THE
PHILOSOPHY
OF NOW
K E V I N S. D E C K E R
up front
Dear Alumni and Friends: In Eastern magazine, you meet students, faculty, staff and alumni who are working creatively, using imagination and innovation to make this university and our communities more functional and more interesting. This spring, I am pleased to announce the launch of a creative initiative focused on strengthening and refining our commitment to students’ success. The EWU Graduation Project is a comprehensive approach that aligns our efforts and our focus. EWU is committed to access, to reaching out to qualified, highachieving students from all backgrounds and helping them attain their goals of a college education and degree. As many of you know from experience, the path to that degree can be lengthy and complicated. The EWU Graduation Project ensures that everyone on our campuses, as well as our alumni and friends, understands our shared commitment to students: Our goal is your graduation. Once you are accepted as an EWU student, we work with you, intentionally and strategically, to help you achieve learning goals and progress efficiently toward an academic degree. The Graduation Project is composed of four building blocks:
. Advising. We ensure that all students receive accurate, timely advising throughout their time at EWU, and that our processes and policies keep students on track. . Assessment. We continually review curricular and cocurricular areas to ensure that students have the learning outcomes and skills needed to be successful. . Critical Foundations/General Education. We provide lower division students with challenging coursework that engages their interest, encourages them to stay enrolled and helps develop important skills. . ScholarshipFundraising.Wecontinuetoincreasesupporttohelp students stay enrolled with a minimum of debt. Each of these components is in a different stage of planning and development. Each is a significant multiyear undertaking. The EWU Graduation Project pulls the components together, tracks and communicates progress, and reminds us that each initiative is an essential part of one strong commitment. The work we do as a university is vital to the success of thousands of students. The EWU Graduation Project is a creative and powerful commitment to that success.
Mary Cullinan President, Eastern Washington University
Mission Statement:
EWU expands opportunities for personal transformation through excellence in learning.
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features
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Not Your Father’s Philosophy
Professor Kevin Decker teaches without being “teachy.”
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In the Winners’ Circle
Nikeela Black ’07 – attorney by day; jockey by night
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Growing a Great Future
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Living: building, curriculum, community
A Toast to History
Monica Stenzel ’13 uses food to give students an appetite for history.
Super Collider
Kira Burt ’11 works on the largest science experiment in the world.
Wordsmiths
Poet laureate Tod Marshall ’92 and author Terry Davis ’69 leave indelible mark on readers.
on the cover EWU professor Kevin Decker teaches the Philosophy of Now.
departments
2 up front 4 letters to the editor 6 on the road 8 eastern etc. 34 faces & places 39 class notes 44 in memoriam 46 final thoughts 47 events calendar
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Letters to the editor write to us
Send your letters or notes to easternmagazine@ewu.edu or to Eastern magazine, 102 Hargreaves Hall, Cheney, WA 99004. Letters are edited for clarity, style and length. Please include your full name and address.
A Budding Business A Budding Business? I found the article, while informative, to be very inappropriate for this publication. The article is about dope. Dope has no place in education or any of its derivatives. This business has a lot of negativity associated with it. I think what you have portrayed is that this business is not only OK but also something to be proud of. I strongly disagree and ask that you formally apologize to your alumni for this lack of judgment. Terry Hergert ’10 Spokane, Washington
I was so excited and proud to see the feature “A Budding Business” in the fall issue of Eastern magazine. And I’m not the least bit surprised to see that some of the very bright and talented people on the forefront of this booming business are EWU grads. The legalization of recreational marijuana in Washington has opened up dozens of avenues for entrepreneurialism, and has created new opportunities for individuals and businesses alike to contribute to, and profit from, this new and exciting industry. EWU graduates from all disciplines now have new opportunities to put their degrees to use in an industry that is not only generating billions of dollars of revenue, but also a significant amount of tax revenue that ends up supporting education and other critical services in the state of Washington. Once again, Eastern magazine is on the forefront by proudly highlighting these alums and this emerging industry. Well done EWU! Bart Mihailovich ’06 Missoula, Montana
EASTERN
FALL 2015
THE MAGAZINE for Eastern Washington University Alumni and Friends
EDITOR KANDI CARPER ’05 ART DIRECTOR RYAN GAARD ’02 CONTRIBUTING WRITERS JEFF BUNCH ’88, KANDI CARPER ’05, DAVE COOK, DAVE MEANY CONTRIBUTING DESIGNERS STEVE BATEMAN, SAM BUZBY '07
PHOTOGRAPHY DAVID LANE, PAT SPANJER ’80, JEFF BUNCH ‘88, ERIC GALEY '84, LARRY CONBOY
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EDITORIAL BOARD STEVE BLEWETT ’69, CASSIE DEVANEY ’96, KORY KELLY '98, KARENE GARLICH-LOMAN ’03, ‘98, NICK LAWHEAD ’07, LISA LEINBERGER ’98, KAYLA NORTHROP ’08, ROBIN PICKERING ’03, ’97, NANCY TSUTAKAWA ’70 VICE PRESIDENT FOR UNIVERSITY ADVANCEMENT MICHAEL WESTFALL DIRECTOR OF ALUMNI ADVANCEMENT LISA POPLAWSKI ’01, ’94 DIRECTOR OF MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS TERESA CONWAY EWU ALUMNI BOARD PRESIDENT TOM CAPAUL ’97, ‘94
CONTACT US EMAIL: EASTERNMAGAZINE@EWU.EDU PHONE: 509.359.6422 WRITE: EASTERN MAGAZINE, 102 HARGREAVES, CHENEY, WA 99004-2413 EASTERN MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED FALL AND SPRING BY EWU MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS, AND IS MAILED FREE TO ALUMNI OF RECORD IN THE UNITED STATES. VIEW THIS AND PREVIOUS ISSUES ONLINE AT WWW.EWU.EDU/EASTERNMAGAZINE.
Seriously? I never opened my alumni magazine expecting my alma mater to be touting the business skills of drug peddlers. Have we sunken so low as a university that all we have left to profile as alumnus are drug dealers? It is also nice how the author has the main “character” playfully admit to growing pot before it was legal (a felony). Glad to hear that Eastern can be so cavalier about drug use and dealing. One must wonder if the campus community also encourages drug/ alcohol use. I can hear half of your alumni base cringing. This magazine, I believe, does not have an intended audience of 20-year-old sophomores eating Cheetos in an apartment on Salnave. This article is the epitome of being tone deaf. Brandon Moen ’01 Snohomish, Washington
What they’re saying online This article was well written and very insightful into the industry. Marijuana will remain a bit taboo to some, but it is legal. It is nice to see successful, educated EWU grads taking advantage of this huge business opportunity. James Wohrle Jr. ’10 Spokane, Washington
I wanted to congratulate you on covering the new I-502 recreational marijuana market and our alumni. I was impressed with the professionalism and the courage that it took to cover this new industry. This really embodied what it is to be an Eastern graduate. Andrew Guy, Justin Wilson and the other alumni in the story identified an opportunity in an emerging market and then took a substantial risk being at the forefront. Now they are industry leaders providing $2.3 million in tax revenue from just those two businesses alone this year (as of September 2015). The tax revenue generated is allocated directly to education, public health education, youth drug prevention and health care. In addition, these two featured companies create hundreds of jobs directly, and indirectly they have created hundreds more. My own marketing firm, Propaganda Creative, works directly with several of these companies and supports printers, Web designers, artists (mostly Eastern alums) as a direct result of these guys’ success. Keep up the good work! As an Eastern Washington University alum and business owner, these are exactly the stories I love reading! Jason Clerget ’07 Spokane, Washington Editor’s note: We appreciate our readers’ comments on the article “A Budding Business,” which appeared in the fall issue of the magazine. The article was about the business of legalized cannabis and some of our alumni who work in the industry. As expected, we received both positive and negative responses. We respect differing opinions, and appreciate the willingness of our readers to share their thoughts and concerns with us. Thank you, Kandi Carper ’05 Editor, Eastern magazine
a note from the editor In 2016, we invite you to enjoy the new energy behind Eastern magazine. As responsible partners in being more sustainable and responsible with our communications, we are excited to be leaders among our peers in providing enhanced and dynamic content that will be shared year-round. Imagine not only reading an article in September about the alumni awards, but also seeing the behind-the-scenes footage of the creation of the award itself and interviews with the recipients. We will continue to bring you an amazing magazine twice a year, in the spring and fall; however, we are excited that the magazine can now live and breathe monthly through enhanced content that will be available online through email, Facebook and Twitter. For this reason,
it’s important to keep your email up-to-date with the alumni office so you can enjoy these new features. Thank you for your continued support. As always, please send us your story ideas and suggestions to make Eastern magazine your go-to place for all things Eastern. Sincerely, Kandi Carper ’05 Editor, Eastern magazine easternmagazine@ewu.edu ewu.edu/easternmagazine E ASTERN: SPRING 2016
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A EWU Alumni met Oct. 17 to run the Seattle Super Spartan Race in Snohomish, Washington, continuing a tradition they started while part of EWU’s Army ROTC program. L-R: Alexandra Smith ’15, a Military Intelligence Officer in the Washington Army National Guard; Mary Yim ’14, an Army nurse in the Reserves; Amanda Reich ’13, a Military Intelligence Officer in the Army Reserves; Shelby (Johnson) Blad ’15, a Field Artillery Officer commissioned Active Duty and Aubry Blad ’15, an Infantry Officer commissioned Active Duty.
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B Rhonda (Thomsen) Bogart ’86 finished her Spartan Trifecta in October 2015, when she completed the Seattle Super, a 10-mile trail run with 25 obstacles along the way. C Ken ’90, and Audra Pedersen ’92, vacationed in Cancun, Mexico, in October. D Peter Turping ’74, on the top of Beacon Rock. He was exploring the Columbia Gorge with his stepbrother, Peter Crowley in October.
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G Shari Riley ’93, visited the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation area during a trip to Las Vegas, October 2015. H Ernie Meier ’70, and his wife, Jolene, and friends
with their copy of Eastern magazine in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, in October.
I Karen Felber ’91, and friends, on Thrivent Builds E Altamae Whitehill ’51 with her son, David, on Habitat for Humanity in Nicaragua, in February.
the Big Island of Hawaii, Christmas 2015.
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F Benjamin ’87, and Joie Storms ’87, Saona Island tour, Dominican Republic.
J Eric V. Stout ’04, visited Cairns, Australia, in
October.
on the road with eastern magazine Where will Eastern magazine be spotted next? You are invited to send photographs holding up the latest issue. Include some information about yourself with your submission. We may not be able to publish every submission. Extras will be posted on the Eastern magazine Facebook page and on the magazine’s website. Send to easternmagazine@ewu.edu or Eastern Magazine, 102 Hargreaves Hall, Cheney, WA 99004-2413.
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K Mike ’82 and Genny ’82 McKinley at Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England, October. They’ve been working on their family farm south of Cheney since graduating. L Trevor Gunderson ’09, and Alicia Pusey ’10, vacationed in Honolulu in November. Their photo was taken at Hanauma Bay during an exciting day of snorkeling. M Eagle-faithful, father and daughter, ’69 Jack
Strand and ’92 Carri Strand Crowe, at Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville Casino in Shreveport, Louisiana. They were there to celebrate Carri’s son’s 21st birthday.
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P Eliza Nichols ’10, took EWU on the road for her trip to Europe in December. This picture was taken on Christmas Eve midnight Mass (presided over by Pope Francis) at St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.
O Carl Combs ’88, took first place in the 50+ age division at the USA Track and Field (USATF) Masters 8K National Championship in Brea, California, in February. This follows first-place performances for 50+ in the USATF Club XC National Championships, San Francisco, and the USATF XC National Championship, Bend, Oregon. Combs is an IT Pro Supervisor at EWU.
Q Tom Sawatzki ’83 and Lori Thomas ’84, of Walla Walla, climbing Piestewa outside of Phoenix.
