Western Today for Tuesday, May 12

Veteran Safe Zone project a reality

The Veteran Safe Zone project kicked off with an informational gathering on May 11, 2009. The aim of the program is to simply improve the campus climate for student veterans by exhibiting outward support, respect and honor for these students regardless of one's own political views. A Veteran Safe Zone will be identified by a logo, and these logos indicate a location where veterans on campus could go to feel safe and supported. Click on image to see video.

WWU video/Mark Malijan

CST to host next 'Wizards@ Western' event this Saturday

The next installement in the College of Sciences and Technology's free 'Wizards @ Western' youth lecture series, "Lasers ... Photons ... Action!" will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 16 in SMATE 150 on the WWU campus. The presentation, by Assistant Professor of Chemistry Elizabeth Raymond, is geared toward youth in grades 4-8.

Senior Survey debuts; help collect valuable data on your college and department!

The Office of Survey Research (OSR) is now inviting all seniors graduating Spring and Summer to participate in Western's Survey of Graduating Seniors, a part of the WELS series. This new survey will ask outgoing seniors about their majors, influential professors, satisfaction with their experience on campus and in the classroom, obstacles they faced, and more. But this data is only as valuable as the number of its participants - OSR needs your help in getting this survey into the hands of the seniors in your department. For more information, contact OSR's Linda Clark at x4882.

Waterfront Forum set for today at 4 p.m.

WWU will hold a public forum to seek reaction to Character Study ideas for the university's potential waterfront development from 4 to 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 12, at the Academic Instructional Center West, Room 210. Faculty, staff, students, alumni and members of the community are welcome to attend. At the forum there will be opportunities to comment and contribute new ideas to the work produced from similar workshops with faculty, staff and students on campus. For more information on Western’s plans at the Bellingham waterfront, click here.

The Washington Post

Despite stimulus finds, states cut more jobs
Western Washington University in Bellingham is bracing for 400 layoffs of staff members and adjunct faculty. The college is the largest employer in its county. "There was all the talk at the time about how the stimulus package wasn't big enough, and that is true here," said faculty union president Bill Lyne. "It's barely letting us keep our noses above water."

The Bellingham Herald

WWU wins GNAC all-sports team title
Western Washington University, which won GNAC titles in men's and women's soccer, men's basketball and men's golf, is the 2008-09 Great Northwest Athletic Conference All-Sports Team Champion. It is the first all-sports title for the Vikings and athletic director Lynda Goodrich since 2004-05 when they won the fourth of four consecutive all-sports championships.

The Gourmet

Q&A with David Kessler
As FDA commissioner under presidents Bush and Clinton, Dr. David Kessler led the charge to regulate the tobacco industry; the landmark multibillion-dollar settlement between Big Tobacco and 46 states was largely a product of his efforts. Now he is taking on Big Food.
"For the first set of research that I published with my colleagues Jeff Grimm at Western Washington University and Diane [Figlewicz] Latteman at the University of Washington, we titled it 'Deconstructing the vanilla milkshake;' We wanted to know, what drives consumption? Is it sugar? Fat? Flavor? And we found that sugar is the main driver. And then fat adds synergistically: If you add fat on top of sugar, animals will work harder for it."

WWU News 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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