Western Today for Tuesday, June 30

Polaris Project students, staff prepare to head to Siberia

Huxley's Andy Bunn will again take a pair of undergraduates to participate in the Polaris Project this summer, an NSF-funded field experience researching the effect of global warming and climate change on the Siberian arctic. In the photo at right is recent graduate Tyler Llewellyn, one of the undergraduates who participated last summer.

courtesy photo

Big Ole to sound July 4

Western Washington University will sound Bellingham's historic steam whistle "Big Ole," in observance of the Fourth of July holiday.
The Haggen Family Fourth of July Celebration's fireworks display is scheduled for approximately 10:30 p.m. Saturday and before then the steam the whistle will sound four times, starting at about 9:45 p.m.
This will not be a test or signal of an actual emergency. Normally, during a test or actual emergency, the sound of the whistle is a signal for students, faculty and staff to look for text messages, e-mails, or go to the University's homepage or the Emergency Information Web site at emergency.wwu.edu for more information.

Summer construction update: south campus bike and pedestrian paths under way

This summer, the folks in Facilities Management are revising bike and pedestrian circulation in the south campus area.
The project includes revision to the bicycle route from Bill McDonald Parkway through Fairhaven College and out to College Way.
The other portion is pedestrian and bicycle routing around the Academic Instructional Center and the Wade King Student Recreation Center. Officials anticipate that the project will be complete by the start of school in the fall. There will be construction noise and traffic associated with the work such as trucks removing construction debris, concrete trucks placing concrete, and exterior landscape work.
For a complete construction timeline on this project, click here to go to FAST Online; other updates on summer construction projects will follow in Western Today.

The Bellingham Herald

Bellingham infill options get mixed reviews
City Council members got a lot of feedback on a proposed law allowing construction of nine new housing types Monday, June 29.
During more than three hours of public comment, residents offered a diverse range of views on the new "infill toolkit" that would provide for smaller homes designed to use little land and cost less.
Meanwhile, some who came to the meeting, like renter and Western Washington University professor Scott Miles, argued that there was a lack of representation from the majority of city residents.
Nooksack names new CC coach
Nooksack Valley went with a proven winner when selecting its new cross country coach.
Former Sehome assistant Nic Castona will take over for Rhonda Smith, who resigned to spend more time with her family after she served a successful 10-year stint with the program. Castona, who will be a head coach for the first time, will take the reins of the Pioneer program this fall after three years serving as a Mariners assistant coach.
Castona's experience also includes three years as an assistant track and cross country coach at Lynnwood. He ran track competitively for one year while attending Western Washington University.
Bellingham council moves toward final waterfront effort
City Council appeared poised late Monday, June 29, to vote 5-2 in favor of approving spending $332,500 on final-phase waterfront studies to complete the planning process for 220 waterfront acres by early next year. That money, already a part of the city's 2009 budget, would be matched by the Port of Bellingham as the planning process moves into its final phase.

College News.com

College, close to home
Growing numbers of American students are realizing that it may not be realistic to attend their dream school, and are settling for more cost-effective options close-to-home.
Western Washington University (WWU), a state-funded institution in Washington state, offers a $12,000 tuition discount to state residents. This past year, school saw a 28.5 percent increase in the number of students who wanted to transfer from an out-of-state four-year school.
Karen Copetas, the admissions director at WWU, told the Associated Press that money was the number one reason. Many students are looking to the future, and want to save money for the possibility of attending an expensive graduate school.

Everett Herald

Event looks to connect homeless with help
An event to provide food, medical care and other services to the homeless and help them connect with other programs to provide them help, will take place today at Cascade High School's auditorium.
The event was organized by Stephani Earling, who took on the project a little more than a year ago as part of a college internship with the county's Department of Human Services.
Earling has since graduated from Western Washington University and has continued her volunteer work for the event.
The goal is to provide one event where the homeless can find out about services that are available to them, she said. Dental cleaning, haircuts, blood pressure and glucose checks and a hot meal are some of the services that will be available.

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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