R Sharon (Geary) Smith ’78, hiked the Haleakala Crater in Maui, Hawaii, in November. She recently retired after 37 years of teaching. E ASTERN: SPRING 2016
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eastern etc. EWU Spokane Building Renamed Eastern Washington University’s anchor building on the University District campus in downtown Spokane is now formally known as the Eastern Washington University Center. Previously known as the Phase 1 Classroom Building at 668 N. Riverpoint Blvd., Eastern leased the building from WSU Spokane in 2014. New signs have been posted outside the EWU Center and other buildings on campus, as part of a new branding effort between EWU Spokane and WSU Spokane to improve building signs and reflect what programs are located in each facility. The changes also include off-campus branding efforts, as freeway signs have been changed to reflect the names EWU Spokane and WSU Spokane, rather than the old label of “Riverpoint.” Eastern’s College of Business & Public Administration, the new College of Health Science & Public Health and other programs are located in the EWU Center. The Center allows Eastern to centralize its downtown programs and events. Eastern continues to have a strong presence in other downtown campus facilities, such as the health sciences building.
Board of Trustees Members Named Jay Manning ’80, BA government, former director of the Washington State Department of Ecology, has been appointed to the university’s board of trustees by Gov. Jay Inslee, effective Nov. 20, 2015, through Sept. 30, 2021. Manning, who also served as chief of staff for former Gov. Christine Gregoire, is currently a partner with Cascadia Law Group in Olympia, where he focuses on environmental and energy issues. “I am thrilled to join the board of trustees for Eastern Washington University,” said Manning. “I am well acquainted with decision-making and budget-building in Olympia, and I look forward to working with President Cullinan and the board to make sure Eastern fares well in the legislative process.” Manning replaces Jo Ann Kauffman, who completed her second term on the board in September. Gov. Inslee has also reappointed Michael O. Finley ’05, ’03 (MA and BA history) to a six-year term on the board. He was first appointed in 2014 to complete the term of former trustee Mark Mays, who died. Born and raised in Inchelium, Washington, Finley is an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and is a two-time chair of the Colville Business Council. Trustees work with EWU’s president to set the strategic direction of the university, and help ensure the university is academically and financially accountable, while striving to help students succeed.
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eastern etc. Destination Eastern; Transfer Agreement Approved Eastern Washington University and Columbia Basin College (CBC) in Pasco have signed an innovative agreement designed to provide CBC students with a clear transfer pathway to attend EWU and earn a four-year degree. The program, Destination Eastern, enables students to begin a bachelor program upon initiating their post-secondary education at CBC. EWU and CBC will combine resources to provide coordinated bachelor’s degree offerings to students who are enrolled in transferable degree programs at the community college. A well-coordinated transfer process improves student success and streamlines the transfer process, while minimizing the loss of credits and duplication of coursework. “EWU is also well-known for its student-centered approach to undergraduate education, which pays particular attention to the needs of firstgeneration, minority and underserved populations,” says CBC President Rich Cummins. “EWU is a great university that is accessible, friendly and caring. We have so many success stories of CBC-EWU alumni to share with anyone interested, and our advisors are ready to help Columbians begin their travels on the degree map that begins and ends with Destination Eastern.”
Tribal Legend Honored Lucy Covington came to life in a ceremony held in November in Spokane to grant the Colville Tribal leader an honorary degree posthumously from EWU. Covington’s family, area tribal leaders and EWU community members gathered at the Museum of Arts and Culture on Covington’s 105th birthday. In a moving ceremony, Covington was fondly remembered, and a new chapter was started in her long legacy. EWU board of trustees Chair Jim Murphy conferred the honorary degree, and then President Mary Cullinan and Eastern leaders officially announced the establishment of the Lucy Covington Center at EWU. Covington was granted a Humane Letters degree that was accepted by her niece, Barbara Aripa. Covington was a national leader who fought against a federal policy of tribal termination. She died in 1982 at the age of 81. The Lucy Covington Center at EWU will build on a strong foundation of EWU’s longtime commitment to the region’s First People and to first-generation college students. The purpose of the center will be to recruit, nurture and retain Native American Students–preparing them for careers and leadership. Eastern first established an American Indian Studies Program in the 1960s. E ASTERN: SPRING 2016
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eastern etc. Sleep Over for Science Throughout the 2015-16 academic year, EWU’s College of Health Science & Public Health (CHSPH) students, staff and faculty are hosting an overnight youth science camp know as Sleep Over for Science on the EWU Spokane campus. Targeted for students in the fourth through sixth grades, Sleep Over for Science aims to inspire and educate students who want to learn more about science and health careers. Krista Loney, EWU’s director for the Eastern Washington Area Health Education Center, (EWAHEC) has expanded the program to offer three different sessions this year, compared with just one in prior years. She touts Sleep Over for Science as “the healthiest slumber party you will ever attend.” Sleep Over for Science is a collaborative event featuring health sciences programs from Eastern Washington University, the University of Washington School of Medicine and Washington State University. Seventy-five students from schools in Ferry, Lincoln, Okanogan, Pend Oreille and Stevens counties attended in November. Students from Chelan, Douglas, Grant, Kittitas, Klickitat and Yakima counties were included in the January session. A third session, planned for April, will host students from Adams, Asotin, Benton, Columbia, Franklin, Garfield, Walla Walla and Whitman counties. In addition to the Sleep over for Science event, EWAHEC offers Super Science Saturday camps for fourth-sixth grades; Project H.O.P.E. (Health Occupations Preparatory Experience) summer internships for high school juniors and seniors; and “EWAHEC in the Classroom” visits – presentations about health careers and hands-on games and learning activities. These programs aim to create a youth pipeline into health care careers. Have an idea for a program? Want a visit to your classroom? Just want to learn what the heck an AHEC is? Contact: EWAHEC, 509.828.1381, ewu.edu/ahec
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eastern etc. CBPA’s Golden Anniversary The College of Business & Public Administration celebrated its 50-year reunion in October. Nearly 200 guests attended the Friday-night gala Oct. 9, and there was a full house with 60 attendees returning to campus for a football social Saturday, Oct. 10, as they watched the Eagles beat the Cal Poly Mustangs in an exciting 42-41 nail biter. Alumni from all of the business majors, from accounting to urban and regional planning, reconnected with their former classmates as they reminisced about classes, instructors and landmark achievements. “We take great pride as EWU’s College of Business & Public Administration celebrates its 50th anniversary,” said CBPA Dean Martine Duchatelet. “We are happy to boast that we have served successive generations of students, from baby boomers to millennials, and have served them well.”
FundEWU
A passport is an incredible motivator – it opens a door to the world. Cost is the No. 1 factor for students deciding whether a study abroad experience is possible. Through the FundEWU program, the Office of Global Initiatives was able to raise $5,000 to help fund 50 passports for current students. The “Fund a Passport” campaign was the first of many upcoming FundEWU projects, where you can select your favorite projects, support them at any amount you choose and follow their progress. It is Eastern’s answer to GoFundMe, an online way to fund personal causes and life events. Also funded was the EWU Rocketry Group’s travel expenses to the Intercollegiate Rocket Engineering Competition in Utah. This year’s goal is to launch a rocket 22,000 feet as part of the advanced competition. Last year, as a rookie team, EWU came in third place behind two of the major engineering programs in the world! Projects must be affiliated with the university through an approved organization, academic or research program and are chosen based on their professionalism, innovative qualities, social impact, feasibility and overall commitment to the FundEWU process. Each student group will begin to post project updates within one month after the close of its fundraiser. Visit often to browse success stories and explore new giving opportunities. apps.ewu.edu/fundewu
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eastern etc. Physical Therapy Hosts “Go Baby Go” Workshop EWU’s Department of Physical Therapy hosted Sam Logan, assistant professor of physical therapy, from Oregon State University, in October. Logan led his “Go Baby Go” workshop for clinicians and EWU’s College of Health Sciences & Public Health (CHSPH) students on powered mobility (power wheelchairs, scooters and other power-operated vehicles) for young children with mobility needs. The workshop included a “build session” in which participants worked in teams to do basic modification of seating, steering and drive systems to prepare a car for a child with mobility needs. The workshop’s goal was to provide participants with evidence and resources that support early powered mobility from both a research and clinical perspective. The workshop brought together 36 participants, including physical therapists, occupational therapists, a speech and language pathologist, representatives from NuMotion (a complex medical equipment vendor) and 12 CHSPH students. The participants modified five ride-on cars during the workshop, and worked with seven young children (ages 1½ to 3) and their families to try out the cars. EWU’s Physical Therapy program cosponsored the interprofessional workshop with NuMotion and the Spokane Guild School. Darl Vander Linden, professor of physical therapy at EWU, helped organize the workshop. Vander Linden said he hopes to develop ongoing financial support from the community for a Spokane Go Baby Go project to allow for additional purchasing and modifying of ride-on cars for children in the Spokane/ Coeur d’Alene area.
Chaves Named AD of the Year For the second time in the past four years, EWU's Bill Chaves has been selected by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) as one of its 28 winners of the Under Armour AD of the Year Award (ADOY) announced March 2. Chaves, 49, is in his ninth year at the helm of the EWU athletic department. Chaves will receive his award during the James J. Corbett Awards Luncheon June 15 at NACDA’s 51st Annual Convention in Dallas. He also won the honor in the 2012-13 school year, and is one of the four athletic directors in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision that NACDA is honoring this year. In 2015, Chaves was appointed to the NCAA Division I Council representing the Big Sky Conference and serves on a competition oversight committee that reports to the council. He also has served on a national working group that studied transfers and will be serving on another national working group that will evaluate the current governance structure of Division I athletics. Chaves has also had national committee experience serving four years (2008-12) on the NCAA Administration Cabinet and in his last year, serving as chair. He also spent 2013-14 on the NCAA Committee on Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct. 12
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eastern etc. Weir Repeats as Sportscaster of the Year A year after winning his initial award, EWU radio playby-play voice Larry Weir has been selected as a repeat winner by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association (NSSA) as the 2015 Sportscaster of the Year for the state of Washington. The “Voice of the Eagles” since 1991, Weir recently completed his 25th season calling the play-by-play for Eagle football games and his 23rd for basketball. Weir’s broadcasts may be heard via 700-AM ESPN in Spokane, as well as on the Internet (www.700espn.com) and mobile phone apps. Besides his play-by-play duties for the Eagles, Weir also hosts weekly football and men’s basketball coaches shows aired on 700-AM ESPN; produces “Eagle Minute” programming and other advertising content; does regular podcasts with EWU department staff and coaches; and provides oversight of all live and pre-produced content during all broadcasts.
Fostering Washington State EWU’s College of Social & Behavioral Sciences and Social Work’s Idaho Child Welfare Research and Training Center (ICWRTC) have been awarded more than $1.2 million in funding from the state of Washington Department of Social and Health Services. The intent of this contract is to provide services to increase the number of safe, quality foster families to children in eastern Washington during the next two years. FosteringWA is a program of Eastern Washington University, and under the guidance of the ICWRTC, is adapting its successful foster parent peer mentoring program to meet the needs of eastern Washington’s families, as it's been doing in Idaho since 2007. Since its implementation, the Peer Mentor Program has been highly successful, increasing the demand for foster parent training by 60 percent throughout the state of Idaho. Because the program is highly adaptive, its strategies have been sought by other states.
