Western Today for Friday, Feb. 13

Preparing for the future

WWU President Bruce Shepard on Thursday delivered his mid-year report to campus. More than 625 people attended the event at the Performing Arts Center while another 100 followed his talk via a live webcast. His report summarizes more than 90 campus listening sessions and more than 100 meetings statewide. The topic of this report, "Preparing the Future," synthesizes the results of those sessions. Shepard outlined 15 themes or initiatives Western can be pursuing, even in difficult economic times, as it seeks to become the best university of its kind in the nation. Both a webcast and print version of the report are available online here.

Mary Gallagher/WWU

Today's Board of Trustees meeting audio is available live and archived

Today's Board of Trustees meeting is available live, until noon, here; after the meeting is over, the audiocast will be archived at that same site.

Coming soon

Arts and Crafts Show entry forms due Feb. 27

The annual Employee Arts and Crafts Show, a longstanding Western tradition, needs your entry forms by Feb. 27. The show runs the week of March 16; for more information, click here.

Athletics this weekend

WWU men's basketball: Away vs. Western Oregon University on Feb. 14.

Women's basketball: Away vs. University of Alaska-Fairbanks on Feb. 14.

The Bellingham Herald

WWU budget cuts mean reduction in student access
No matter how Western Washington University officials work the impending budget cuts, student access to the university will be significantly reduced. During a presentation to the board of trustees on Thursday afternoon, Feb. 12, WWU President Bruce Shepard outlined dismal budget projections, giving trustees a picture of how the statewide budget cuts will affect the university over the next couple years.
Vikings' furious rally falls just short at #1 Alaska-Anchorage
A furious second-half rally fell short as Western Washington University lost 70-67 at nationally No.1-ranked Alaska Anchorage in a Great Northwest Athletic Conference women's basketball contest Thursday, Feb. 12.
Local cinematographer releases Mount Baker trails DVD
Local award-winning producer/cinematographer of wildlife and backcountry productions Karen Edmundson Bean has released "Walking Wild: Mount Baker, North," a new DVD in the Walking Wild series.
In her previous documentaries, Bean interviews people as she goes along, but the walks on "Mount Baker, North" did not lend themselves to that. However, she did not want to leave the area's geology, botany and entomology out of the film. Bean contacted and interviewed three Western Washington University scientists: assistant professor of Biology and herbarium curator Eric DeChaine, Biology professor Merrill A. Peterson and assistant Geology professor Jackie Caplan-Auerbach.
"They were each very unique people and very excited about what they do," Bean said.
Men hold off Saints
Even with a 19-point lead late in the first half, Ira Graham wasn't ready to count it as a win Thursday. The Western Washington guard was expecting a comeback from Saint Martin's. He was right.
After Saint Martin's tied the score 70-70 with three minutes left, Western used a 6-0 run in the final 40 seconds to pull out an 83-76 victory.

Seattle P-I

Students, faculty protest community college cuts
The cuts are starting to strike nerves in the Seattle Community Colleges district. That's what the district's Board of Trustees found at their monthly meeting Thursday, when faculty members and students from Seattle Central Community College packed the room to protest the cancellation of several language classes that fell victim to budget slashing earlier this year.

WWU press releases

The fine print: Western Today is compiled and edited by John Thompson and Matthew Anderson in the Office of University Communications. Some links have time limitations and may not be accessible in the near future. A few articles may require registration to view. If you prefer to be removed from this list, please let us know via the link at the bottom of this document. For upcoming events, faculty research, or faculty and student achievements you would like publicized, please reply to this e-mail; click here to submit news online, or click here to submit entries to our online calendar of events. For the latest Western athletics news and schedules, see http://wwuvikings.cstv.com/. For more on faculty and staff news, see the new FAST Online at http://fast.wwu.edu/.

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