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Spring 2011

Mexican Women and the Other Side of Immigration: Engendering Transnational Ties

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Luz Maria Gordillo
University of Texas Press, 2010

There are communities of people who live their lives in two places at once. Residents of Detroit, Michigan, and the small town of San Ignacio, Mexico, for example. In her book, historian Luz Maria Gordillo sets out to explain the history of this phenomenon, which dates back to the 1940s when the Bracero Program started bringing temporary Mexican laborers into the Midwest.

She hones that focus to … » More …

Spring 2011

Black Leapt In

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Chris Forhan ’82
Barrow Street Books, 2009

In Chris Forhan’s latest collection of poems, Black Leapt In, the writer draws upon his childhood in Seattle, using striking natural images and startling honesty and insight. He balances straightforward description of the environment he grew up in with an older, wiser voice that recollects, sometimes sarcastically, that time in his life. Forhan dedicated Black Leapt In to his father, who died in 1973, and many of the … » More …

Winter 2010

Video: Chickpea research at WSU

George Vandemark, the current USDA legume breeder and a faculty member at Washington State University, describes research into chickpeas. Chickpeas, also called garbanzo beans, are an important crop around the Palouse and Pullman, the main campus of WSU. The chickpea provides nitrogen for the soil as well as a high-protein crop. Most chickpeas are used for hummus or salads.

Chickpeas

Chickpea recipes

Winter 2010

Mike Utley’s Memories of WSU: A Perfect Choice

Jim Walden first saw Mike Utley not on a football field but on a basketball court.

Walden, the WSU Head Football Coach, was putting together his 1985 recruiting class, and his assistant coach Gary Gagnon asked him to take a look at a recruit who was playing for the Kennedy High School basketball team in Seattle.

“He was doing everything 100 miles an hour, full-bore, running up and down the court,” Walden recalls. “I distinctly remember thinking he is not going to lead the league in scoring, but he will lead the league in banging, knocking, and grabbing guys. I really like the way he … » More …

Winter 2010

Mrs. Annathena Gilly Gully From Puddle Rumple Tilly Willy

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Chellis Swenson Jensen ’53
Fairwood Press, Inc., 2010

Chellis Swenson Jensen has created a quirky lady backed by her pet parrot, Maurice. Tired of the neighborhood children’s teasing, the lead character decides the solution is to change her name. Only when she recognizes that she, too, can laugh at her name and accept it does she decide to talk with the children.

The story is a collaboration amongst Chellis, her son, Paul Swenson (illustrator), … » More …

Winter 2010

How to Implement Lean Manufacturing

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Lonnie Wilson ’69
McGraw -Hill Professional, 2009

The rise of Toyota in the 1980s showed manufacturers a fundamental change in methods, called “Lean Manufacturing.” After 20 years in management, Lonnie Wilson (’69, Chemical Engineering) now consults with companies on Lean Manufacturing methods.

Wilson’s How to Implement Lean Manufacturing offers manufacturers an engineer’s perspective on reducing waste and inefficiency through quantity control. He outlines the tools of Lean Manufacturing—particularly 100 percent efficiency and “Just In Time” … » More …

Winter 2010

An Election for the Ages: Rossi vs. Gregoire, 2004

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Trova Heffernan
WSU Press, 2010

Every couple of years, we engage in the most basic of democratic activities: voting. Elections typically run smoothly and uneventfully. Sometimes they whip up a tornado of controversy, such as Washington’s whisker-thin gubernatorial election in 2004, following on the heels of Bush vs. Gore in 2000, with Florida’s hanging chads and legal wrangling.

Dino Rossi and Chris Gregoire faced off to be Washington’s next governor in 2004. After the ballot-counting … » 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

Mieko Nakabayashi ’92—Making policy public

Growing up in late 1960s Japan, Mieko Nakabayashi had an unlikely goal. The eldest daughter of a farmer-turned-land-developer, she dreamed of living overseas.

“I was so curious about the world,” she recalls.

Four decades later, that Saitama Prefecture schoolgirl has grown into a power player with a résumé spanning the Pacific Rim and two nation’s capitals. Nakabayashi, 50, has worked as a television reporter, think tank researcher, and professor. For a decade, she worked as a U.S. Senate budget staffer.

Her biggest move came last year, when she was elected to Japan’s House of Representatives. Long acquainted with the cherry blossoms … » More …

Winter 2010

Chickpeas

Although Middle Eastern cooks who found themselves in the United States undoubtedly found sources of such a vital ingredient, it wasn’t until the last couple of decades that the chickpea made its way into the American diet and moved up from the bottom shelf at the supermarket. It can be said with some confidence that chickpeas did not find their way into church carry-ins (potlucks to you non-Midwesterners) until very recently.

The chickpea’s introduction to American cuisine probably started with the salad bar, suggests Phil Hinrichs ’80, president of Hinrichs Trading Company, which processes and distributes chickpeas primarily to a domestic market. Remember those odd … » More …

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