Videos

In this lecture, Edward Vajda, a professor with the Department of Modern and Classical Languages at Western Washington University, presents "The Mongol Impact on World History." As part of celebrating Mongolia Day at WWU, Vajda discusses the spectacular consequences of the Mongol conquests begun in the 13th century by Chinggis Khan. The lecture explains how the medieval era ended and the modern world began in the wake of history's most successful empire builder.

Vajda gave this lecture on the WWU campus on Oct. 20 as part of the Center for International Studies fall lecture series.

Western Washington University students describe why they give blood during the regular blood drives on the WWU campus.

The fall quarter blood drive is going on through Thursday on the WWU campus.

Filmed and produced by Adam Cochran | WWU intern

Marie Eaton, a professor in Western Washington University’s Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies, presents “International Service Learning: Case Studies from East Asia and Kenya.” Citing examples from students’ experiences in Thailand, India and Kenya, Eaton reflects on the benefits and challenges of service-learning as a means to educate and cultivate globally aware citizens who are civically engaged and responsive to the needs of others.

This lecture is part of the fall lecture series from the Center for International Studies at WWU.

The Veteran Safe Zone project kicked off on the Western Washington University campus with an informational gathering on May 11, 2009. The aim of the program is to simply improve the campus climate for student veterans by exhibiting outward support, respect and honor for these students regardless of one's own political views. A Veteran Safe Zone will be identified by a logo, and these logos indicate a location where veterans on campus could go to feel safe and supported.

This video was created by Mark Malijan | WWU intern

When Jason Morris saw pictures sent to him by his mother - an Anglican minister doing mission work in Uganda - of pedicab operators in downtown Kampala shuttling their clients around the city on cushions mounted on the back fenders of their bikes, he knew he could do better.

"These guys are called ‘boda-bodas,' and they basically ferry people around the cities and towns in Uganda. Cars and gas are so expensive over there that automobile ownership is prohibitive, so they have turned their bikes into cargo carriers and taxis," said Morris, an assistant professor of Industrial Design at Western Washington University. "The problem is, they are using ancient, 1920s-era bikes; even the newer bikes imported from India are of the design common to touring bikes in Europe 75 years ago; they're not built to carry cargo."

Last year, Morris's mother formed a "design team" of boda-bodas who gathered regularly for lunch and discussed the ideas Morris had for a new bike design: sturdier, simple to maintain, and built to carry cargo. Slowly, Morris's initial design became more and more refined.

Last spring, Morris used some research funding to get the prototype built by a Seattle framebuilder, and over the summer, he packed it into a crate and took it to Uganda, courtesy of a summer research grant and funding available through WWU's College of Sciences and Technology.

The reaction to the prototype was even more effusive than Morris had hoped.

"The guys were so excited. They had been telling everyone who would listen that they were helping design a new bike that was going to come from the States, and nobody believed them - then one day, there they were, riding it around town and waving to everyone. It was just awesome," he said.

The first-ever Moonlight Ramble in Bellingham began with a kickoff event at Western Washington University Oct. 3 featuring vendors, prizes, bike safety information booths and live music. The route took riders through downtown Bellingham and Fairhaven and back to the WWU campus. Proceeds from this event went to benefit the new Pickford Film Center in Bellingham.

Filmed and edited by Michael Leese | WWU intern

Andy Bunn, an assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences at Western Washington University, participated this summer in the Polaris Project in the Siberian arctic. It was the second consecutive summer that Bunn took a pair of WWU undergraduates on the summer research project to study the effects of climate change on these ecologically vital and sensitive areas.

Bunn and the undergraduates, Kayla Henson of Spokane and Max Janicek of Golden, Colo., left for Siberia July 2.

The Polaris Project is a two-year-old initiative coordinated by the Woods Hole Research Center to study the rapid and profound changes under way in the Arctic in response to global warming.  While in Siberia, the students and scientists will be based at the Northeast Science Station, which is located approximately 80 kilometers south of the Arctic Ocean on the Kolyma River, near the town of Cherskiy.

In addition to the field course, the Polaris Project includes several new arctic-focused undergraduate courses taught by project co-primary investigators (PIs) at their home institutions, the opportunity for those co-PIs to initiate research programs in the Siberian Arctic, and a wide range of outreach activities. All project participants, both students and faculty, will visit K-12 classrooms upon their return to convey the excitement and importance of polar research.

Check out the video below by Chris Linder to learn more. The Polaris Project is online at http://www.thepolarisproject.org/.

The mission of Western Washington University’s Shannon Point Marine Center is to support and promote academic programs at WWU that relate to the marine sciences. The center offers courses at the beautiful marine laboratory in Anacortes and provides undergraduate students the opportunity to engage in research.

“It’s this class element of our program that is particularly distinctive,” says Steve Sulkin, director of the marine center. “We have a fine research vessel fleet that gets students out into the environment and lets them use the tools that we use in the field, and our laboratory facilities are excellent in terms of maintaining organisms so that they can be studied and researched.”

The center, which includes 27,000 square feet of laboratory space and housing for students staying at the facility, features extensive analytical facilities for the study of geochemistry and biochemistry, Sulkin says.

“These are very important areas in modern marine science, and we have a lot of activity in that area going on,” Sulkin says. “The opportunity for undergraduates to study at the marine center, combined with the very strong programs on campus in biology and environmental science, provides students with as good an opportunity to study marine science as you can find anywhere in the country, and I feel comfortable in saying that.

“The combination of excellent faculty and excellent basic coursework on the main campus, coupled with the opportunity students get when they come to the marine center to get out in the field to study marine organisms up close and personal and to engage in research is just extraordinary.”

WWU President Bruce Shepard delivered this address to faculty and staff members on Sept. 16, 2009.

The first few lines:

Cyndie and I are delighted to be here with you.  A year ago, you were welcoming us.  This morning, we welcome you as we gather together to begin a new academic year.

I love the rhythms of the academic life, particularly the excitement as a new year begins.  I expect you, as have I for the past 37 years of opening sessions, feel a twinge of anxiousness about the unknowns ahead, but, predominantly, excitement about the challenges and opportunities of a whole new academic year awaiting us all.

The anticipation of open terrain awaiting our footprints.

All summer, I pondered how best to use these moments, how to make them of greatest value to you.  This is a rare opportunity to speak to the university assembled.   You have every right to expect me to candidly and fully share my best thinking. 

To read the full text of this speech, visit http://www.wwu.edu/president/speeches/Fall_Address_09/FallAddress1.shtml.

Members of Western Washington University's chapter of the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association and students, teachers and patients of the Communication Sciences & Disorders Department at WWU gathered to participate in an art project to commemorate the new Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic in the Academic Instructional Center on April 15, 2009. The art will hang in the department's new clinic area.