created a committee in 1911 “to regulate … » More …

Winter 2009

Housing by the numbers

From his corner office in Johnson Tower in the midst of Washington State University’s Pullman campus, Glenn Crellin is far from the most populated parts of the state. Still, from his vantage, he contemplates rental rates around the Puget Sound, home sales in Spokane, and real estate in Moses Lake.

Crellin is the state’s real estate numbers guy and in mid-summer he’s just about to release a report that will stir up homeowners and real estate agents with news that home sales were showing some positive signs.

Crellin and his reports appear regularly in newspapers throughout the state. He’s also well placed in Washington … » More …

Winter 2009

Stormwater central

There’s nothing mundane about the new parking lot at the WSU research and extension center in Puyallup. It is a state-of-the-art polluted water collection system. The 70-some parking spots are specially designed to drain the water from each space into separate collection cells.

The project, which broke ground last summer, is an early step in the station’s efforts to become a leader in Low Impact Development techniques, providing guidance for the rapidly developing community along the Puyallup River Valley. In this case, the station will look at how to capture and clean stormwater runoff so that it doesn’t … » More …

Winter 2009

Is organic more nutritious?

This summer saw the publication of a study of the nutritional value of organic versus conventional foods by scientists with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Based on a review of 55 articles they judged of satisfactory quality, the scientists, led by Alan Dangour and funded by the governmental Food Safety Agency, concluded that “there is no evidence of a difference in nutrient quality between organically and conventionally produced foodstuffs.”

Preston Andrews, WSU professor of horticulture and a prominent researcher of nutrient value of organically grown food, is irked by the report, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, both by its … » More …

Winter 2009

Opening new doors to green

The soaring ceiling, room-length fireplace, and glass doors that open to the outdoors give the lobby the flavor of a ski lodge crossed with an open-air café. However, the ambience of Olympia Avenue—Washington State University’s new residence hall—masks its eco-friendly bones: the exposed wood comes from old buildings, a retractable screen shades the lobby when it’s too sunny, and the floors are polished decorative concrete.

“I love the space. It’s just so exciting to live in a brand-new hall,” says sophomore Hannah Donaldson, one of about 230 residents of the new building. Donaldson, an animal sciences major from Sultan, points out that information throughout the … » More …