In the Media

There are many social and economic ties that bind the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Certainly, our integrated supply chains, multinational businesses, and linkages between families and friends spread throughout the continent undergird the relationship. It is our borders, however, that literally serve as the ties that bind us. The extent to which those borders enable goods, people, and services to flow between the three countries drives much of our ability not only to remain competitive on a global stage, but also to pursue an integrated North America.

Native dance, discussions and a film screening highlighted Keep the Fire Burning, an event to celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day at Whatcom Community College (WCC) on Oct. 10.  

WCC’s Syre Auditorium was filled with community members who came to watch “Daughter of a Lost Bird,” a documentary about a woman’s journey to find her birth mother and return to her Lummi homeland. The event’s supporting partners included WCC, Western Washington University, Northwest Indian College, Bellingham Public Schools, Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, Bellingham Technical College, City of Bellingham, Skagit Valley College, PeaceHealth and Children of the Setting Sun Productions.  

Extra chairs were brought in to accommodate the crowds of people and those who got there in time received a free traditional Coast Salish salmon dinner.  

When Daphne Scott isn’t teaching math at Western Washington University, she’s busy smashing records. Using her mathematical skills to sharpen her athletic abilities, Scott recently broke an American and world decathlon record for the 60–64 age group. 

“A lot of people buy into this myth that as you age you have to slow down,” Scott said. 

High prenatal growth rates found in modern people may have first evolved in ancient hominids less than a million years ago, according to estimates based on fossil teeth.

Human fetuses grow by around 11.6 grams per day on average – considerably faster than the fetuses of gorillas, the next fastest ape in the hominid family, with a rate of 8.2 grams per day.

“We found that human-like gestation [may have] preceded the evolution of the [modern human] species – around 200,000 to 300,000 years ago – and may in fact be a critical factor that led to our evolution, particularly our large brains,” says Tesla Monson at Western Washington University.

The plentiful seaweed off the shores of Fidalgo and other surrounding islands has concentrated contaminants, according to a study published recently by a team at Western Washington University.

It's the same seaweed that is often eaten by area tribal members and kayakers looking for a snack.

The study found up to 162 chemical contaminants in three of the species of the edible seaweeds, which are bull kelp, bladderwrack and spiral bladderwrack. Those concentrations happened at 43 sites in the Salish Sea throughout the U.S. and Canada, according to a press release from the university.

The toxicity levels of seaweed at two Skagit County sites were included in a Salish Sea study done by Western Washington University researchers. 

The study, published in the scientific journal PLoS One on Sept. 23, looked at three species of edible seaweed at 43 Salish Sea sites, from British Columbia to south Olympia.

The idea for the study originated when Western Washington University researcher Jennifer Hahn was teaching workshops on how to harvest and prepare seaweed for eating straight from the Salish Sea.

“It has been very confusing to many of us who use the park, who do a lot of border policy work,” Laurie Trautman, director of the Border Policy Research Institute at Western Washington University, said of the prolonged closure.

Even with the Canadian side closed, the park proved a massive draw over the two and a half years of border restrictions, and remains so for unvaccinated Canadians who still remain restricted from entering the U.S. because of American policy, Trautman said.

In a Wednesday address to Western Washington University, president Sabah Randhawa reflected on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, discussed the university's strategic plan and looked to the future and its impending budget shortfalls. 

"The COVID-19 pandemic has also shown how we can adapt and come together in new and innovative ways to advance the mission of the university and public education at a time when it is needed more than ever," he said.

Randhawa reported that students of color represent 29% of the entire university this year and that first-year enrollment stands at its highest yet with 3,237 students. First-year enrollment peaked in fall 2018 at 3,147 students and dipped as low as 2,494 in fall 2020, according to the Office of Institutional Effectiveness.

A new study just published by researchers at Western Washington University (WWU) reports concentrations of up to 162 chemical contaminants in three species of edible seaweeds gathered in the Salish Sea.

anna Armstrong took her bioplastic to the Eastern Washington Regional Science and Engineering Fair, where she took first place for her invention and went on to compete virtually in the International Science and Engineering Fair in Atlanta, Georgia, where she placed fourth in the world in the environmental engineering category this year. Judges there helped her talk through how to reduce water usage when creating the bioplastic film and coached her on how to describe her work.

This fall she’s starting college at Western Washington University, where she plans to major in environmental science and minor in environmental justice. Ultimately, she wants to get her Ph.D. in mycology (the study of fungi, such as mushrooms) as she continues developing her product, which she hopes to see on store shelves one day.