In the Media
Western Washington University's Carmen Dolfo has been named the Women's Basketball Coaches Association Division II West Region Coach of the Year for the second straight season.
Dolfo, who completed her 20th campaign as the Vikings' head coach, directed Western to a 26-4 record, first-place in the GNAC regular-season standings and the first round of the NCAA II West Regional. During one stretch, the Vikings won 19 straight games, tying the second-longest string in school history, and extended their home court streak to 26, three short of the WWU record, before falling.
Western Washington University guard Amanda Dunbar has been named a Women's Basketball Coaches Association honorable mention All-American and West Region all-star, receiving both honors for the second straight year.
A senior from Marysville where she graduated from Marysville-Pilchuck High School, Dunbar became just the second player in school history and the first in 30 years to lead Western in scoring four consecutive seasons. She finished fourth among school career scoring leaders with 1,654 points. That total ranked third in Great Northwest Athletic Conference history.
Western Washington University softball pitcher Erika Quint was named Great Northwest Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Week for March 13-19.
It's the second straight weekly honor for the senior pitcher, and third this season.
If the recent earthquakes and tsunami in Japan made you wonder about the potential for disaster in Whatcom County, you're not alone.
"Most people right now are saying, 'Holy smokes, can we get something like Japan here?'" said Jackie Caplan-Auerbach, associate professor of geology at Western Washington University. "And the answer is absolutely yes."
Railroad mechanical worker Luke Trapp has a schedule that changes from week to week, and the 24-year-old Seattle resident doesn't know if he'll be living in Seattle next year — or next month. So when he wanted to get his bachelor's degree in business management, he decided he could not be tied down to a class schedule at a single location.
Trapp signed up for classes at Western Governors University (WGU), a private, not-for-profit online school founded in 1997 by the governors of 19 Western states, including Washington.
Higher education in our state is at a crossroads. In one direction lies a path of necessary innovation, economic vitality and limitless opportunities for a citizenry growing by leaps and bounds. In the other, closed doors and minds, economic decline and mounting despair. Which road is taken will be determined by us: the citizens of the state of Washington.
For 150 years - through wars, the gaining of statehood, the market's upticks and downturns -Washington's public universities have enriched the lives of people throughout our state, nation and world. Since their founding, our state's universities have been able to continually grow, thrive and evolve with critical financial support from the Legislature.
In response to today's revenue forecast, which estimates the state's budget shortfall for the next two years will be about $5.3 billion, about 1,000 teachers, healthcare workers students and others crowded onto the Capitol steps, calling for lawmakers to end tax exemptions rather than cutting education and social programs.
Washington’s state budget gap widened Thursday to about $5.3 billion through mid-2013. A new revenue forecast knocked another $780 million out of budget-writers’ hands, due to geopolitical uncertainty in the Mideast and Japan.
In doing so, the forecast stoked a growing debate: Should the state raise taxes to balance the books or simply slash programs, including health programs that serve the poor.
Washington's chief economist Thursday delivered the bad news everyone expected: Tax collections are down, pushing the state's projected budget deficit above $5 billion.
Now lawmakers must erase it, a task they've been dreading, and the governor warned it must be done without any fiscal gimmickry.
The state's chief economist delivered more bad news on Thursday, announcing that projected state tax collections are down another $698 million over the next two years.
State officials now estimate the two-year budget shortfall at around $5.1 billion and say it could reach $6 billion. Gov. Chris Gregoire's budget office previously estimated a shortfall of around $4.6 billion when she released her plan to cut spending back in December.