Gordon Named Provost
After a nationwide search, EWU President Mary Cullinan has named Scott Gordon the new provost and vice president for Academic Affairs. Gordon’s appointment is effective July 1. Gordon comes from the University of Southern Indiana, where he has served as dean of the Pott College of Science, Engineering and Education since 2005. A native of Malone, New York, Gordon received his bachelor’s degree in biology from the State University of New York at Cortland, and his master’s and doctorate degrees in botany/mycology from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
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eastern etc. “All-Galaxy” Cooper Kupp Earns Multiple Awards Cooper Kupp, Eastern’s senior-to-be wide receiver, earned the nickname “All-Galaxy” from a local TV station for the incredible number of records he broke and awards he received in his career as an Eagle. In all, the 2012 graduate of Davis High School in Yakima has broken 32 records so far, including NCAA (7), Big Sky Conference (8) and EWU (17) records. As for awards, Kupp won the trifecta of national awards—selected as the Walter Payton Award winner for 2015 by Mickey Charles LLC; the STATS FCS 2015 Offensive Player of the Year Award and the 2015 Offensive Player of the Year, presented by the FCS Athletic Directors Association. Kupp was honored as a first-team selection on All-American teams announced by the American Football Coaches Association, STATS, Associated Press, the FCS Athletic Director’s Association, Walter Camp Football Foundation, College Sports Madness and College Sporting News “Fabulous Fifty” team. He was also the winner of the College Football Performance Awards FCS Wide Receiver Award. In February, he was named the Amateur Athlete of the Year by the Inland Northwest Sportswriters and Broadcasters. In the 2015 season, Kupp finished with 114 catches for 1,642 yards and 19 touchdown in 11 games. He broke the Big Sky single-season record for catches with 114, a total that ranks ninth most all-time in FCS single-season history. Kupp was named a first-team All-Big Sky Conference wide receiver for the third-straight year and was also named the league’s Offensive Most Valuable Player. He is just the second wide receiver to be named Big Sky Offensive MVP in the past 42 years. In addition to his accomplishments on the field, Kupp is a success in the classroom. The economics major earned first-team NCAA Division I Academic All-American honors, selected by the College Sports Information Directors. He is one of 26 players from both the FCS and the Football Bowl Subdivision to be honored. On Nov. 30, 2015, Kupp announced that he would return for his senior season after speculation that he was considering entering the 2016 NFL Draft. He is poised to break nearly every major FCS career receiving record during his final season. His 4,764 career receiving yards are second-most in FCS history, passing NFL Hall of Famer Jerry Rice, who had 4,693 at Mississippi Valley State from 1981 to 1984. Kupp’s 56 receiving touchdowns rank second in FCS history, a record he is primed to claim, being just two touchdowns behind the 58 that New Hampshire’s David Ball caught from 2003 to 2006. Five years after capturing the NCAA Division I Football Championship, the Eagles finished the 2015 season 6-5 overall and 5-3 in the Big Sky Conference. This was Eastern’s 18th winning season in the past 20 years, including playoff berths in eight of the last 12 seasons. 14
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eastern etc. Jois Sets Men’s Basketball All-Time Scoring Record Venky Jois broke Eastern’s 39-year-old career scoring record, at Reese Court, March 3.
Jois finished the game with a team-high 21 points and 11 rebounds to register the 37th doubledouble of his career. That gave him 1,754 points in his career that night to pass the previous school record of 1,741 set by Ron Cox from 1974-77. Cox was in attendance at that game, and presented Jois with the game ball and two mementos to commemorate the historic night. “It was a great crowd, and I thank them for the support they gave me and our team,” said Jois following the game. Jois, whose full name is Venkatesha Jois, is from Boronia, Australia. A pre-med major, he will graduate this spring and will be honored on the Big Sky AllAcademic team for a fourth time and is an Academic All-District 8 selection. For the second straight season, Jois was named a first-team selection to the All-Big Sky Conference team. This was the fourth time Jois has been honored, having won Freshman of the Year in the 2012-13 season and honorable mention all-league accolades in his first two seasons in the program.
Hodgins Becomes All-Time Leading Scorer The EWU women’s basketball team defeated Portland State, 70-57, at home, as Hayley Hodgins '14 had the night of her career, becoming Eastern’s all-time NCAA Division I leading scorer with 1,751 career points. Hodgins passed the previous mark of 1,733 points that Brenda Souther (198387) held for 29 years. Hodgins, a red-shirt senior who graduated from Chiawana High School in Pasco, Washington, was Big Sky Freshman of the Year 2012-2013, and selected to the Big Sky All-Academic Team in 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2015-16. Hodgins has a BA in health science administration and is working on a master's degree in public health. E ASTERN: SPRING 2016
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Not Your Father ’s Philosophy 1882
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BY KEVIN DECKER
Action figures? Check. Lightsaber? Check. Blu-ray copy of the latest J.J. Abrams film? Check. These are not the normal tools of the college instructor, much less what the average philosophy professor brings to class. But because I teach philosophy and popular culture at Eastern Washington University, I also have to carry things like graphic novels, DVDs, posters and cuddly toys to class with my course rosters and whiteboard markers. The academic study of popular media is new, but philosophy is old. In fact, philosophy is the oldest discipline; it traces its lineage back more than 2,500 years to the Greek Thales, who broke away from traditional religious explanations for the world’s order by claiming that everything was ultimately composed of water. Today, we might think that Thales is all wet, but he created a way of thinking later named by combining the Greek words philo and sophia (“love of wisdom”).
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While the study of philosophy includes learning critical thinking, logic, methods of arguing properly, how to frame good questions and cultural criticism, it always returns to the issue of how knowledge about the deeper issues of life, the universe and everything should change the way we live. The French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty wrote that the student of philosophy relearns how to look at the world and, in doing so, he “becomes responsible for his history through reflection.” One of the more interesting things about the history of philosophy is that it has more spin-offs than CSI and Star Trek put together. Depending on how far back you go, you’ll find in philosophy the origins of biology (Aristotle), physics (Newton and Galileo), sociology (Durkheim and Weber) and psychology (William James), among others. Yet as William Irwin, the series editor of the Philosophy and Popular Culture series at Wiley-Blackwell publishers wrote in Psychology Today;
Philosophy has had a public relations problem for a few centuries now, but it has nothing to do with philosophy being trivial or frivolous. Rather, people mistakenly think philosophy is some dry, dusty, irrelevant academic subject taught by bearded philosophers in tweed jackets with suede patches on the elbows. Irwin claims that because of these fears, most people go through four years of college without a philosophy class, producing a “philosophically illiterate” society. The success rate of philosophy majors in various disciplines— particularly teaching and law—shows that the suitcase of skills that result from the study of philosophy is far from being irrelevant—indeed, philosophy is the best way to start conversations between people of different professions, ages and cultures, particularly when conflict looms. This is because philosophers can clarify our understanding of things we take for granted and point us in new directions
on nearly any topic. And at the beginning of the 21st century, one of the key debates is about the shape education will take as information technology and media saturation change the way people learn and even think. In a philosophy class, we might talk about these issues in any number of frameworks: the difference between “high” versus “low” culture (J. Bach or J. Bieber?), between “theory” and “practice,” or about how teaching can be critical of mass culture and yet at the same time open to using the common interests of students as “teachable moments.” Enter the appeal of popular culture. Did you know that the science fiction film The Matrix could be used to help students understand the work of Plato and René Descartes on the difference between reality and appearance? Or that philosophical thinking about basketball and baseball could be used to help us understand the bridge between mind and body? My colleagues in our philosophy program at Eastern seem to like this approach: Christopher Kirby, PhD, has published chapters in Arrested Development and Philosophy and The Ultimate South Park and Philosophy, and teaches a course on philosophy and the undead; Mimi Marinucci, PhD, writes about Facebook, the satirical newspaper The Onion and Buffy the Vampire Slayer; and Jedi Master Terrance MacMullan, PhD, has chapters in both The Ultimate Star Wars and Philosophy and Star Wars and History. Our philosophy club has opted to choose philosophy and popular culture as the theme for its undergraduate philosophy conference in 2016. And I am getting ready to co-edit my 10th book in this area, Alien and Philosophy, for which I am working with a former philosophy major-turned-sociology-graduatestudent, Jeffrey Ewing. This approach puts those of us who write and teach on pop culture in strange positions. Classes that focus on Star Trek, The Twilight Zone or Star Wars tend to be a mix of convention and scholarship. My colleagues bring me 3-D printer versions of the TARDIS, the time machine from Doctor Who. Students wear T-shirts to class as a sign of their love for their favorite superhero or rock star. As I write these words, I’ve just finished writing my umpteenth “philosophical review” for a newspaper of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (this is not work that I can put on my résumé, by the way). For some reason—probably the mystical E ASTERN: SPRING 2016
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“Force” that animates the exploits of Jedi and Sith in the Star Wars films—students read a lot of philosophy into this particular piece of popular culture. But at book signings, I’ve often been asked more questions about the motivations of the characters and the hidden surprises of the films than about Plato or Socrates.
A few years ago, I offered advice to parents in Wired magazine about how to get toddlers to enjoy the original 1977 Star Wars, which one reader replied 'moved at a glacial pace' for today’s children. Get them involved in the action by playing the roles of the alien characters, villains and heroes, I replied. Star Wars is not for couch potatoes.
In my books and classes, and in those of my colleagues, the goal is not just to use music, sports or television shows as a “hook” to involve students in critical thinking, argumentative writing, interpretation and analysis. Our aims are also not the same as Eastern’s wonderful film studies program. Instead, philosophy and pop culture allow me to “teach without being teachy.” On any given day, noting a single philosophical culture about self, language, 18
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logic or politics is fairly easy. But as William Irwin points out, “Carrying through on a connection or a series of connections for a whole essay [or course] is difficult.” It’s really quite difficult to do justice, for example, to the two centerpieces I chose for my Philosophy 214 course last quarter: the BBC time-travel show Doctor Who and the philosophy of time. Doctor Who began in 1963, and has hundreds of episodes and dozens of intriguing plots to choose from; the philosophy of time involves students in the study of philosophers like Parmenides and Immanuel Kant, as well as physicists like Newton and Einstein. In designing a course in which philosophy illuminates a classic television series and vice versa, I also struggled to show students the difference between how TV is made today versus its early days in 1963. I find that by working through these struggles, I come to understand and appreciate the subject matter of the class much better, and this, in turn, improves my teaching and elevates my passion for my subject. This process is illustrated by one of the books I’m currently coediting, The Philosophy of Breaking Bad. For those only now emerging into the light of our “new golden age of television” (as EWU’s professor of film Emeritus Marvin Smith once said), Breaking Bad was an extremely popular crime drama on AMC from 2008 to 2013. Its initial premise was an unusual one: high school chemistry teacher Walter White (Emmy Award winner Bryan Cranston) is diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. Worried about his family’s financial future he makes the difficult decision to use his knowledge to produce and sell crystallized methamphetamine with the help of his former student Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul). The title, I recently found out, is from a Southern saying that means to “raise hell.” And Walter White descends into a kind of hell over the course of the five seasons of the show, as his life becomes reframed by deception, intimidation, violence and organized crime. How should I unearth The Philosophy of Breaking Bad? In a normal philosophy class, I would discover “the philosophy of Socrates” or “the thought of Thomas Hobbes” by looking at the original texts written by, or about, these thinkers. While we certainly have to look at the thinking done by Vince Gilligan, creator of the show, about the show’s premise or about how Walter White’s villainy should be understood as balancing out with our sympathy for him, we can’t
KEVIN S. DECKER stop with Gilligan. After all, he wrote only 13 episodes of the show’s 62-episode run. Directors, actors and writers are also sources for understanding plot threads or characters’ motivations, but those interpretations alone are not philosophy. The job of writing or teaching about Breaking Bad and philosophy becomes slightly easier when we frame this background information, as well as critical viewings of the TV program itself, in terms of thought experiments. Thought experiments test a hypothesis, theory or principle for their likely consequences. Philosophers like thought experiments because they allow us to test our intuitions through the application of reason and experience. One of the most well-known thought experiments is this: Suppose someone reliable told you that you were only a brain in a vat, being fed “experiences” through electrodes implanted in your cortex. If you believe that’s not true, how could you prove them wrong? (This, by the way, has been central to the plot of many sci-fi movies like The Matrix and Vanilla Sky.) In Breaking Bad, Walter White’s immoral second career is complicated by his desire to keep the facts of his drug “cooking” and selling from his family; by his relationship to his brother-in-law, a DEA agent; by his paternal feelings for Jesse Pinkman, who often seems to want to live a better life; and by his double-dealing with crime boss and fast-food chicken magnate Gustavo Fring (Giancarlo Esposito). All these complicated relationships suggest various thought experiments, using both what happens in Breaking Bad as well as “what if” scenarios that allow us to ask hard questions about ethics and moral psychology—that is, about the beliefs and emotions that go into making us the kind of moral people we are. To what lengths could a person go to protect his family, and could we forgive him afterward? Can Walter be a good person and a drug dealer at the same time? In the drug underworld of Albuquerque, are there various shades of evil? Are some of them necessary evils? All the hard thinking and course planning pays off. When readers contact me with new ideas for philosophy and popular culture books, but especially when students make meaningful connections within my class and between it and other classes, learning is occurring. In fact, readers and students are becoming more rational, more reflective about something they already love, whether South Park or Batman. The only thing that remains is to point out their growth to them, and to encourage them to be philosophers about popular media after they walk out of the classroom. These skills are the best kind of skills: They are eminently transferable, they make students better conversationalists and thinkers, and certainly people worth discussing the new Star Trek or Twilight movie with. Engage! E
Kevin S. Decker was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. He majored in history and philosophy at McKendree College (now McKendree University) in Lebanon, Illinois; Russian and East European history at the University of Missouri, St. Louis; and earned his doctorate in philosophy at St. Louis University. He began teaching philosophy at EWU in 2005 and currently serves as president of the EWU Faculty Organization. He is married to Suzanne Decker, a teacher for Spokane Public Schools, and has three children, Kennedy, Jackson and Ethan, a sophomore at EWU pursuing film studies.
