A $10 million gift from Fred Kaiser and Grace Borsari will support “Building Washington’s Future,” a campaign to raise $20 million for a new building to house growing Western Washington University programs in electrical engineering, computer science and energy science, said Stephanie Bowers, president and CEO of the Western Washington University Foundation.

Western Washington University realized significant energy savings and rebates last year through a Puget Sound Energy (PSE) program. Under PSE’s Commercial Strategic Energy Manager program, Western documented actual electrical savings of 1.9 million kilowatt hours in fiscal year 2018-19 and avoided costs of $198,861.

In addition, Western received an incentive grant of $65,985 from PSE, which the university will use to fund additional energy saving measures.

As the sun dipped behind Lummi Island across Bellingham Bay from Western’s campus, students, faculty and community members from many corners of the world came together to celebrate one another with food, music, dancing and games as Language and Culture Programs (LCP) hosted its fall International Culture Night on Friday, Nov. 1, in the Viking Union MPR.

Western Washington University and its Huxley College of the Environment have joined other higher education institutions across the nation and world in declaring a climate emergency and agreeing to a plan to address the crisis through their work with students.