Videos

Approximately 600 Western Washington University undergraduates and about 42 master’s candidates received degrees during fall commencement on Saturday, Dec. 14, in Carver Gymnasium on the Western campus.

Jack Cullen, a member of Foster Pepper PLLC Attorneys at Law, addressed graduates and their families at the ceremony. Cullen is a 1973 Western graduate with a degree in political science. He has 35 years of experience in business law and specializes in complex financial matters. In 2013, “Best Lawyers in America” named Cullen the “Lawyer of the Year” in Seattle for work related to bankruptcy, insolvency and reorganization law. He recently represented an investment group led by actor Patrick Dempsey to purchase Tully’s Coffee. Cullen is also an experienced skydiver who was a member of the U.S. team that won a world championship in 1976. Cullen earned his law degree from the University of Puget Sound. Today, he is a member of the Western Foundation board of directors.

The ceremony’s student commencement speaker was Natalie Boles, who received her Bachelor of Arts degree in geography. Boles, who attended high school and community college in Cincinnati, completed a minor in disaster risk reduction and studied the Japanese post-tsunami recovery effort with Associate Professor Scott Miles. She hopes to attend graduate school and explore career options in the nonprofit or government sector.

The 12th episode of Western Window, the television show for Western Washington University, features looks at student work across the ocean in Rwanda, down the freeway in Skagit County and at home on campus.

Students in Western's Institute for Energy Studies are working to restore local sockeye salmon runs. The student-run Associated Students Recycle Center, founded in 1971, manages all of Western's recycling efforts. Western's KVIK television station produced the university's first lip-dub. And the Center for Service Learning takes students 7,000 miles away to Rwanda to work closely with Rwandans to study sustainable international development.

In their pursuit to race at the NCAA Division II National Championships, the Western Washington University cross country team will have run 52,374 miles, enough miles to circle the earth twice.

Let them hear your voice as they take on the other top teams in the nation.

• GNAC Regional Championships, Nov. 9, 2013 - Spokane
• NCAA DII National Championships, Nov. 23, 2013 - Spokane

Video filmed and edited by Max Romey
Music: "Bleeding Out" by Imagine Dragons

At the request of Western Reads, the documentary “Chasing Ice” returns to the Pickford Cinema at 4p.m. Saturday, Nov. 9.

The documentary tells the story of one man’s mission to change the tide of history by gathering undeniable evidence of our changing planet. Within months of that first trip to Iceland, the photographer conceived the boldest expedition of his life: The Extreme Ice Survey. With a band of young adventurers in tow, Balog began deploying revolutionary time-lapse cameras across the brutal Arctic to capture a multi-year record of the world’s changing glaciers.

Western Reads, a campus-wide reading program at Western Washington University, has chosen “Early Warming: Crisis and Response in the Climate-Changed North,” by Nancy Lord, as its 2013-14 reading selection. A number of climate-related events, including the film screening, are taking place throughout the year in Bellingham.

Nancy Lord’s “Early Warming: Crisis and Response in the Climate-Changed North” weaves stories of her own experiences in communities of Alaska and Northwest Canada, where the effects of climate change are most immediate, with reports of warming salmon streams, village relocation plans and “polar bear tourism.” The narrative talks about regions where the people who face life-threatening change also demonstrate conservation ethics and adaptive capacities. In Shishmaref, Alaska, for example, new seawalls are going up while residents navigate the many practical and bureaucratic obstacles to moving their entire island village to higher ground.

Lord writes from home in Homer, Alaska. As a commercial salmon fisherman for 25 years and later as a naturalist and historian on adventure cruise ships, she takes a particular interest in coastal Alaska and the sustainability of its resources and communities. She has authored three short fiction collections and four books of literary nonfiction; and from 2008-10, she served as the Alaska Writer Laureate.

Currently, Lord teaches at the Kachemak Bay branch of Kenai Peninsula College and in the low-residency graduate writing program at the University of Alaska at Anchorage. Her awards include fellowships form the Alaska State Council on the Arts and the Rasmuson Foundation, a Pushcart Prize and residencies at a number of artist communities.

For more information, visit www.wwu.edu/westernreads.

In other Western Reads-related events, the “Vanishing Ice” exhibit opened Nov. 2 at the Whatcom Museum and runs through March 2, 2014.

Comprising 90 works of art, Vanishing Ice introduces the rich artistic legacy of the planet’s frozen frontiers now threatened by a changing climate. It traces the impact of glaciers, icebergs, and fields of ice on artist's imaginations, and the connections between generations of artists over two centuries. Interweaving science, history and art, this exhibition encourages audiences to value alpine and polar environments for the preservation of biological and cultural diversity.

Monday was such a beautiful fall day that I decided to (mostly as an excuse to leave my office and walk around our amazing campus) go out and make a quick and dirty (low production value, low time investment) video of some of the many lovely parts of the Western Washington University campus. Enjoy!

Every year, just before the start of fall quarter, a handful of incoming freshmen trek off into the quiet wilderness to explore their new surroundings and get a jump on making friends at Western Washington University.

The WOOT! (Western Outdoor Orientation Trips) program, part of the Associated Students Outdoor Center and Student Outreach Services, allow students to bond while hiking through the Mount Baker foothills, kayaking the San Juans or exploring the vast North Cascades wilderness.

