The COVID-19 pandemic has altered business as usual for colleges and universities. With campuses shifting to remote learning, students, instructors, staff, and administrators were made to grapple with a set of new challenges. Western Today recently talked with WWU Professor of History Johann Neem, whose research interests involve the history of public education in America, about the possible lasting effects of the pandemic on public higher education.
As COVID-19 gripped the nation last spring and graduates shuddered at the thought of a pandemic job market, three professors from Western’s Huxley College of the Environment came together to create a cure for some of those fears: the Data Science for Environmental Applications certificate program.
Western’s faculty and students are engaged in exciting research and scholarship across a variety of fields, from marine science and climate change to teaching, the humanities, and the arts. Periodically, Western Today will share short summaries of the latest developments in scholarship and research at the University.
Western history student Hannah Swartos of Anacortes was awarded the Harry Fritz Best Paper Prize on June 2 at the 2021 Phi Alpha Theta Pacific Northwest Regional Conference for her work, entitled "Out of the Way:” Property and the Subversive Construction of Space by Enslaved People in the American South.”
Amidst the shifting health mandates and regulations of the pandemic last year, Western’s Public Health Program has updated its curriculum to better focus on the practical needs of students seeking to enter the healthcare field.
Combining courses, creating equitable application requirements and streamlining the course sequences are some of the alterations.
Change isn’t a new concept for the program. Just last year, the program changed its name from Community Health to Public Health, because of alumni feedback, professor and program coordinator Ying Li said.
Western’s faculty and students are engaged in exciting research and scholarship across a variety of fields, from marine science and climate change to teaching, the humanities, and the arts. Periodically, Western Today will share short summaries of the latest developments in scholarship and research at the University.
Each summer Western Today honors the seven Presidential Scholars chosen to represent their colleges at spring commencement. Each day in Western Today we will add one of the scholars to this story, so check back to see them all!
Western Washington University invites the community to join the virtual celebration of graduates on Saturday, June 12, in three online ceremonies that feature messages of congratulations from families, faculty, Gov. Jay Inslee and students themselves.
Richard Simon, a senior instructor in WWU's Honors Program and Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies, was recently named a finalist in the Pen America Literary Awards' Pen/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction for his unpublished book, "The Dolphin Ambassador's Daughter."
Following 25 years of service to Western Washington University, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Brent Carbajal has announced his retirement effective summer 2022.