Recent Publications Alien and Philosophy, co-editor (WileyBlackwell, forthcoming 2017) The Philosophy of Breaking Bad, co-editor (Palgrave MacMillan, forthcoming 2016) Science and Nature without God, in Robert Arp, ed., Debating Aquinas’ Proofs for God’s Existence in the 21st Century (Rodopi, forthcoming 2016) The Vale of Top Hats: Duplicity, Duplicability and The Prestige, in George Dunn and Jason T. Eberl, eds. The Philosophy of Christopher Nolan (Arlington, forthcoming 2016) The Ultimate Star Trek and Philosophy, co-editor (Wiley-Blackwell, forthcoming 2016) The Ultimate Star Wars and Philosophy, co-editor (Wiley-Blackwell, 2015) Personal Identity and Na’vi Wisdom, in George Dunn, ed., Avatar and Philosophy, (Wiley-Blackwell, 2014) Dewey, Aristotle, and the Spectator Theory of Knowledge, in Christopher Kirby, ed., Dewey and the Ancients: Essays on Hellenic and Hellenistic Themes in the Philosophy of John Dewey (Bloomsbury Academic, 2014) Culture, Hermeneutics and the Batman, in The Philosophy of Tim Burton, ed. Jennifer McMahon (University of Kentucky, 2014).
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BY KANDI CARPER ’05
Sitting on a horse is as natural as breathing to Nikeela Black ’07. She is equally comfortable in a courtroom arguing before the Idaho Supreme Court. Black is a jockey. She rides thoroughbreds and quarter horses at the Les Bois Park racetrack, near her home in Greenleaf, Idaho. The 30-year-old is also a partner in Arkoosh Law Offices in Boise, where she uses mediation and other forms of alternative dispute resolution to reach solutions for her family law clients. In 2014, of jockeys who rode more than 100 mounts, Black had the most wins in North America. “Not money earned, because I just ride at the local track, but the win percentage for mounts,” said Black. Horses can be intimidating but not to Black, who grew up in the Tri-Cities, showing horses, being in 4-H and serving as the 2004 Benton County Rodeo Queen. “I have pictures of me, before I could walk, with my mom holding me on her horse,” said Black. “My first pony was Cocoa; I was about 2 years old when we got him.” Even though she grew up around horses, Black didn’t participate in rodeos or have any connection to the racetrack. At 16, she just decided she wanted to be a jockey. Did it concern her that only 2 percent of jockeys are females? “No, it didn’t enter my mind,” said Black. “I wasn’t raised to think that anything would ever prevent me from doing what I wanted to do. This might have backfired on my mom. At first, she was not happy about my racing career. I was a very conservative 16-year-old, and she worried about me being around the racetrack – the drugs and the Gypsy lifestyle and everything. But I think I did OK. It paid off,” said Black. Black said her first trainer was a great person–a family guy. She feels that she was incredibly lucky to get to work for him. “Instead of having to ride bad horses that didn’t make me look
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Nikeela Black in a 300-yard sprint to the finish at Les Bois Park, Boise, Idaho, May 2015. Photo: Adam Eschbach/Idaho Press Tribune
good, he put me on great horses and then I got to ride other great horses,” said Black. “My mom was really supportive after that. Naturally, she worries about me getting hurt. She’s not very excited about that aspect of it.” In 2013, a story in the Idaho Statesman mentioned how lucky Black had been in staying injury-free. A week later, she went down at the track while galloping.
Nikeela Black pets one of her favorite horses, Gator, at Les Bois Park, Boise, Idaho, May 2015. Photo: Adam Eschbach/Idaho Press Tribune
I broke my nose, popped out my two upper teeth, sheared off four of my bottom teeth and separated my shoulder,” said Black. “I ended up having oral surgery to put my upper teeth back in, along with gum grafting and eight root canals. Even with this serious injury, she was back in the saddle after only a week. In 2014, her saddle slipped and she was bucked over the horse’s head, injuring her neck and suffering a concussion. During the summer of 2015, the same thing happened, only she was catapulted into the air and came straight down, badly injuring her right ankle. Neither injury managed to keep her out of the winner’s circle. It was horse racing that paid for Black’s college tuition. After two years at Columbia Basin College (CBC), she transferred to Eastern, where she graduated magna cum laude with a BA in psychology in 2007. “I just wanted to race, but school wasn’t really considered optional in my family, so I knew I had to do something. Growing up, I never really thought about being a lawyer or a career. When I transferred to Eastern as a junior, I had to declare a major, and I remembered that I really liked my Psych 101 class at CBC, so I decided to do that.” After graduating from Eastern, she continued to ride during the summer months but was not sure where to go from there. She knew she needed a backup plan in case injuries or other circumstances limited, or ended, her career as a jockey. She was offered a job as a paralegal in Kennewick and after about a
Nikeela Black, center, was honored as one the Idaho Business Review’s Women of the Year for 2014. Photo courtesy Nikeela Black.
year, she decided to go to law school at the University of Idaho, where she earned her JD degree in 2011. She studied mediation in London, Geneva, Hong Kong and Beijing and earned a Certificate in Alternative Dispute Resolution from the Pepperdine School of Law’s Straus Institute. Black uses her education in psychology, along with her talent as a skilled mediator, to help her family law clients through an extremely emotional and difficult time. She understands that the confines of the traditional judicial system are not always the most equitable when negotiating a resolution. Those legal skills helped Black be named a 2015 Idaho Business Review’s Accomplished Under 40 Honoree and one of the 2014 Idaho Business Review’s Women of the Year Honorees –putting her in the winners’ circle once again. E
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YOU CAN INSPIRE AWESOME. To start a scholarship, contact Todd Sturgis, 509.359.6846, tsturgis@ewu.edu
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Growing a Great Future
Living: Building, Curriculum, Community
By Jeff Bunch ’88
While sustainability is a buzzword that is in vogue in a lot of business settings today, it is an ideal that has been in application for quite some time at Eastern Washington University. 24
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What if a site... Reflected what was there before? Grew fresh, native food to harvest? Was designed for exploration? Exposed its natural systems? What if a building… Got all of its energy from the sun? Got all of its water from the rain? Was made only of healthy things? Was a hands-on teaching tool? What if a community… Had a place to celebrate nature? Had a place to test systems? What if a curriculum... Was living and sustainable? Was shaped by nature?
For decades, Eastern has been committed to living in harmony with the land around it. The pursuit of that principle makes sense. After all, the university is uniquely situated among some of the most diverse geography in the world – sitting at the confluence of the Palouse’s rich farmland and semi-arid channelized scablands. A book detailing the history of the university features women in full-length dresses and sun hats planting in a campus garden alongside agriculture professors more than 100 years ago. Fast-forward to the present: The university grows some of its food right on campus, has years of sustainable practices weaved into its business operations, and teaches sustainability ideals. Now Eastern is raising the bar to new heights. The university plans to become a worldwide leader in the field of sustainability by offering a new academic degree
and by constructing the first “living building” on the campus of a public university in the United States. Both the academic offering and the sustainability center have moved beyond the conceptual phase. Plans on both fronts are moving forward in concert with the university’s existing master plan, a comprehensive approach that has earned Eastern recognition from the sustainability community over the past several years. The best may be yet to come. EWU’s proposed sustainability center, the Natural and Environmental Science Testing and Teaching Center (NESTT), is a multimillion-dollar project whose vision was made possible by EWU faculty and the financial support of Itron and the EWU Foundation. Itron is a global technology and services company dedicated to the resourceful use of energy and water.
It’s got to start somewhere, you have to show it’s possible by doing it. Eastern is stepping up to the plate by going all in on the NESTT center. -Stacy Smedley Skansa director of sustainability
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Release the vegetable from the tyranny of the square. Build a more beautiful veggie garden. -Robin O’Quinn Associate professor, biology
Generate data. Expose systems and technologies. -Jeff Donnerberg Associate professor, technology/ manufacturing & construction
Everyone should know what they are standing on. -Judd Case Dean of special projects
Visitors and students should be able to see where our water comes from and where it goes. -Matt Anderson Assistant professor of geography
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“I know many have been very interested in making Eastern more sustainable for a very long time,” said Todd Sturgis, EWU’s director of development, who is leading fundraising efforts for the NESTT. “I think this project fits very well with a lot of things (e.g., the sustainability master plan, academic offerings) that can flow through, or in and out, of this project to connect the university in a lot of ways.” In fact, that collaboration is already happening. A programming session for the NESTT project drew representatives from the administration and
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from academic disciplines ranging from the social sciences, business, the College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, as well as health and fitness. The participants included longtime campus advocates for sustainability such as education professor Rodger Hauge, environmental science professors Camille McNeely and Robin O’Quinn, and health and fitness program director Laurie Morley. The advocates are fast-tracking work with the Office of the Provost to develop a degree in sustainability that would further
distinguish EWU in the field. Several of the faculty members say that, after years of start-and-stop efforts, bringing together existing pieces of curriculum into a degree offering has reached a critical mass. They feel that constructing a building where students can apply their education accentuates the learning. Plans for the center will be presented to participants of the Living Future 2016 Conference in Seattle in May. The event is organized by the International Living Future Institute, creators of the Living Building Challenge. EWU’s project is being presented as a featured case study. The spotlight is on Eastern’s project, in part, because of those partners who are on board. There are currently only a handful of certified “living buildings” operating in the United States, and two of them are in the Seattle area. EWU was approached by key experts from those construction projects who are helping to facilitate Eastern’s plans to construct its facility. One of those partners is Living Building Challenge experts Skansa. Stacy Smedley, director of sustainability for the contractor, helped to recruit a sustainability “dream” team for Eastern after learning about the project from an EWU representative. She said they are excited to help prove that a project of this type can be done the right way by a public institution. “It’s got to start somewhere. You have to show it’s possible by doing it,” said Smedley. “Eastern is stepping up to the plate by going all in on the NESTT center.” Smedley said the opportunity for students to major in a sustainability degree that uses this type of facility is just as important. “What excites everyone is that the two (facility and academics) will be paired together.” The project has gotten to this stage in large part due to longtime EWU Foundation donor Itron, whose gift funded the concept design in concert with the university’s partners. The building would exceed other standards (such as LEED) to be net positive for water and energy use, thanks to design that works with the land and employs sustainable engineering and alternative energy. A set of studies looked at wind, sun and topographical patterns to minimize the impact on the environment in the next steps of the construction –the design build phase. As important for all involved is that NESTT would also be a living building in the holistic sense of the term. The center would be a place where research could be conducted, classes could be taught and the greater community (including K-12 schools) could come to learn firsthand. In a sense, the green building may do for EWU academics what the red turf has done for athletics. “I think it can become a highly visible accomplishment–something that touches a wide variety of interests among the Eastern community and beyond,” said Sturgis. “The Living Building Challenge represents a real commitment to sustainability, but the building itself is secondary to the concept and idea of what it represents and what it will allow Eastern to do. Living differently is what it’s all about. If it can be an educational piece for how you live and the sustainability of life, it can become a great thing.” E
EASTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
EWU and the Living Building Challenge EWU’s NESTT Center is aiming to meet the Living Building Challenge, which is “the built environment’s most rigorous performance standard. It calls for the creation of building projects that operate as cleanly, beautifully and efficiently as nature’s architecture. To be certified under the challenge, projects must meet a series of ambitious performance requirements over a minimum of 12 months of continuous occupancy.” The building and land would be funded by the EWU Foundation, then turned over to the university. Eastern’s project will be featured at the Living Future 2016 Conference, “Truth + Transparency,” May 11-13, Seattle, organized by the Living Futures Institute (also the creator and organizer of the Living Building Challenge). The presentation is titled, “EWU Sustainability Center: Re-Connecting Rural Communities to Their Habitat, History & Food Web.” The focus of the presentation is described as, “EWU’s new Natural and Environmental Science Testing and Teaching Center (NESTT), aiming to be one of the first public institutions in the Northwest to target the Living Building Challenge, is striving to reconnect the emergent generations of the surrounding rural community with their roots.
