Archive: stories

  EWU’s annual Senior Send-off procession — in which graduating seniors reverse course through the Herculean Pillars they traversed as incoming freshman — took on particular poignancy this spring. These seniors were members of the so-called “covid class” of 2024. Each began their Eastern journey during lock-down, a time when remote learning and event restrictions…

An EWU program helps school kids advance their literacy skills.   Reading may be fundamental, but it doesn’t come naturally. Learning to make sense of the written word takes patience, practice and, if you’re lucky, guidance from educators who care. Since its earliest days, Eastern has trained teachers who love sharing the gift of reading.…

Faculty and staff get a taste of what it takes to keep Eastern beautiful.   Keeping the Cheney campus beautiful requires a year-round effort, and every season has its challenges. Say what you will about fall leaves, winter snows and summer heat, it is undoubtedly spring — that wonderfully vibrant time of floral fecundity —…

For students with mental health challenges, the availability of assistance is key.   Eastern students typically find their collegiate experience to be an exciting time of personal and intellectual growth; a demanding but joyful four-year sojourn that they will long remember fondly. But it’s also not unusual, at EWU as elsewhere, for students to find…

A prize-winning urban planning student works to expand Latino housing opportunities.   During her time as an economic development specialist for the nonprofit Latinos en Spokane, Mayra Velazquez, an EWU senior studying urban planning and economics, was tasked with the sort of job one might expect would go to a much-more experienced staffer: documenting how…

A new, old-school printer helps student artists, and visiting professionals, revel in the retro.   Eastern’s Risograph copier, a “digital duplicator” named Ferdinand, isn’t old. But the art it produces — funky screen-prints created in layers of stenciled spot color — reproduce the retrograde vibe craved by today’s creatives. Built by Japan’s Riso Kagaku Corporation, EWU…

For Hilary Baird, graduate school will be just the latest in a long line of triumphs.   From a rejection on her first application to Eastern, to admission as a graduate student at one of the nation’s top music programs, EWU’s Hilary Baird has lived a true Cinderella story. In January, Baird was shocked and…

An EWU biologist explores the foundations of bone regeneration. Scientists have long known that the bones in our bodies are constantly repairing and rebuilding themselves, this thanks to an extraordinary regenerative process that is essential to maintaining mobility, organ protection and other critical skeletal functions.     The molecular-level mechanism behind our bones’ remarkable “remodeling”…

A new educational partnership will take experiential education to new heights.   Since it was founded during the Second World War, Fairchild Air Force Base, located just up the road from EWU’s Cheney campus, has been a critical part of our nation’s air defense system. Now it is poised to be a vital partner in…

Eastern’s track and field athletes, stars in the classroom, aim to up their game.   Athletes with Eastern’s men’s and women’s track and field teams have long been leaders in the classroom — this year’s women’s team tallied 25 Big Sky All-Academic awards, while the men earned 17. These days they are also asserting themselves…