Archive: stories

A 10-year, $500,000 gift aims to encourage ‘experiential learning’ at the Catalyst.   EWU research to be conducted at Spokane’s new Catalyst building — the zero-energy engineering marvel featured in the Fall/Winter edition of Eastern magazine — got a big boost earlier this year. The McKinstry Charitable Foundation, headquartered in Seattle, announced in February a…

With cautious optimism, Eastern plans for resuming in-person instruction this fall.   More than a year has passed since the onslaught of Covid-19, a year that has brought unprecedented heartbreak and hardship to people across the globe. From the beginning of the pandemic, Eastern has worked diligently to protect the health of its students, faculty…

Eastern students and alumni are used to attacking rims at Spokane Hoopfest. Now they’re bringing the backboards.   Hoopfest, the massive three-on-three basketball gathering that modestly bills itself as the “Best Basketball Experience on Earth,” now counts EWU as a major sponsor. To celebrate, three university design students, Matthew Barden, Tannor Glumbick and Delaney Umemoto,…

Since 2016, Eastern admissions staff members have partnered with Spokane Public Schools and local-business donors to bring red and black Eagle sweatshirts — and big, beautiful smiles — to local fifth graders.   The hoodie project, started five years ago by an anonymous EWU alumnus, involves Eastern staff and students visiting regional elementary schools, handing…

An EWU program pairs mathematics-education students with the children of health workers.   Eastern students studying to be teachers have had a unique perspective on the upheavals wrought by the coronavirus. They’ve experienced pandemic disruptions both as students and as educators. This double whammy is an unfortunate but potentially profitable experience, says Carlos Castillo-Garsow, an…

When Madison Flint, a senior English major at EWU, sat down to fill out the Winter 2021 Student Satisfaction Survey, it occurred to her that Eastern’s anticipated post-pandemic reopening would likely not come soon enough for her to benefit. “I wish that students who have been enrolled at EWU for the past year could continue…

For more than 50 years, Bill Youngs has put students first.   During his more than 50 years at EWU, Bill Youngs, author, mentor and professor of history, has used his uniquely successful brand of teaching and scholarship to positively influence the intellectual and personal growth of hundreds of Eastern students. Along the way he…

EWU’s provost announces a new look for Eastern academics. Just over a year ago, senior university administrators and the Board of Trustees approved a blueprint for reducing the number of EWU colleges from seven to four as part of a cost-saving reorganization of colleges and academic departments at the university. In January, Brian Levin-Stankevich, provost…

Eastern music majors take to the airwaves on KPBX’s ‘Piano Bench.’   One of the most popular daytime programs on KPBX, the Spokane affiliate of National Public Radio, is Jim Tevenan’s Piano Bench, a show dedicated to revealing the instrument’s “great beauty and scope” via a mix of live performances and recordings. Eastern student players…

An ‘odd’ but successful spring season comes to an end in Fargo.   After an unprecedented spring season and an impressive 5-1 record, EWU football found itself in a familiar place on April 24 — back in the NCAA Division I Football Championship playoff. Their first-round opponent in the 16-team bracket was also well-known to…