• Couples study debunks 'trial marriage' notion of cohabiting
  Most unmarried couples who live together aren't trying to test their relationship. They just want to spend more time together.
  
  That finding, from a new national study of dating and cohabitation, seemingly contradicts the popular wisdom of cohabitation as a trial marriage. It's among early results from the study, scheduled to continue for years, and it gives researchers new insight into the burgeoning number of couples who cohabit.
  
  Sociologists Jay Teachman of Western Washington University in Bellingham and Daniel Lichter of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., say the new study is promising because it asks detailed questions of young adults and can monitor relationship progression from dating to cohabitation. Both sociologists study cohabitation; neither is involved in the new research.

• WWU researcher turns to ancient pines for research on climate change
  Andy Bunn will walk through a starkly beautiful landscape in September, where twisted and ancient bristlecone pines grow from a dry, rocky land scoured by high winds and blanketed in snow much of the year.
  
  The Bellingham scientist's aim during those 10 days in Great Basin National Park in Nevada will be to extract small core samplings from as many as 100 trees. The diameter of a pencil, the cores will be taken to his lab at Western Washington University's Huxley College of the Environment.
  
  At Huxley, the pieces of trees with a lifespan of thousands of years will be examined under a microscope, their rings studied and counted to gain a sense of how the climate has changed in the past - before people had an impact - in the hopes of understanding what climate change could mean for the future.
  

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• WWU professors get $75,000 grant to research the mental health of veterans
  Two Western Washington University employees have received a grant to study the effects of military service on health. Sociology professor Jay Teachman and Demographic Research Laboratory director Lucky Tedrow received nearly $75,000 from the National Science Foundation via the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The grant will cover two years of study into the mental and physical health of veterans who fought mostly in the 1980s and 1990s.

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  B.C. economy at a crossroads - will Olympics bring gold?
  Our neighbors to the north are going through some interesting economic times.
  While B.C. is dependent on the U.S. and the global economy, what happens up north impacts us in Whatcom County. According to the Center for Economic and Business Research at Western Washington University, 936,876 people came through our local border crossing in May, down 7.6 percent year-over-year. Southbound border crossings have been consistently down year-over-year in 2009.
  

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• WTA board members support WWU bus pass deal
  A majority of Whatcom Transportation Authority leaders like a proposed deal that would require Western Washington University to pay about 25 percent more for prepaid student bus passes.
  
  The increase would be spread over the next three academic years.
  The WTA board's executive committee discussed the proposed deal Thursday, July 9, and voted to recommend that the full board approve it. Five members of the committee, who make up more than half of the board, voted in favor of the deal, and another member expressed support but was absent for the vote.

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• Bellingham's RMC Architects tackles Western library project
  RMC Architects is designing a new space for Wilson Library's Special Collections Department at Western Washington University.
  
  The department is currently located on the second level of the library with archival storage spread throughout the building. The new design will consolidate it to the sixth floor and accommodate future growth, as well as the need for archival environment upgrades, according to a company press release.

• Has Washington crossed the Rubicon on high tuition at state universities?
  The budget cuts to our public higher-education institutions this biennium were deep enough to cause some to suggest we have crossed the Rubicon — a point of no return.
  
  Are we entering new territory in which our public institutions rely primarily on tuition revenues and operate largely as private entities? Do we need a new public/private funding model? Or will we confirm there is a fundamental public purpose to higher education that merits a public investment?
  
  In 2009-2011, for the first time in history, four of Washington's six baccalaureate institutions will receive more operating revenue from tuition and fees than from state appropriations. They are University of Washington, Central Washington University, Evergreen State College and Western Washington University.

• Phuture Phoenix twin gets big start
  The Compass 2 Campus program, modeled after UW-Green Bay’s Phuture Phoenix program, has received more than double the expected student registration as more than 400 Western Washington University students prepare themselves to help mentor fifth graders.
  
  Started by Phuture Phoenix co-founder Cyndie Shepard (wife of former UW-Green Bay Chancellor Bruce Shepard), Compass 2 Campus is a near twin to UW-Green Bay’s student mentoring program.

Puget Sound Business Journal

• WWU gets $900,000 grant to train new math and science teachers
  Western Washington University said it’s received a five-year, $900,000 grant from the National Science Foundation aimed at encouraging students to become science and math teachers for middle and high schools.
  
  The grant, from NSF’s Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, is aimed at science, technology, engineering and mathematics majors and will provide 61 $10,000 scholarships to those students. In addition, the scholarships can also be used by private-sector professionals looking to make a career switch to become science and math teachers.