This is a donor-driven project spearheaded by the EWU Foundation. For more information, contact: Mike Westfall VP for University Advancement, Executive Director, EWU Foundation mwestfall@ewu.edu; 509.359.7430 Todd Sturgis Director of Development tsturgis@ewu.edu; 509.359.6846
Learn more about the Living Building Challenge:
ewu.edu/nestt
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A Toast to History
By Kandi Carper ‘05
Did you know that the Pilgrims’ landing at Plymouth Rock wasn’t planned? They stopped there because they were running out of beer. Well, because of that and other issues. Consumption of certain foods and beverages has helped shape American (and world) history for centuries–affecting societies and cultures; contributing to slavery, social injustice and even wars. EWU quarterly faculty Monica Stenzel ’13, MA history, has found a way to put food on the history menu. Coffee, chocolate, sugar, rum and beer are sure to get the attention of any college student. Learning about these commodities can certainly make studying History 110–The American Experience, more relevant and memorable. When you have students for only 10 weeks, you have to pique their interest immediately. “I was a teaching assistant here at Eastern, looking at general textbooks and the parts that I found most interesting were when they talked about chocolate or coffee, or talking about sugarcane and making rum–I quite like coffee,” said Stenzel. “I thought, wouldn’t that be great if you had a class on the history of rum?” That thought stayed with Stenzel, and she talked with a few associates asking, “What if you focused history on foods that most people are interested in, like coffee, cocoa, booze?” One colleague said she should focus on tea because it’s historically more important in studying trade and empires. While Stenzel agrees that in terms of the British Empire, tea is much
more important, Americans, especially college students, aren’t interested in tea. They are interested in coffee. “So you think about Seattle’s Best, Starbucks, Tully’s or Java Joe’s or whatever, where did we get that, and why are we willing to pay $5 for a cup of coffee?” asks Stenzel. “Whether they go on to study business, accounting or banking—or work for Human Rights Watch—it’s important for students to learn where we put our money and how we voice our opinions. People are very unhappy to hear about child slave labor in terms of chocolate, but most people aren’t willing to pay $5 for a bar of chocolate either. That’s what it would take to have fair trade chocolate. There are ramifications for our choices.” Stenzel points out that, in many ways, American slavery took place because of sugar. People found that sugarcane would grow off the coast of Portugal, and then they discovered that it would grow well in the Caribbean. That meant more slaves were needed to harvest the sugarcane. “Certainly once people started growing cotton in the South, that keeps us in slavery. But sugar is the quantity that gets us there. As long as they don’t see
People are very unhappy to hear about child slave labor in terms of chocolate, but most people aren’t willing to pay $5 for a bar of chocolate either. That’s what it would take to have fair trade chocolate. There are ramifications for our choices.
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the slaves then it doesn’t bother anyone. They think, ‘I just want sugar for my coffee, my tea or my rum,’” said Stenzel. She added that most of her students have been taught political history, about prime ministers, presidents, generals and wars. They think that’s all there is. “What about people who weave, who bake bread, who make shoes?” asks Stenzel. “That’s most of civilization. People are interested in learning about people like themselves.” In addition to teaching history at Eastern, Stenzel has taught music history and western civilization (through food) at Gonzaga University, and history at Spokane Falls Community College. The 42-year-old also holds a master’s degree in music history from the University of Idaho. As a graduate student at Eastern, Stenzel said she really enjoyed studying the Early Modern Period, as there was a huge explosion of exploration, innovation and revolution. “It’s a pivot point for European culture, in that people were inventing opera and
building steam engines, but they were also burning witches and enslaving thousands of Africans and Native Americans,” said Stenzel. When asked which EWU professor influenced her most, Stenzel answered, “I consider two professors to have had a very strong influence. My advisor, Ann Le Bar, who helped me to develop a unique project about witchcraft treatises, and also Liping Zhu, who taught me about historiography, or the comparison of the way historians think and write. Stenzel said she often hears people ask, “What do you do with a history degree?” “Another point I like to make with food is that you can do a lot when you study history,” explained Stenzel. “History teaches the skills that all professionals need, such as analysis, rhetoric, writing and public speaking, and perhaps most importantly, the patterns of human nature. The best part of studying history is that you can study anything that interests you, such as the history of human rights, the environment, government, religion or science. With a degree in history, students would find themselves well prepared to work in any of those fields.” E
Monica Stenzel’s History 110 textbooks How America Eats Drinking in America A History of the A Social History of U.S. Food A History, by Mark E. Lender World in 6 Glasses and Culture, by Jennifer Jensen Wallach
and James K. Martin
by Tom Standage
The True History of Chocolate by Sophie D. Coe and Michael D. Coe
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Flying Eagle Red Glass----------$8.95 Beverage Holder------------------$21.95 Eagles Alumni T-Shirt ------------$17-$19 Alumni Spirit Jersey---------------$49 Sideline Coaches Polo-----------$65-$69 Adidas Women’s Shock Polo---$54 Odyssey Tumbler------------------$13.95 Roos Field Print---------------------$199 Alumni Etched Diner Mug-------$14.95 Alumni Diner Mug-----------------$10.95 Swoop Plush------------------------$19.95 Alumni License Plate Cover----$9.95
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Super C llider By Jeff Bunch ’88
Using science to discover the origin of reality Physicist Kira Burt ’11, BS physics, only dreamed that one day she’d be working at the largest, longest-running collaborative science experiment in the world. Yet that’s where she found herself the past couple of years, living in France and working in neighboring Switzerland on a series of cutting-edge experiments in the field of particle physics as part of an international team inside the CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) underground “super collider.” Burt’s path has been an outlier, but it was put into motion by a chain reaction that played out much
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like the forces she now studies. Burt was destined to be a scientist, running home experiments from an early age. “I had a chemistry set from when I was 6 or 7 years old,” said Burt on a recent visit to the Cheney campus. She recalls how she and her brother acted like “mad scientists,” combining household products to see what kind of reaction it might cause. “I’ve just always been interested in science, and I got interested in physics when I was in high school,” said Burt, but says she initially lacked the confidence to think
On some level, it’s really a search for the truth. It’s like trying to find out the fundamental origin of reality –and I really like the rigor of it.
r
that she could excel in the field. “On some level, it’s really a search for the truth. It’s like trying to find out the fundamental origin of reality – and I really like the rigor of it,” she said. Yet she didn’t have a straight path to her profession. In her mid-20s, Burt graduated from Spokane Falls Community College with an associate degree in chemistry but with no clear purpose. It was still a mystery to Burt, and the universe, what would come next. She transferred to EWU and initially continued with chemistry but was drawn to physics because of its foundation in mathematics. Physics uses math to try and explain the laws of nature. Burt eventually settled into one area of it after taking a class on nuclear physics at Eastern and now studies the behavior of subatomic particles. Burt found a mentor in professor Achin Sen, PhD, who has been at Eastern for more than 30 years. Sen convinced Burt to study physics, and he put in hours of extra time to help her prepare for acceptance into a top graduate school. The two remain close and Burt visits her mentor when she returns home. She is currently pursuing postgraduate particle physics studies at the University of California-Riverside, a school that offers an opportunity to conduct research at CERN with some of the brightest minds in the field. Burt says a poster for CERN used to hang in the room where she tutored fellow Eastern students in physics and she remembers thinking, “I’d love to work there–that would be crazy,” never imagining it could actually happen. Yet it did, which she attributes to a focused passion and dedication to learn a discipline with a lot of uncertainty. “You have to be willing to ask a lot of questions and be comfortable being really wrong a lot of the time,” explains Burt. Her work focuses on “super symmetry,” a subset of the Standard Model of Physics, which “explains matter on the most fundamental level.” Her team’s work in the expansive field is systematically proving or disproving longtime fundamental theories about the universe and how its forces operate. Burt’s team was specifically focused on the Compact Muon Solenoid detector experiment inside the Large Hadron Collider, “one of the largest international scientific collaborations in history, involving more than 3,500 scientists, engineers and students from 191 institutes in 43 countries,” according to CERN’s website. In nonscientific terms, Burt worked on the biggest experiment in the world, within a part of the project that is the largest device of its kind, trying to detect and capture the collisions of the smallest objects. It is important work that one day may reveal and redefine universal truths. Burt is currently back stateside, working on her thesis and analyzing the oodles of data collected by the team during two-plus years at CERN. Work at the super collider project regularly makes worldwide news, though the average person hearing such reports can’t appreciate the significance of the findings. The most recent landmark (in 2012) revolved around evidence of the elusive Higgs Boson particle, something the scientists had been trying to find for four decades. Physicists enter the field with the understanding that the findings are cumulative–each newly discovered paradigm either builds on, or debunks, prior work.
Burt says the outcome of any given research project isn’t as important as the continuing pursuit. It’s something she wants a new generation of Eastern graduates, particularly other women, to have the opportunity to experience. EWU has a small program without a lot of resources and doesn’t conduct publishable research, yet it offers a more intimate educational experience that can be a foundation for its students. “Being a small program isn’t always good, but I got the benefit of a lot of individual attention, small class sizes and good teaching,” said Burt. “I would like to see Eastern send more students to grad school, and I’m willing to help them do it.” Burt would like to inspire a new generation with interactive forms of education about physics. She plans to create a mobile app game that teaches the history of particle physics to children. She encourages future physicists to pursue their passion and learn some basic programming/ coding skills, a skill that is needed when processing the data. She is a passionate advocate for the sciences, especially physics. Burt says she isn’t focused on personal glory, such as winning a Nobel Prize, but simpler goals. Her particular DNA may lead her into the field of science communications, which she feels could use some improvement. Who knows, maybe she could be the next Neil deGrasse Tyson, an American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science communicator? “I don’t know about that,” she says with a smile. “I just want to leave things better than I found them. When I meet people, I hope they can leave a little happier and more educated than they were before. I think that if I can help people understand the nature of science, and what it is that we do and what our goals are, then I’d be pretty happy.” E
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6.
5.
2. 10.
7.
13.
1. EWU Football v. Montana St., Sept. 19, 2015 2. Young Professional Network event, Oct. 8, 2015 3. EWU Football @ Northern Colorado, Oct. 24, 2015 4. Ira Byock Presentation, Live Well, Die Well, Oct. 29, 2015 5. EWU Football v. Weber St., Oct. 31, 2015 6. EWU Football @ Montana, Nov. 14, 2015 7. Lucy Covington Ceremony, Nov. 24, 2015 8. Encanto Holiday Opera, Nov. 28, 2015 9. Spokane International Film Festival (SpIFF), Jan. 29, 2016 10. Alumni Appreciation, Men’s Basketball, Jan. 30, 2106 11. Wenatchee Wild Hockey, Feb. 6, 2016 12. ROTC Fighting Eagles Battalion, Dining Out, Feb. 20, 2016 13. Big Sky Conference Basketball Tournament, March 2016
3.
2.
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8.
9.
4.
1.
11.
WORDSMITHS Marshall Named Washington’s Poet Laureate By Jeff Bunch ‘88 88
Tod Marshall ’92, MFA creative writing, isn’t afraid of taking on passion projects to promote the arts, but his latest may be his most ambitious yet. Marshall has dedicated himself to organizations such as Humanities Washington, which honored him with its service award in 2015. On Feb. 1, he became the Washington State Poet Laureate for a two-year term.
