Archive: stories

The pandemic isn’t over, but Eastern is celebrating its return to ‘near normal.’ By Melodie Little Back in March 2020, just a week after the EWU men’s basketball team learned its appearance in the NCAA Tournament had been canceled, the university announced there would be a one-week extension of Eastern’s typical week-long spring break.  The…

Joddie Gleason, Eastern’s new women’s basketball head coach, aims to elevate a program in search of titles.   Helping student athletes flourish both on and off the basketball court is the goal for Joddie Gleason, who in November made her debut as head coach of Eastern’s women’s basketball team. Gleason comes to Eastern from Seattle…

For one of the world’s most accomplished athletes, nothing has come easy. By Charles E. Reineke It was raining as EWU student and Team USA Paralympian Jaleen Roberts settled into the starting blocks at Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium — a light but steady downpour, just like the PNW showers she’d trained in back home.  The 2020…

After three decades on the job, Dave Cook, Eastern’s longest-serving director of sports information, exits the press box. By Dave Meany For more than 30 years, the name Dave Cook has been synonymous with EWU Athletics. Some would say, despite his understated style, that he was the most influential person in the department. As EWU’s…

Back in 1951, the publication that launched 35-years before as the State Normal School Journal changed its name to The Easterner. (The image at left depicts  newsroom staff members in 1962. The photo below, circa 1960, shows the paper being printed on presses owned by the Cheney Free Press.) The Easterner newspaper today remains the…

A gleaming new Interdisciplinary Science center Promises a new era for ‘teaching, learning and discovery’ at EWU.   By Charles E. Reineke On a rainy fall Friday in October, the kind of weather only a meteorologist could love, a small crowd gathered to witness David May, EWU interim president, join pre-med student Tayrn Wilson in…

Eastern celebrates a new home for learning and discovery. When it opens for research and instruction this fall, Eastern’s new $68 million Interdisciplinary Science Center will advance EWU scientific exploration and discovery with state-of-the-art laboratories, classrooms and spaces for collaboration. The stunning brick, glass and steel building, according to its designers at Seattle’s LMN Architects,…

Senior Hall Turns 100 As the twin crises of the First World War and the Spanish Flu pandemic finally loosened their grip on a weary America, the nation’s college campuses saw a surge in interest and enrollment. Eastern, then the Cheney Normal School, was no exception. In the years before the war, a first dormitory,…

A foundation’s benevolence means Jessica Scognamiglio, and dozens of other hard-working Eagle students, face a less burdensome path to graduation.   By Leilah Langley. Photos by Chris Thompson. For decades, students have come to Eastern Washington University because it offers a uniquely attractive combination of access and affordability. But for many who matriculate at EWU,…

David May, Eastern’s Interin President, leans into challenging times.   By Dave Meany It’s March 10, 2021. David May is sitting in the president’s office, his office, on the second floor of Showalter Hall. It’s been exactly 365 days since then-Provost May made what would be one of the most consequential recommendations of his professional…