In the Media

Tuesday, October 10, 2023 - Newsweek

Beneath the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of New Zealand, lies a sea's worth of water, locked within the Earth's crust. Researchers believe that this sunken reservoir may play an important role in dampening the strength of earthquakes in the Western Pacific.

We tend to think of earthquakes as sudden, often violent events that take place over a matter of seconds. But energy can also be released from the Earth's crusts in slow motion, over a period of weeks or months. These are called slow slip events and they occur when tectonic plates get temporarily locked together as one attempts to slide past the other.

New Zealand sits at the boundary of two major tectonic plates: the Australian Plate and the Pacific Plate. The boundary between these plates is known as a fault, and this particular Australian-Pacific fault is known for producing these slow-motion earthquakes. But, while experts believe many slow slip earthquakes are associated with buried water under the Earth's crust, no direct geological evidence for an underground reservoir has been found at this particular site. Until now.

Full story features WWU geologist Andrew Gase.

Thursday, September 28, 2023 - Cascadia Daily News

Hundreds of Western Washington University students marched to Depot Market Square on Wednesday, Sept. 27 to celebrate the first official day of fall quarter with Western Wednesday: First Night Out.

The march kicked off from Red Square, led by the pep band, and ended with live music, free Boundary Bay Brewery & Bistro macaroni and cheese, booths from local businesses and more.

Thursday, September 28, 2023 - Cascadia Daily News

As classes start at Western Washington University, increasing retention is top of mind for the university’s administrative team. 

Western is running a $2.2 million deficit this year after a 3% budget cut across the board last spring due to enrollment declines since the pandemic. In 2019, the university had 16,142 students enrolled — in 2022, there were only 14,747. 

However, last year’s freshman class was the biggest in history. Early numbers show promising first-year enrollment this year, near the level of last year’s class of 3,223, Western Communications Director Jonathan Higgins said.  

“That’s all a very encouraging development for us here,” Higgins said. But a big challenge for the university is now making sure those freshmen come back for a second year. Last year, the university reported that only 77.1% of freshman students from fall 2021 returned in fall 2022.

Monday, September 25, 2023 - The Columbian (Vancouver, WA)

Major earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest are fairly uncommon, yet a significant threat looms: “The Big One” is an anticipated earthquake of magnitude 8 or higher.

And it could happen any day.

This projected earthquake — which would occur along the Cascadia Subduction Zone spanning from Southern British Columbia to Northern California — prompted the formation of the Cascadia Region Earthquake Science Center (CRESCENT) and $15 million in funding recently approved by the National Science Foundation.

Two Western Washington University geologists, Emily Roland and Colin Amos, will support CRESCENT’s mission to help the Pacific Northwest prepare for earthquakes by studying the Cascadia Subduction Zone.

“It’s very possible that we could have a magnitude 8 or 9 earthquake tomorrow, or in 10 years, or in three weeks from now,” said Roland, an assistant professor of geophysics at Western. “And so it’s an important goal, I think, for us to keep pursuing a better understanding of that.”

Thursday, December 14, 2023 - Seattle Times

By 

Larry Delaney and Sabah Randhawa

Special to The Seattle Times

When we think about a favorite teacher, many of us think of a teacher who has shared our experience, our culture or recognized us in a fundamental way. We remember the teacher who understood us, not just as students, but as whole people, and who by embracing our interests, cultures, and backgrounds, could engage with us fully and make us seen. This feeling can make a huge difference in student success, particularly for students of color, but also for the entire student body.

Often, when students see their experiences reflected in the front of the classroom, their dropout rates decline, they’re more likely to attend college, and they show bigger academic gains.

According to the Washington Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, more than half of students but just 14% of classroom teachers in 2021-22 (the most recent year reported) were people of color. While we are making gains, we need to continue to grow our educators’ pool to better reflect our state’s population demographics.