In April 2007, the Washington State Legislature passed a bill that recognized the value of poetry to the culture and heritage of the state by establishing the Washington State Poet Laureate. Marshall said the idea of applying for the state’s Poet Laureate came to him after talking with Sam Green, the state’s first Poet Laureate. Green, a Seattle University professor, was known to hold office hours for 8-10 hours per day during his term. “Sam mentioned the Poet Laureate and his dedication frightened me,” Marshall said. Yet Marshall, a professor at Gonzaga University, said he was inspired by Green as a “tireless advocate for poetry,” as were Green’s Poet Laureate successors. “All of that amazed me and intimated me,” he said. Their approach of inclusiveness, both geographically and demographically, is a model Marshall aims to emulate as the first Poet Laureate from eastern Washington. It has been the culmination of a steady rise for Marshall in his adopted home during the past 20 years, and the time he spent studying at EWU is a big part of his story. Marshall was in a summer writing workshop at the University of Iowa in 1989, when he was advised to apply to the top graduate Master of Fine Arts programs, including Eastern. Marshall came to Spokane, sight unseen, and began learning from legendary faculty such as James McAuley, Ursula Hegi, John Keeble and Nance Van Winckel. Marshall earned his PhD from the University of Kansas and taught briefly before coming back to Spokane. His newest collection of poems, Bugle, was a winner of the 2015 Washington Book Award for poetry. He is on a roll and, while being named Poet Laureate is yet another prestigious honor, it is also different. The work is an extension of a public service ethos that is core to Marshall. He has served in the Prime Time Mentoring Program for at-risk youth in Spokane. He says that as a “believer” in the power of poetry and the arts, his new role is a way to promote those values. Learn more on his personal website: todmarshall.com, read Marshall’s blog at: wapoetlaureate.org.
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Everyone Loves a Winner By Pat Spanjer ‘80 Terry Davis was scheduled to participate in the 2012 Spokane International Film Festival (SpIFF) screening of Vision Quest, but a couple of weeks before the event, he fell off a ladder in his Mankato, Minnesota, home. He sustained a head injury that landed him on life support. Doctors told his family he would not recover. He shocked them all when he opened his eyes and beat the odds. While Davis, ’69 BA English, continues to suffer side effects from that injury, he was determined to return to Spokane this year. In January, SpIFF kicked off its annual event with the 30th anniversary celebration of Vision Quest, the 1985 movie based on Davis’ 1979 novel about a Spokane teenager who embodies the wrestling culture. More than 1,000 Vision Quest fans from across the nation flooded the Fox Theater to greet Davis, Spokane legendary wrestling coach Cash Stone (the muse for the story’s coach) and Vision Quest actor Matthew Modine. Davis was a wrestler at Spokane’s Shadle Park High School. “One of the best things about wrestling was that it didn’t depend on the coach’s opinion of you,” Davis said. “It was about you winning. It’s noble to be all by yourself on the mat. There’s no one else to blame. You win or you lose.” Modine, who played Louden Swain, Vision Quest’s main character, put an arm around Davis’ shoulders and told everyone, “Terry is Louden. I was playing him.” Modine then gave Davis a kiss on the cheek. A Spokane fifth-grade teacher shook Davis’ hand and said, “I just want to thank you for your writing. I use your stories to show my students how to write well.” For 30 years, Davis taught English and writing, too. His résumé includes teaching and coaching high school wrestling in several cities. He also taught at Eastern in 1981-82, Gonzaga University, University of Idaho, East Carolina and Minnesota State in Mankato, where he retired in 2009. Davis’ writing career was fostered at Eastern. Pat Coontz was his first writing professor. “She was kind and supportive, and she taught us that by analysis and reading, we could become writers,” Davis said. Professor and author Pat McManus also influenced him. “His sense of humor and his analysis of a good piece, his knowledge and his writing taught me a lot,” Davis said. One of Davis’ current projects is It’s a Perilous Life, a novel about a man with bipolar disorder, and how the power of love can save people. Davis knows a lot about both. Through his own life experiences with bipolar disorder and traumatic brain injuries, he has been fortunate to have the amazing love and support of longtime friends, family and Vision Quest fans. No matter how many times they see the movie, they cheer on Louden Swain/Terry Davis to win the big wrestling match at the end, which he does every time.
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Little Deuce Coupe Brothers From Gordy Simanton ’77
A band of brothers went to college at Eastern in the 1970s. The bond that brought us together was the love of sports. Playing, watching, talking sports. Flag football, softball, baseball, basketball were all activities we took great joy in playing together, and of course listening to The Beach Boys. To be a part of Little Deuce Coupe, the first requirement was you simply had to be a good guy; secondary was being a good athlete. While we won our fair share of intramural championships, it was always a team effort. And when we took the field or the floor, we were a team of the best regular guys on campus. When we look back today, we don’t recount the number of wins or who scored the most points; rather we remember the good times, the good stories and the laughter. Those will be the wonderful memories we’ll always share, because those are the things that endure and the special link that has allowed us to remain lifelong friends to this day. And just like the song says, “Little Deuce Coupe, you don’t know what WE got.”
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’15 Joseph Behler, BA accounting, has been hired as a staff accountant by Dingus, Zarecor & Associates in Spokane. ’15 Sara Blickhahn, BA accounting, has been hired as a staff accountant by Dingus, Zarecor & Associates in Spokane. ’15 Lexie B. Nelson, BS exercise science, EWU women’s basketball alumna, has signed a contract to play professional basketball for Kotka Peli-Karhut in the Finnish SM-Sarja League. Nelson was a three-time All-Big Sky selection while at EWU, and averaged 14.6 points per game over three seasons. ’15 Lisa Norris, BA accounting, has been hired by Eide Bailly LLP, as an accounting services associate. She has seven years of bookkeeping experience. ’15 Cadria Pavlenco, BA accounting, has been hired as a staff accountant by Dingus, Zarecor & Associates in Spokane. ’15 Andy Phan, BS electrical engineering, has been hired by NAC Architecture as an electrical designer/technician. He is currently working on the Walla Walla Community College Clarkston Workforce and Business Development Center
L-R: Randy Reed ‘77, Gordy Simanton ‘77, Lance Anderson ‘76, Mark Reed ‘77, Rory Rickard ‘77 and John Neer ‘78
and the Eastern Washington University Arc Flash Study. ’15 Jamie Jeanne Redman, DPT, has been hired as a staff physical therapist for U-District Physical Therapy in Spokane. ’15, ’12 Erika “Riki” Schiermeister, DPT, BS biology, has been hired as a staff physical therapist for U-District Physical Therapy in Spokane. ’15 Christopher Schroll, BA international affairs, has been hired by Etailz, as a purchase order associate. ’15, ’08 Lorie Speer, MS and BS dental hygiene, is an assistant professor in EWU’s Dental Hygiene Program.
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’14 Denzel Johnson, BA health services administration, a master’s of public health student at EWU, was named a recipient of the Keeper of the Dream award from EWU’s Africana Studies program, spring 2015, in recognition of his academic achievement and service to the community. ’14 Carlos Mata, BA criminal justice, has been assigned to the Grandview Washington State
Patrol detachment. The Mattawa, Washington, native was the top cadet among 25 graduates sworn into duty in November. ’14 Shane Moses, BA journalism, BS public relations, has been hired as the sports and community editor at the Tribal Tribune, a newspaper publication on the Colville Indian Reservation.
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’13 Lisa Adair, BA geography, has been hired as the assistant planner for RuenYeager and Associates in Sandpoint, Idaho. The company offers professional land use planning services to municipal clients within the region. ’13 David Watts, BA management, has been hired as an assistant in the human resource department by Skils’kin, a community-based nonprofit that provides services to adults with disabilities. Previously, he worked as an intern with the company. ’12 Rhylee Marchand, BA history, graduated from University of Idaho College of Law in May 2015, and was sworn into the Idaho Supreme Court and the Federal District Court for the District of Idaho in October. She is an assistant attorney in the office of Legal Council for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe.
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class notes Commemorating EWU’s National Championship
Former linebacker J.C. Sherritt ’11 returned to the Northwest to celebrate the fifth anniversary of one of Eastern’s proudest athletic moments, the Eagles' National Football Championship. He was the guest speaker at the West Plains Chamber of Commerce meeting Jan. 7. Sherritt is currently a linebacker for the Canadian Football League’s Grey Cup Champion team, the Edmonton Eskimos. In addition to several coaches and former players, Sherritt was joined at the five-year celebration by fellow Eastern football All-Americans Greg Peach ’07 and Matt Nichols ’10. Sherritt said that his favorite memory of the 20-19 victory of Delaware wasn’t the trophy presentation but it was seeing dozens of former players rushing the field to join the celebration. “They were running down with smiles on their faces, and you realized how big of a moment it was for the program as a whole,” Sherritt said.
L-R: Greg Peach ’07, J.C. Sherritt ’11 and Matt Nichols ’10
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’12 Kari Woelber, BA recreation management, and Aaron Clark, both of Cheney, were married June 9,2015, in Las Vegas. Woelber works at The Spokane Club. They live in Cheney at Williams Lake. ’11 Nick Crooks, BA accounting, has been promoted from senior accountant to supervisor at Nicholas Knapton, P.S. in Spokane.
’10 Jennifer J. Preston, BA interdisciplinary studies, has joined PayneWest Insurance as a personal insurance account specialist. She has been in the insurance industry since 2008. ‘09 Robert L. Delafuente, BA computer science, has been hired by Disney Parks & Resorts Digital (DPRD) as a Sr. iOS Engineer. His current project is leading a team for a new feature within the iOS Disneyland app.
‘11 Ben Helms, BS electrical engineering, an electrical engineer with DEI Electrical Consultants in Spokane Valley, has earned his professional engineer license in Washington and California. Helms, who joined DEI in 2010 as an electrical designer, specializes in correctional projects, security electronics and security video systems. He also serves as a commissioner on the Baseball Operating Committee for Spokane Indians Youth Baseball.
08
’11, ’09 Jaime L. Hollis, MS communications, BA interdisciplinary studies, has been named director of the Diversity Center at Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota. Previously, she served as the director of LGBT, transfer, veteran and returning adult service at Gonzaga University.
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’08 Elizabeth (Coogan) Quinby, BA music, has been named as one of the most influential music educators in the country by School Band Orchestra Magazine. She has been the orchestra teacher at North Middle School in Great Falls, Montana, for the past four years. Before that, she worked as an elementary music teacher in Great Falls Public Schools and spent time as the K-12 music teacher in Valier, Montana. ’07 Megan Chatellier, DPT, is a newly appointed assistant professor in physical therapy in the College of Health Science & Public Health at EWU. ’07 Alyssa (Chambers) Olveda, BA communication studies, and her husband,
Steven, welcomed their daughter, Selena, born July 10, 2015. They live in Los Alamitos, California.
06
’06 Katie Fitzpatrick, BA communication studies, has been hired as marketing director by Garco Construction. She previously worked at Trindera Engineering as the marketing and business development coordinator. ’06 Keva L. Sonderen, BA management, coowner, Sonderen Packaging, Inc., accepted the “Galliard Excellence Award” recognizing and honoring small family-owned and closely held businesses that are demonstrating excellence in an integrated approach to business, from the Galliard Family Business Advisor Institute in October.
05
’05 Eti Ena, BS physical education, has been hired as Eastern’s defensive front coordinator and defensive ends coach for the 2016 football season. He comes to Eastern from Cal Poly, where he coached the defensive line from 2013-15, and prior to that spent four seasons (2009-12) as defensive line coach at the University of Idaho. He served as a student assistant for three seasons from 2003-05 under then-head coach Paul Wulff.
class notes Couples’ Reunion From Mark Eckerich ’73 It was an interesting time for students attending EWSC from 1965 to 1972. The Vietnam War was in full swing and, to quote Bob Dylan, “The times were a changing.” The members of the Sigma Nu Fraternity at Eastern were a mix of kids from Spokane, the west side of the state, small eastern Washington towns, as well as some Vietnam-era vets. None of us had much money, and most had part-time jobs during the school year as well as summer work. We formed a brotherhood that has lasted these 40-plus years. We recently had a reunion in Cheney. There were 42 brothers and spouses in attendance and of those, six couples have a unique bond. All six met while students at Eastern. All six were married in 1972. All are still married. All are retired, or about to, and all have had successful careers. We were lucky enough to have all six couples at the reunion, especially Denny and Susan Brooks, who flew out from Birmingham, Alabama.
