The Bellingham Herald

• WWU to lose 164 employees to budget cuts
  There will be about 164 fewer employees at Western Washington University next school year due to budget cuts, according to the draft 2009-11 operating budget released Wednesday, May 6.
  
  In a letter to campus explaining the budget and the budgeting process, WWU President Bruce Shepard said most of those position cuts will be handled by not filling vacant positions. However about 65 current employees will be laid off or not have their contracts renewed.
  
  In all, WWU is cutting about $18.9 million, or about 7.4 percent of the operating budget, over the next two school years. University officials changed the budgeting process this year, making it more transparent and adding budget revenue and expenses that weren't publically budgeted in past years.

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• WWU's Pinky Nelson inducted into Astronaut Hall of Fame
  George Nelson's best friend remembers when they went into the countryside to look at the stars one night when they were in junior high school.
  Nelson pointed out a couple of constellations. Then passed Sputnik, the world's first manmade satellite, launched by the Soviet Union.
  
  "He said, 'Someday, I'm going to be flying around up there.' It was kind of a premonition and I remember that very vividly," his best friend, Riley Nelson, no relation, recently recalled.

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• WWU's Koppenberg qualifies for national tourney
  Western Washington University's Jake Koppenberg birdied the first playoff hole to break a five-way tie and earn the second and last individual national berth from a non-qualifying team at the NCAA Division II Central/West Men's Golf Super Regional, which ended Wednesday at the 7,016-yard Wilderness Ridge Golf Club in Lincoln, Neb.
  
  Koppenberg fired a 2-under 69 on the final day to finish in a six-way tie for ninth at 4-over 217, with five of those being from non-qualifying teams.

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• Women's rowing takes the gold at WIRA regatta in California
  Winning two gold medals and three silvers, the Western Washington University women's rowing team enjoyed its best performance in school history at the Western Intercollegiate Rowing Association Championship Regatta which ended Sunday, May 3, on Lake Natoma in Gold River, Calif.

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• Western qualifies more for nationals, Porter sets school record
  Western Washington University hurdler Michelle Howe and the women's 4x400-meter relay team both met NCAA Division II national provisional qualifying standards and distance runner Sarah Porter achieved her automatic qualifying time and set a school record at the Pacific University Twilight Track and Field Meet on Saturday, May 2, in Forest Grove, Ore.

Lynden Tribune

• Bring on the big time - WWU hosts NCAA Div. II national golf championship
  When the players see the freshly painted parking lines, see the pressure-washed roof and see the signs with their school logos on them …
  
  When they step onto the green, gawk at the rough that’s thick enough to sink a vente cup from Starbucks and admire the flowers and beauty bark …
  
  When they walk under the sparkling chandelier, up the curved stairs, onto the second floor, and up to the window …
  
  They will know why Loomis Trail Golf Course and Semiahmoo Resort were chosen to host the NCAA Division II Men’s Golf National Championships on May 19-22.
  
  When the time came to put in bids for the event, Brett Eaton and WWU’s men’s golf coach Steve Card got together in the fall of 2006. They gathered pictures, memorabilia, accolades, yardage books, descriptions of all the amenities, everything they had to offer — you name it — and put in a bid for the event.

The Daily Northwestern

• NU investigation exonerates man after 16 years in jail
  On Friday, a 14-year-old B-minus journalism assignment helped free an innocent man from jail. Carolyn Nielsen, Medill School of Journalism '95, investigated the story of 14-year-old Thaddeus Jimenez, who was convicted as an adult for a murder he claimed he did not commit.
  
  After 16 years behind bars, Jimenez, 30, was released from prison, his conviction and 50-year sentence vacated.
  
  "I thought, 'In 10 years I may look back on this and people will think I've been played a fool,'" Nielsen said. "But I really believe this kid is innocent."
  Now a Western Washington University journalism professor, Nielsen has kept everything she had from the article - from her interview notes, to the original marked-up first draft, to the letters she received from Jimenez while he was in prison.
  
  "I think much too often we see people who have been convicted of crimes as a number, a faceless being," Nielsen said. "We have little empathy for what they've gone through in their lives. In this case, this was someone who hadn't even done anything."

Florida Today

• Pinky Nelson among 3 astronauts inducted into Hall of Fame
  Astronauts George "Pinky" Nelson and Rick Hauck both fondly recalled a moment on the space shuttle flight deck high above Earth. Hauck, alone at first, stared out the window at the blue-green planet below when Nelson joined him. Both men, in awe, watched in silence.

  "We looked at each other and smiled, thinking how good this opportunity was," Hauck said, as he introduced Nelson as one of the three newest members of the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame Saturday.

  Nelson was a member of the first spacewalking team to repair a satellite in-orbit. He flew three space shuttle missions during the 11 years he was in the Astronaut Corps, from 1978 to 1989. He now serves as director of science, mathematics and technology education at Western Washington University.

PR Canada

• Artefact and Carbon Partner to work with WWU on design project
  Artefact Group, a Seattle-based design consultancy, today announced that it is collaborating with Carbon Design Group, a full-service industrial design and product development consultancy to create a project with Western Washington University's (WWU) Industrial Design Department.
  
  The special project titled "Education: A Vision for 2015" will give WWU students the opportunity to research and understand the challenges of early, primary, secondary and post-secondary classrooms in Bellingham. Taking on the role of design consultant, WWU students will research and develop educational products that will enhance the learning process in the classroom.