We know the traditional path to teacher certification can be expensive, requiring a bachelor’s degree plus a semester of student teaching. The average cost of a year of undergraduate education for in-state residents at public four-year institutions can be upward of $10,000, not including housing, meals, materials and other fees (according to the National Center for Education Statistics, 2021-2022). Aspiring educators continue to pay tuition even while student teaching in their fifth year — and often don’t get paid for student teaching. Total costs toward a bachelor’s degree with a teaching certification typically range between $30,000 and $50,000. Many teachers enter their careers with considerable student debt. 

Investing in Washington’s future teachers is a priority, and is why the Washington Education Association and Western Washington University are partnering to make sure more students can have the benefits of a more inclusive workforce, with help from a $1.5 million fund established by WEA to support a diverse pipeline of educators.

Thursday, September 21, 2023 - Shore Local (NJ)

Jane Wong, whose debut memoir “Meet Met Tonight in Atlantic City” has received rave reviews, will be the first speaker for this academic year at Stockton University’s Stephen Dunn Reading Series.

The 2023 book is “an incandescent, exquisitely written memoir about family, food, girlhood, resistance and growing up in a Chinese American restaurant on the Jersey shore,” according to publisher Tin House.

Wong, who now lives in Seattle, will speak and read from her book at 12:45 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 27 in Campus Center Meeting Room 5. The appearance will also be streamed over Zoom. Admission is free, and the public is welcome to attend.

Here are just some of the comments from reviews of Wong’s newest book:

“Her story is a love letter to Atlantic City and the Asian American working class.” — The Los Angeles Times

“Wong’s memoir invites those who have been overlooked in America to hold up their verses, accolades and solidarity in a collective rejoinder to their detractors.” — The Washington Post

“With a poet’s ear for language and a satirist’s eye for human foibles, Wong masterfully marries her personal story with larger questions about Chinese America identity.” — Publishers Weekly

Wednesday, September 20, 2023 - Charter

Some three-quarters of workers say they’ve felt excluded at work, according to new global EY research. One way for organizations to make themselves more inclusive is to intentionally cultivate a culture of allyship, argues organizational psychologist Meg Warren, an associate professor of management at Western Washington University who studies workplace allyship and inclusion. But many workers and workplaces, she argues, aren’t going about it the right way.

We spoke with Warren about common myths around what it means to be an ally and how to embed allyship into organizational culture.

Friday, September 15, 2023 - Cascadia Daily News

Major earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest are fairly uncommon, yet a significant threat looms: “The Big One” is an anticipated earthquake of magnitude 8 or higher.  

And it could happen any day.  

This projected earthquake — which would occur along the Cascadia Subduction Zone spanning from southern British Columbia to northern California — prompted the formation of the Cascadia Region Earthquake Science Center (CRESCENT), and $15 million in funding recently approved by the National Science Foundation.  

Two Western Washington University geologists, Emily Roland and Colin Amos, will support CRESCENT’s mission to help the Pacific Northwest prepare for earthquakes by studying the Cascadia Subduction Zone. 

“It's very possible that we could have a magnitude 8 or 9 earthquake tomorrow, or in 10 years, or in three weeks from now,” said Roland, an assistant professor of geophysics at Western. “And so it's an important goal, I think, for us to keep pursuing a better understanding of that.” 

Wednesday, September 13, 2023 - Boston Globe

“Boston is built on the business of slavery, whether that’s slave trading or trading with the slave economies in the Caribbean,” added Jared Ross Hardesty, a history professor at Western Washington University.

Thursday, August 31, 2023 - Los Alamos National Laboratory

A collaboration between Los Alamos scientist Jianxin Zhu and Armin Rahmani, associate professor at Western Washington University, will explore the emergent properties and interaction of Majorana fermions using high-performance computing and noisy intermediate-scale quantum computing. Majorana fermions are fundamental counterparts of ordinary electrons but have also been interesting because of their potential for topological quantum computing. The project will support a postdoctoral student and an undergraduate on the research, including a paid summer internship at Los Alamos for the undergraduate student. The project will build infrastructure for advanced research at WWU, primarily an undergraduate institution. It will provide educational opportunities for students from underrepresented groups to gain experience on solving challenging fundamental science problems.