L-R: Kathi ‘71 and Mark ‘73 Eckerich, Becky and Bob Clark, George ’70 and Susan ’69 Lee, Ted ’73 and Marcia ’84 Haynes, Margie ’73 and Wayne (not there) Foland, Dennis and Susan Brooks.The guy with the plate is Fred Riedel ’74 (also a Sigma Nu brother). Photo taken Sept. 19, 2015
04
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‘04 Lauren Griswold, BS journalism, plans to marry Shane Dews in July 2016, Portland, Oregon. The couple currently resides in Scottsdale, Arizona, where she is director of strategic marketing and communication at Arizona State University, where she earned her master’s degree in communication. While at Eastern, Griswold was president of the Public Relations Student Society of America Chapter, a member of student government and played club softball. She worked for Major League Baseball’s Seattle Mariners and two other clubs for nine years.
’03 Scott Rivas, MBA, has been promoted to associate at DCI Engineers, a civil and structural consulting engineering firm in Spokane. Since joining DCI in 2004, Rivas has evaluated and engineered civil designs for mixed-use buildings and projects entailing government, commercial, industrial and retail sectors.
’04 David Baumann, BS technology, an electrical designer/technician with NAC Architecture, is currently working on the Providence Health & Services infrastructure master plan, as well as Enumclaw School District Elementary School replacement in Enumclaw, Washington.
’04 Ben T. Wick, BS computer science, a former Spokane Valley City Council member, purchased the Liberty Lake Splash and Current, monthly publications based in Liberty Lake, Washington. Wick has served on several local and regional boards, most recently as chair of the Spokane Regional Transportation Council. He is information systems manager for Spokane Industries.
’03 Kim V. Krogh, BA interdisciplinary studies, has been elected president of the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of Washington. Krogh has more than 23 years of experience in the insurance industry and has been a top producer for Fidelity Associates for more than 13 years.
02
’02 Beth Crossman, BA communication studies, has been hired as an event and marketing coordinator by the Washington Agriculture and Forestry Education Foundation. ’02 Eowen S. Rosentrater, BA English, principal/ attorney at Eowen S. Rosentrater, was named Inland Business Catalyst magazine’s 20 under 40 for 2015, a celebration of rising stars in the Spokane region.
01
’01 Polly Buckingham, MFA creative writing, senior lecturer in EWU’s English department, has won the Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Short Fiction, awarded by the University of North Texas Press. The prize comes with a $1,000 cash award as well as publication of her story collection. The Expense of a View will be released in November 2016. Buckingham is a three-time finalist for the Flannery O’Connor Prize, and a previous winner of the Jeanne Leiby Memorial Chapbook Award for Fiction from the Florida Review Press. She is the founding editor of StringTown Press and an associate director of Willow Springs, Eastern’s literary journal. Her work has appeared in the Gettysburg Review, the Threepenny Review and several other journals. ’01, ‘94 Lisa A. Malpass, MPA, BA government, has been named a principal in the law firm Winston & Cashatt, Lawyers. She joined the firm in 2014. ’01 Donna R. McNeill, MEd, was awarded the Ephrata Education Association’s 2015 Spotlight on Dedication award in August. McNeill has been teaching in Ephrata for 18 years. She has endorsements in special education, early childhood education and teaching English as a Second Language.
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Save the Date for the 2016
EWU Alumni Awards Gala presented by numerica credit union
Friday, May 20
Spokane Convention Center Alumni.ewu.edu/events
00
’00 Jeremy Eubanks, BA accounting and info systems, has had a passion for brewing craft beer for years, and it was while he was a director at Microsoft (his day job) that he established Flycaster Brewing Co. in Kirkland, Washington. In its first six months, the brewery was voted in the top 10 Washington drinking establishments as part of a King5 competition (voted by the public) and in 2015, the brewery won 425 Magazine’s best local brewery, also voted by the public.
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’99 Jason Cardon, BA management information systems, has been promoted to chief technology officer at Nuvodia. He has been with the company since 2006 and previously served as the director of IT operations. ’99 Jeff Kelly, BA administrative office management, has been promoted to chief information officer for Nuvodia. He has been with the company since 1998 and previously served as the director of health care solutions.
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’98 Therese M. Goodwin, BA marketing, has joined Idaho Central Credit Union in its Coeur d’Alene branch as a business relationship officer for the North Idaho region.
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’98, ’91 Brinn Harberts, MS and BA mathematics, was hired by Big Bend Community College as a math instructor last fall. She was previously tenured at BBCC from 2002-07. Harberts has taught math at many levels, from pre-collegiate through advanced studies. She most recently worked in the Ephrata School District to increase student placement levels and high school teacher awareness of college math. ’98 Vicki M. Smith, BA government, a trial lawyer and partner with Bodyfelt Mount LLP, in Portland, Oregon, has become an officer on the board of directors for the Oregon Association of Defense Counsel (OADC). As one of only three officers leading the OADC board of directors, Smith will act as secretary/treasurer in 2016, president-elect in 2017 and president in 2018. ’98 Jennifer P. Stapleton, MPA, has been sworn in as the new city administrator for the city of Sandpoint, Idaho. She previously ran two departments in the city of Spokane, with her last three positions centered on grant funding and budgeting.
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’96 Amy L. Rimov, BA music, a family law attorney, has been recognized as a 2015 “Ten Best Family Law Attorneys for Client Satisfaction,” by the American Institute of Family Law Attorneys.
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’95 Michelle Hege, MS communications, president and CEO of Desautel Hege, has won the Degerness Award for Excellence in Public Relations, honoring the outstanding, demonstrated long-term commitment to the public relations profession through community service, involvement and nurturing young professionals. ‘95 Shannon Elise Muir, BA Radio-TV/English, has short stories in several anthologies for New Pulp and Genre Fiction publisher Pro Se Press, with more slated to be released. In June 2015, she married fellow Pro Se Press author, longtime friend and sometimes writing collaborator Kevin Paul Shaw Broden. They live in Glendale, California. ’95 Jodi Walker, BA journalism, has been named director of communications for the University of Idaho. She will serve as a principal university spokesperson. Walker has worked in the U of I’s College of Natural Resources as marketing and communications manager since 2013.
’95 Brian M. Werst, BA English, has joined Workland & Witherspoon, PLLC, as a partner. He was previously with K&L Gates LLP. He practices municipal law, public finance, health care law, corporate and transactional law, labor and employment law, real property law, and litigation and arbitration.
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OCT. 7-8, 2016
’94 Rachelle L. Sorensen, BA reading, has been hired as billing support and assistant by Nicholas Knapton, P.S. She was previously with the Deer Park School District.
ClassES of 1966 and 1967
’93, ’84 Ryle Kiser, MEd, BA English, has been selected as the superintendent for the Grass Lake Community Schools in Grass Lake, Michigan. Previously, he served as the superintendent of Peck Community Schools in Sanilac County, Reese, Michigan.
AND HOMECOMING
93 91
‘91 Mitchell A. May, BA marketing, has founded and operates West Richland Courier, a Facebook “newspaper” that provides West Richland, Washington, and related Tri-Cities-area news, business spotlights, photos and event/things to do information to the world via Facebook, exclusively. He founded and runs Bipolar & Depression Support Coalition, a nonprofit corporation that educates the public about those two and other related conditions, and provides a support group for those who suffer from those conditions, and their families, in the Tri-Cities area. This organization can also be found on Facebook.
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’88 Jeff Bunch, BA journalism, has been hired by Gonzaga University’s Marketing & Communications Office as the Web content and communications manager. He previously worked as a writer/editor in EWU’s Marketing & Communications department.
87
’87 Julie M. McKay, BA government, has been appointed to the Spokane County Superior Court by Washington Gov. Jay Inslee. She is currently a Spokane County Superior Court Commissioner and has served in that role since 2014. Before that, she led a general civil and family law practice in Spokane.
83
’83, ’76 James G. Parrish, MBA, BA radio/TV, CEO of Humboldt General Hospital in Winnemucca, Nevada, accepted the National Rural Health Association’s Top 20 Award for “Financial Stability for Critical Access Hospitals” in October. This is the fifth year in a
50-year Reunion CELEBRATION For more information, please visit alumni.ewu.edu/reunion2016 row that Humboldt General Hospital has been in the top 20 of over 1,300 Critical Access Hospitals nationwide.
81
’81 Johnna Boxley, BA college instruction, has won Visit Spokane’s Inland Northwest Tourism Award for “Leadership Excellence in Tourism.” In October, she retired as general manager of the Spokane Convention Center and INB Performing Arts Center. She previously worked for the City of Spokane Parks and Recreation Department, and as an adjunct professor at EWU and Spokane Community Colleges. ’81 Janet Hasson, BA finance, president and publisher of The Providence Journal, will lead the Providence Publishing Group as regional vice president. She will continue to serve as president and publisher of The Providence Journal, a position she has held since March 2015, and will add oversight of the Nantucket Media Group and Norwich Bulletin to her responsibilities. Hasson’s previous executive roles include president and publisher of the Journal News Media Group and senior vice president of audience development at the Detroit Media Partnership.
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’77 Jeanne E. Szarzynski, BA biology, is an assistant professor in the Bethel University Graduate School’s Physician Assistant Program in St. Paul, Minnesota. She has more than 34 years of clinical experience as a physician assistant, and holds a bachelor of medicine degree from Duke University and a master’s degree in physician assistant studies from the University of Nebraska.
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’74 Gary L. Kuster, BA accounting, has joined Dowers Commercial Real Estate Group Inc. as a broker. He specializes in commercial sales, leasing and investment properties, and has more than 30 years of experience in finance, real estate, accounting and banking.
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’71 Cheryl (Mitchell) Lothspeich, BA education, retired in December 2014, after 41 years in education, the final 16 as an art teacher at Colfax High School, Colfax, Washington.
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’67 Robert J. “Bob” Lothspeich, BA accounting, retired Dec. 31, 2014, after a 25-year career in public accounting, while operating the family farm. He spent the past 16 years serving in government, with the last 14 and a half as Whitman County Treasurer.