It’s an experience the students never forget.

“You arrive and everyone is just so awkward and stand-offish,” says Jasper Gibson, a Western junior who’s made three WOOT trips, this past time as a head trip leader. “But by the end of the week, everyone is best friends; they can’t stop talking with each other. It’s an awesome transformation to watch.”

What helps students get so close in just a week?

Well, for starters, they don’t have cell phones and computers. For an entire week, all they see are the other kids on the trip and the massive wilderness surrounding them. They learn both to rely on each other and to let their guards down, says Marli Williams, who works to organize WOOT! trips each year.

“Even if they don’t stay best friends, there’s this sense that people know me and love me, not in spite of but because of my quirkiness,” Williams says. “The students think, ‘I belong here; there are people who know me, and I can count on them if I need something.”

There’s something about being out in the wilderness, living on their own skills and ingenuity and on the help of their friends, that’s freeing for people, she adds.

Here's how Rikki Dunn, a Western alumnus and veteran of many WOOT! trips, describes the experience (in an excellent blog post that also features a handful of stunning photos):

This is where it’s at! This is why these programs are so powerful. It’s the indescribable mojo that no current research has been able to quantify. The way I think of it is this. You strip away all the distractions: the cell phones, televisions, computers and tablets. You turn down the volume, eliminating the sounds of honking cars, ring tones, and construction. You set aside expectations, judgements, and the pressures of society. You slow down the pace of life and live simply. This gives the students an opportunity that they probably have never had before. An opportunity to look inside themselves and find out who they truly are and who they want to be. They have the opportunity to be goofy, silly, wild, and crazy. To think about where they are coming from and where they are going. They have the opportunity to be authentic, and thats when the magic happens. Thats when real, long lasting relationships are formed. This gives students a strong support network of friends deal with the challenges of transitioning in to college life.

Gibson, who trekked with WOOT through the Chuckanuts as a WWU freshman and last year served on that same trip as an apprentice leader, went this year as a head trip leader and as a videographer to Rainbow and McAlester passes near Lake Chelan. He has about a year of video experience, plus five years of photography expertise and “a bunch of good buddies to get tips from.”

Making the video was a blast, says Gibson, who plans to major in outdoor adventure visual journalism at Western’s Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies. A junior from Sandpoint, Idaho, Gibson also leads excursions through the Outdoor Center.

“It’s hard to describe sometimes what WOOT is,” Williams says. “But you can see it in people’s faces: uninhibited bliss, joy, laughter, that sense that I can be funny and goofy and not be judged. Seeing that captured on film is a great way to help others get a sense of it.”

The WOOT program is in its fourth year as a pilot program of WWU. Its future is currently being reviewed. For more information on the WOOT program, contact Frederick Collins, Outdoor Center manager, at 360-650-3731.

North Cascades National Park, Ross Lake National Recreation Area and Lake Chelan National Recreation Area make up the Stephen Mather Wilderness—over 634,614 acres of dramatic, rugged habitat for wildlife and a paradise for hikers, climbers, and mountaineers.

Join Western Washington University senior Masyih Ford to experience the awesomeness of this amazing mountain wilderness.

This episode of Western Window, made by the students of Western Washington University, features an interview with Western alumnus Will Braden, whose video series "Henri, le Chat Noir," has become an Internet sensation.

Also included in this episode are a look at service-learning at Western, an interview with professional clown Annette Devick, a feature on students competing in track and field at Western, and more.

Welcoming Convocation, one of Western's most meaningful traditions, was held at 7 p.m. on Sept. 24, 2013 in the Performing Arts Center Mainstage Theatre. The event included remarks by WWU President Bruce Shepard, Professor Thor Hansen, Associated Students President Carly Roberts, and a special address by Eileen Coughlin, vice president for Enrollment and Student Services. Afterwards, WWU staff, faculty and current students lined the campus walkways and welcome new students to the Western and Bellingham communities.

Contact the New Student Services/Family Outreach for more information at 360-650-3846.

Robert H. Brim, CEO and founder of Dealer Information Systems Corp., addressed Western Washington University graduates and their families at Western’s summer commencement ceremony on Saturday, Aug. 24, in Carver Gymnasium.

Approximately 327 undergraduates and about 50 master’s candidates received degrees.

Brim, a Distinguished Alumnus of the College of Sciences and Technology, graduated from Western in 1970 with a bachelor’s degree in Physics and Mathematics. He also holds master’s degrees in Electronic Engineering Technology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and in Business Administration from the University of Washington. He is the founder and CEO of Dealer Information Systems, a Bellingham-based company that develops software systems for more than 2,300 heavy equipment dealerships in North America. Brim is also a consultant to small and emerging businesses in China, Vietnam, Canada and the U.S. He serves on the board of directors of the Mount Baker Theatre and as chairman of the College of Sciences and Technology External Advancement Board.

The ceremony’s student commencement speaker was Kelsey L. Looper, a graduate in Manufacturing and Supply Chain Management. Looper is completing an internship at The Boeing Co., leading a team of colleagues through projects focused on improving efficiency on the manufacturing floor. The daughter of Mark and Denise Looper of Sammamish, she is a graduate of Eastlake High School.