Archive: stories

Like many colleges and universities, Eastern is always looking for ways to better serve its students, support its faculty, and maximize the value it provides to the wider community. One recent initiative, a potentially transformative, two-year “strategic resource allocation” review, reached a critical phase earlier this fall. In September, senior administrators issued their initial response…

Increasing participation among underrepresented university faculty members, particularly in STEM fields, is critical to building and maintaining our nation’s knowledge and science economies, experts say. Now, thanks to a three-year, $975,000 initiative funded by the National Science Foundation, EWU will be better equipped to make its own STEM faculty more representative. Led by principal investigator…

It’s not at all surprising that university research libraries, according to the nonprofit Council on Library and Information Resources, are taking on a range of new roles in the digital age, becoming “more deeply engaged in the creation and dissemination of knowledge.” Eastern’s JFK Library & Learning Commons is no exception, having evolved in recent…

In September, Drew Shirk, director of the Washington State Department of Revenue, was named by Gov. Jay Inslee to the university’s Board of Trustees. He joins new members Carol Evans ’91 and Alexis Alexander ’08, ’14, who were also named to the eight-member board in 2024. As Eastern’s governing body, the Board of Trustees establishes…

Across the nation, the use of clean, renewable energy sources is revolutionizing the way Americans power their lives and livelihoods. Already, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, alternatives to the carbon-based status quo are generating hundreds of billions in economic activity, with much more to come. Now, thanks to a Washington Climate Commitment Act…

Cola Boyer, an Eastern graduate who has excelled in training next-generation tribal leaders, was recently named the university’s new director of tribal relations. Boyer ’20 says she’s “incredibly excited” to return to EWU where, she adds, “I’m going to be in a place where I can make a difference with tribal relations and tribal communities.”…

For Police Chief Jewell Day, and the officers who serve with him at Eastern’s University Police Department, keeping up with best practices in policy, procedures and enforcement techniques has always been crucial to serving and protecting the campus community. In June, that dedication to professionalism was recognized by a certificate of accreditation from the International…

The itpa protein plays a crucial role in several metabolic processes that are essential to human life. Severe defects in ITPA are uncommon, but the results can be devastating. Infants born with a rare ITPA abnormality, for example, face the risk of a lethal neurological condition known as Developmental and Epileptic Encephalopathy 35. Few diagnosed…

For most teams, a painful season like EWU’s 2023 soccer campaign would take years to bounce back from. Matches were usually tight, play was always competitive, but poor results spoke for themselves: Just two wins, 14 losses and one draw. After a particularly frustrating, season-ending losing streak that concluded with a dismal 4-0 beatdown at…

  We are the region’s polytechnic. It’s a bold phrase that I was honored to pronounce earlier this year, and since then we have seen remarkable enthusiasm for this earnest expression of who we are and why we’re different. Across our state and region, people are excited that Eastern is moving forward with the polytechnic…