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in memoriam
15
’15 Alison D. Avery, age 28, died Oct. 26, 2015, Spokane, Washington
’15 James Brian Wiecks Jr., age 25, died Dec. 9, 2015, Spokane Valley, Washington
13 10 05
’13 Lea Anne Scott, age 54, died Nov. 17, 2015, Spokane, Washington
’10, ’07 Colleen A. Draper, age 39, died Sept. 13, 2015, Spokane, Washington
87 86
’87 Shari Lyn Thompson, age 50, died Aug. 19, 2015, Spokane, Washington
’86 Leslie Weaver-Burdett, age 59, died Nov. 26, 2015, Spokane, Washington ’86 Michelle Eaton Yandle, age 52, died Nov. 5, 2015, Olympia, Washington
’05 Suzanne P. Denison, age 37, died Nov. 20, 2015, Spokane, Washington
85 84
’05 Scott C. Nikkola, age 44, died Dec. 23, 2015, Spokane, Washington
’84 Diane C. Thoren, age 62, died Sept. 9, 2015, Spokane, Washington
01
‘01 Emily G. Bradford, age 42, died Aug. 2, 2015, Spokane, Washington
’01 Jodie R. Lotzgesell, age 37, died March 20, 2015, Granite Falls, Washington ’01 Juliana E. Reeves, age 53, died Nov. 26, 2015, Williston, North Dakota
99 97
’99 Shauna Lynn Rehfeld, age 44, died July 23, 2015, Spokane, Washington ’97 Michael J. Albo, age 63, died July 4, 2015, Spokane, Washington
’97 Matthew A. Nielsen, age 40, died Jan. 12, 2016, Indianapolis, Indiana
96 95 93 92
’96 Bonnie J. Donnelly, age 71, died Dec. 29, 2015, Spokane, Washington
’95 Olive Faith McCreary, age 63, died Aug. 19, 2015, Quincy, Washington ’93 Judith Lynne (Marshall) Kruiswyk, age 68, died Oct. 8, 2015, Post Falls, Idaho ’92 Evonne C. Miller, age 70, died Nov. 1, 2015, Spokane, Washington
’92 Katherine I. Yeats, age 60, died Nov. 28, 2015, Kennewick, Washington
89 44
’89 Patricia M. “Pat” Merkel, age 80, died Oct. 16, 2015, Richland, Washington
E ASTERN: SPRING 2016
’85 Brooks A. Hogle, age 58, died Dec. 19, 2015, Salem, Oregon
’84 John Joseph Carrieres, age 55, died Aug. 2, 2015, Spokane Valley, Washington
83
’83 Judith A. Lippman, age 67, died July 2015, 2015, Spokane, Washington ’83 Garey M. Norgard, age 76, died Jan. 2, 2016, Spokane, Washington ’83 Patricia A. Paye, age 77, died Nov. 17, 2015, Bellevue, Washington
82
’82 Mary Elizabeth Cunneely, age 56, died July 6, 2015, Spokane, Washington ’82 Richard P. “Dick” Pappe, age 67, died July 17, 2015, Seattle, Washington
80 79
’80 William H. Boucher, age 98, died Sept. 25, 2015, Spokane, Washington
’79, ’77 Dennis W. Broderick, age 67, died in November 2015, Colorado Springs, Colorado
75
’75 Gerald A. Hibbard, age 64, died Nov. 19, 2015, Spokane Valley, Washington ’75 Denise Lynn Savoy, age 62, died June 30, 2015, Lewiston, Idaho
74
’74 Janet L. Clark, age 62, died Nov. 5, 2015, Airway Heights, Washington
’74 Robert J. Davis, age 70, died July 10, 2015, Pullman, Washington ’74 Craig A. Houston, age 68, died June 28, 2015
73
’73 Michael T. Dolan, age 66, died Feb. 17, 2016, Spokane, Washington
72
’72 Tom D. Arlt, age 68, died Dec. 15, 2015, Ritzville, Washington
’73 Carmela Scarcello Dempsey, age 89, died Aug. 27, 2015, Spokane, Washington
’72 Zaida S. Leighton, age 76, died Jan. 5, 2016, Spokane, Washington ’72 Cheryl E. Squires, age 64, died Jan. 8, 2016, Spokane, Washington ’72 Michael Thorne, age 66, died Oct. 30, 2015, Snohomish, Washington ’72 John L. Wood II, age 66, died Feb. 16, 2016, Spirit Lake, Idaho
71
’71 Robert B. Lanning, age 71, died Oct. 19, 2015, Hudson, Florida
’71 Herman J. Marshall Jr., age 68, died Jan. 2, 2016, Spokane, Washington ’71 Howard R. McBride, age 68, died Feb. 18, 2016, Salem, Oregon
’79 Joyce F. Gardner, age 84, died Sept. 6, 2015, Ritzville, Washington
’71 Barbara A. McCray, age 66, died Oct. 20, 2015
’79 William C. Weisgerber, age 69, died Nov. 8, 2015, Cheney, Washington
’71 Kent C. McVey, DVM, age 66, died Feb. 19, 2016, Rochester, Minnesota
78
’78 Mary C. Ford, age 60, died Jan. 14, 2016, Milwaukie, Oregon
’78 Scott D. Heimbigner, age 59, died Dec. 29, 2015, Odessa, Washington ’78 David L. Sivills, age 87, died Aug. 28, 2015, Spokane, Washington
’71 Sharon L. Pifer, age 66, died Dec. 13, 2015, Colville, Washington ’71 Jack Russell Spring, age 82, died Aug. 2, 2015, Spokane, Washington
70
’70 Donald C. Shook, age 81, died July 4, 2015, Kennewick, Washington
‘70 Hermann E. Wild, age 78, died May 12, 2015, Lake Stevens, Washington
69
’69 Dominic E. “Nick” Frucci, age 73, died Oct. 16, 2015, Spokane, Washington ’69, ’64 John William “Bill” Savage, age 80, died Nov. 2, 2015, Spokane, Washington
68 67 65 63
’68 Helen L. Leighton, age 95, died Jan. 7, 2016, Spokane, Washington ’67 Carol E. Hill, age 76, died Oct. 23, 2015, Olympia, Washington ’65 Roger E. Harman, age 81, died Nov. 23, 2015, Cheney, Washington ’63 Joyce L. Ostby, age 75, died Nov. 25, 2015, Spokane, Washington
’63 Robert D. Waldo, age 84, died Nov. 4, 2015, Austin, Texas
62 61 60 59
’62 Donald L. Hersey, age 77, died Dec. 18, 2015, Spokane, Washington
’61 Charlotte A. Jones, age 78, died Oct. 18, 2015, Coolin, Idaho
’55 John “Bud” Hooper, age 86, died Aug. 2, 2015, Liberty Lake, Washington
53 51
’53 James L. Milner, age 84, died Nov. 16, 2015, Spokane, Washington
’51 Harry Glenwood Davis, age 94, died Nov. 26, 2015, Yakima, Washington ’51 Ralph A. Iseli, age 90, died Oct. 28, 2015, Salt Lake City, Utah
50
’50 Jack L. Frisk, age 88, died Sept. 12, 2015, Mount Vernon, Washington
’50 Jeanette A. Nave, age 87, died Jan. 10, 2016, Washtucna, Washington ’50 Darrell A. Waller, age 91, died Aug. 28, 2015, Spokane Valley, Washington
49 36
’49 Clyde Combs Jr., age 89, died Oct. 23, 2015, Cheney, Washington
’36 Nona K. (Kunz) Kimpel, age 97, died Aug. 10, 2014, (Spokane) Wilbur, Washington
’59 Lyle E. Gillette Jr., age 82, died Aug. 20, 2015, Deer Lodge, Montana
’58 William C. Hawley, age 79, died Dec. 15, 2015, Spokane, Washington
’57 Kathleen Samuelson Hanson, age 82, died Dec. 9, 2015, Olympia, Washington ’57 David A. Henry, age 80, died Sept. 2, 2015, Spokane, Washington ’57 Robert F. Wolford, age 80, died Aug. 17, 2015, The Dalles, Oregon
55
’55 Glen L. Whiteley, age 86, died Dec. 1, 2015, Medical Lake, Washington
James B. Albert, age 79, died Sept. 26, 2015, Vancouver, Washington. He retired from EWU’s Department of Music in July 1997, after 29 years of service. Katharine Hardie, age 89, died Dec. 28, 2015. She retired from the Registrar’s Office in May 1993, after 23 years of service. Russell Hartman Jr., age 84, died Dec. 14, 2015, in Spokane. He retired from EWU in June 1989, after 25 years of service as VP of Business & Finance. Katherine Hebert, age 69, died Sept. 20, 2015. She retired from the Library in September 2005, after 31 years of service. Dennis (Denny) Peterson, driver of the widely popular “IncREDible” semi-truck died unexpectedly at his home in Spokane, Nov. 26, 2015. He was 77.
Daryle G. Hagie, age 91, died March 2,
’60 Wanda Z. Swegle, age 87, died Jan. 20, 2016, Cheney, Washington
’59 Alan D. Rennaker, age 85, died Dec. 5, 2015, Spokane, Washington
58 57
Faculty & Staff
Daryle G. Hagie, 1971 Kinnikinick
2016. He became dean of students at Eastern Washington State College in 1955 and continued there as vice president for student services until his retirement from EWU in 1983. From his obituary, “He enjoyed the friendships of many WSU and EWU students, staff and faculty. Hagie loved water, both lake and ocean, and was always pursuing that perfect piece of driftwood or the biggest, clearest agate. He loved to play golf poorly, but loved his family best of all. He was a man of few words, and those he spoke were worth their weight in gold. He was widely known for his kindness, grace and twinkle. He lost his sweetheart of 63 years (Jean) last May. He is survived by son Wayne (Barbara); daughter Ann (Mark Summerson); five grandchildren and spouses, and three great-grandchildren.” A private family service will be held at a later date.
E ASTERN: SPRING 2016
45
final thoughts From Lisa Poplawski, director of Alumni Advancement Hands down, one of the most incredible events we orchestrate every other fall is Eastern’s 50-year reunion. It’s a weekend where tennis shoes and caffeine are required–for the Alumni staff at least. Alumni have proven time and again that reminiscing about college days is somewhat of a youth serum and we love it, but can barely keep up with their energy. This year, we are excited to host the classes of 1966 and 1967, Oct. 7-9. Jerry Mellick ’67 attended the last 50-year reunion (classes of ’63-’65) to visit with classmates. I thought it would be fun to have Jerry share some of his current and past memories to inspire others to “come home” in the fall. LP: What place on campus today do you think your classmates will be most stunned to see? JM: If you haven’t been back for a few years, it is, no doubt, the red turf. Beyond that, if you haven’t been back for a long time, everything west of Washington Street. In our day, there was nothing but farmland behind the old Field House and Red Barn. I think you will also be surprised to see our dorms remodeled and repurposed into gorgeous classroom and office space. LP: Tell me a story from your college days that still makes you laugh. JM: At the end of my junior year, I was responsible for helping with the Military Ball. As a senior cadet, I was also to be introduced as a Saber Arch team member with my sponsor corps counterpart. Unfortunately, I had a bit too much to drink, and it was decided that Cadet Mellick having an Army saber in my hand was not wise. I ended up in my room at Pearce Hall, put to bed. For at least two weeks, people would point and laugh as they remembered my antics. The most embarrassing part was, I lost my date. LP: What parts of the 50-year reunion are you most excited to experience again this year? JM: The dinner and medallion ceremony—it was a great opportunity to meet old classmates, share memories and look back at old pictures. Lots of laughs were shared that night. All the events were first class. LP: Where was the best place to hang out on the weekend? JM: Early on, it would have been the Student Union Building (Isle Hall). It was always a very busy place, and most social activities were held there. When we weren’t at Isle, we were hanging around the dorms (Sutton, Hudson, LA, Monroe, etc.). After we turned 21, Bill’s Tavern became a favorite haunt. LP: Why, after all these years, should your classmates consider attending their 50-year reunion? JM: It’s never too late to renew friendships and rediscover long-lasting friendships. And, Jerry, wouldn’t you say it is just “fun?” We all need more of that in our lives. Thank you for taking time to reminisce. I hope it ignited some memories in all of you. If it did, I invite you to hop on Facebook and search for the group “EWU Alumni Classes of 1966 and 1967,” and start sharing your memories! See you in October. 46
E ASTERN: SPRING 2016
events calendar
Join your fellow alumni and friends at these exciting events. For ongoing events and information, visit alumni.ewu.edu, follow Alumni on Facebook and Twitter, or send your email to ewualum@ewu.edu.
14
23
28
29-30
Young Professionals Network Achieving Work/Life Balance
35TH Annual Killin Dinner, Dance and Auction
Alumni/Admissions Networking Event
College of Business and Public Administration Wine and Golf Tournament
(Spokane)
(Walla Walla)
20-21
5
6-12
20
Geology Alumni Celebration Dinner
EWU Theatre Production These Shining Lives
Alumni Awards Gala
(Cheney)
(Cheney)
Social Work Alumni Network Annual Connect and Reconnect Social
12 EWU Day at Silverwood (Athol, Idaho)
SEPtember
(Cheney)
48TH Annual Spirit of the Eagle Pow Wow (Cheney)
(Spokane)
26-27 EAF Tri-Cities Celebration Dinner and Golf with Eagle Athletics (Pasco/Richland)
2
10
11
Graduating EWU Senior Send-Off with Alumni
EWU Football Coaches Golf Tournament
EWU Commencement
(Cheney)
(Cheney)
June
21
AUGUST
(Walla Walla)
(Cheney)
3 Red Zone on the Road Pregame EWU vs. WSU The(Pullman)
RedZone Where Eagle Fans Get Fired Up!
OCTOBER
MAY
April
11-17 (Spokane)
(Spokane)
3-8
7-8
8
Homecoming Week
50-Year Reunion Classes of
Northern Colorado vs. EWU Football
(Cheney)
1966 & 1967
(Cheney)
(Cheney)
RedZone The
Where Eagle Fans Get Fired Up!
For a calendar of all athletic events, visit goeags.com. For more information and to register for events, visit alumni.ewu.edu or call 888.EWU.ALUM.
E ASTERN: SPRING 2016
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EASTERN Magazine University Advancement Eastern Washington University 102 Hargreaves Hall Cheney, WA 99004-2413
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