When Larry Estrada arrived at Western Washington University in 1989 as assistant vice president for Diversity in the Student Affairs division, the university at that time offered only a very few courses and programs dealing with cultural and ethnic studies.

“There were language, anthropology and sociology courses that looked at some elements (of culture and ethnicity) but not necessarily examining both culture and ethnicity together,” says Estrada, who also served as director of the Multicultural Services Center, a precursor to the Ethnic Student Center.

Student-actors met Thursday evening, Jan. 30 in the Performing Arts Center to do a dress rehearsal of "The Imaginary Invalid," which opens tonight at the DUG Theater in the PAC. The run-through gave the actors, staff and faculty staff an opportunity to run through the entire play, which is a comedy written by Molière during the 17th century and provides commentary on the pseudo-science that ran rampant in the medical industry during that time.

Western Today recently chatted with Laural Ballew, who just started her job at Western as the university's first executive director of American Indian/Alaska Native and First Nations Relations & Tribal Liaison to the President. Ballew most recently served as department chair of Tribal Governance and Business Management at Northwest Indian College, a program which she created.  Ballew was hired following a national search, and she started at Western on Monday, Jan. 28.

The Bellingham Human Rights Film Festival will feature 18 short and full-length films on Western Washington University’s campus between Feb. 22 and March 2 at Fairhaven College Auditorium (FCA), Academic West 204 (AW) and Communications Facility 115 (CF).

Free and open to the public, these films will explore critical human rights issues with the goal of promoting thoughtful dialog about the dilemmas facing us today.

Friday, Feb. 22

Disaster Capitalism (52 min) 7 p.m. (FCA):