There comes a time in the life of every young coastal rainbow trout when a combination of factors – genetic makeup, water conditions, its current health and size, and more – cause it to ask itself one very important question: To go to sea, or not go to sea?

Those that opt to leave the river systems of the West and head out into the ocean (their freshwater brethren remain blissfully ignorant of all this drama) become steelhead, with their time in the Pacific spent becoming a jumbo-sized rainbow that weighs 4 to 5 times that of its river- and lake-dwelling kin.

Western Washington University will launch one of the first residence hall compost programs in the country in the first week of November.

Lidded and ventilated compost buckets will arrive to every residence hall room across campus. In future quarters, all residence hall rooms will have the bins as standard furnishing. Each bin comes with an instructional sticker, providing students with guidelines to successfully compost their organic waste. Residents will receive a roll of compostable bags that will last through the quarter.

Christina Keppie has been named director of the Canadian-American Studies program at Western Washington University.

Keppie has been an associate professor of French and Linguistics in Western’s Modern and Classical Languages department since 2008. She is the first Canadian-American Studies director with a background in French studies. She succeeds director David Rossiter, who will return to his faculty position in Western’s Department of Environmental Studies.

Western Washington University’s Ralph Munro Institute for Civic Education will host the annual Munro Seminar on Oct. 23 and 24; this year’s theme is former Washington Secretary of State, WWU alumnus and former WWU trustee Ralph Munro’s legacy in international affairs.

Programs will highlight Munro’s role in stimulating trade between Washington and the Far East, and his humanitarian work in East Africa.

The keynote speaker will be David Bachman, professor of Political Science at the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington.