crosscut.com : University of Washington

Sausage Links, cougar-hunting edition

Crosscut — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:28:01 PDT

Praise the Lord and release the hounds — because our good state Legislature has enacted a law which makes it legal once again to use dogs to hunt cougars. Now, I didn't even know cougar hunting was legal in Washington — minus Cougars wearing crimson — but apparently, it is. While the bill was actually passed by the Legislature in February, the Department of Fish and Wildlife will hold a public meeting on Friday to discuss whether the pilot program should continue for another three years.

Meanwhile, Micheal Reitz of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation has compiled a list of some other curious laws enacted by the Washington Legislature this year. My personal favorite: Violators may face up to $1,000 or up to a year in jail for selling raw or unprocessed huckleberries without a permit.

Go, Nuke Building!

Crosscut — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 10:37:01 PDT

The University of Washington's More Hall Annex, aka the Nuclear Reactor Building, has become a cause celeb for fans of mid-century modern architecture and atomic history. The UW is planning to demolish the building, but a graduate student, Abby Martin, has mounted an effort to get the structure listed on the National Historic Register of Historic Places. Time seemed to be running out, but it ain't over yet.

UW's new College of the Environment could bring in the green

Crosscut — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 05:00:01 PDT

The vision is to make the University of Washington and the region a major player in the post-carbon economy. Big stuff. Whether President Mark Emmert can make it happen is an open question, however.

A Seattle Expo legacy emerges from the trees

Crosscut — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:25:01 PDT

The University of Washington cut down a row of beautiful poplars on campus over the weekend. I love poplars and hated to see that. But as we approach 2009, the centennial year of Seattle's first world's fair, the tree-cutting at least had the benefit of revealing a lovely architectural legacy of the expo.

The sentencing of another in the ELF 'Family'

Crosscut — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 08:55:01 PDT

Beltane is a Gaelic holiday marking the beginning of summer. The first communique sent by the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), in 1997, stated it was sent on Beltane. And now two days before the summer solstice, Briana Waters today will be sentenced in U.S. District Court in Tacoma by Judge Franklin Burgess for her role as lookout during a 2001 arson at the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture. The end is in sight for the government's "Operation Backfire."

One College of the Environment deserves a look back at another

Crosscut — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 05:00:01 PDT

The man who created Huxley College of the Environment at Western Washington University, the nation's first such college, hasn't followed the controversies surrounding a similar college at the University of Washington, but he has some succinct advice: "Devote yourself to the science, the hard data," says C. J. (Jerry) Flora, "and don't get swept up in the fads."

UW is planning to move a historic fair pavilion

Crosscut — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 09:00:01 PDT

Next year will kick off the centennial of Seattle's first world's fair, the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition of 1909. The expo was held on what is now the University of Washington campus, and while most of the fair's pavilions are long gone, a few original structures remain. One is the Women's Building, now named Cunningham Hall after Seattle photographer Imogene Cunningham. The university plans to relocate the hall by the end of 2009 to make room for the new Molecular Engineering Building.

Landlords mobilize as City Hall considers rental-housing inspections

Crosscut — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:00:01 PDT

For some of the more than half of Seattle residents who rent, such a program could mean better conditions without the onus of ratting out a landlord. For the 4,300 owners of an estimated 100,000 rental units, required regular inspections sound onerous.

The churching of an unchurched region

Crosscut — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 05:00:01 PDT

A University of Washington prof interviewed 450 members of liberal and evangelical Christian churches in the Pacific Northwest. His mission: to understand the "clash of cultures" between two sides of the same tradition.

ELF members gained nothing by the UW arson, and so much was lost

Crosscut — Fri, 30 May 2008 18:00:01 PDT

A former staff member of the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture wonders why, seven years later, the crime makes no more sense than it did the morning Merrill Hall went up in flames.

A 'green scare' in shades of gray

Crosscut — Thu, 22 May 2008 16:00:01 PDT

Invoking the Red Scare of the 1950s, some environmentalists claim the federal government is committing something similar against the green movement of the 2000s. Of course, it could simply be vigorous enforcement of laws against violence and property damage.

The newcomer name game

Crosscut — Wed, 21 May 2008 23:00:01 PDT

The Chinese have a saying: "One move is like two house fires." It's very disorienting to be in a new place, even if you moved within the U.S. and can therefore depend on the cultural differences between your previous burg and Seattle to be, relatively speaking, minimal. I've lived in the Northwest for nearly six years and Seattle for almost three, and I'm still doing double-takes over little things, such as proper nouns.

A bold plan to turn UW into a Stanford died a quiet death

Crosscut — Tue, 20 May 2008 05:00:01 PDT

State universities have clumsy and stingy masters in state capitols. Is it time for divorce court? Here's the story of how some people advising the University of Washington looked at such a scheme.

A rebirth of architectural activism

Crosscut — Sun, 18 May 2008 20:00:01 PDT

Red balloons and hot dogs help in a University of Washington grad student's fight to save the Nuclear Reactor Building. Plus: Honors for the state's historic preservationists.

How the West was nuked

Crosscut — Fri, 02 May 2008 15:56:01 PDT

One of the best trends in historic commemoration is a greater willingness to honestly embrace history some would like to forget. In the bill containing Washington's new Wild Sky Wilderness that just passed Congress, there is funding for a National Park Service memorial on Bainbridge Island commemorating the shameful internment of Japanese civilians during World War II. The internment proposal was pushed hard by Rep. Jay Inslee and Sen. Maria Cantwell. Coming to terms with our nuclear past is another problematic area, but one that is also getting a more attention in the West.

Washington's million-dollar university president

Crosscut — Fri, 02 May 2008 09:00:01 PDT

As Mark Emmert joins two local corporate boards, boosting his yearly income well into seven figures, it's worth asking if he's really earned it. He's a prominent public face for the institution, but he's no scholar and doesn't actually run the university.

Parents on the bench

Crosscut — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 05:00:01 PDT

A University of Washington study aims to help you help your child with school sports.

In Pennsylvania, a UW student blogger wonders how Obama will fare

Crosscut — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 10:00:01 PDT

I'm sitting in a hotel room here in Pittsburgh, and the local news tells me that Wednesday night's debate has Sen. Barack Obama rattled.

Save the nukes!

Crosscut — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 12:00:01 PDT

Abby Martin, the University of Washington graduate student who is trying to save the fascinating old Nuclear Reactor Building (now More Hall Annex) on campus, sends us this photo showing a new addition: a sign announcing the university's intention to demolish the structure. Martin has submitted an application nominating it for a National Historic Register listing. The modern architecture group Docomomo WeWa has added it to their list of endangered historic properties.

Popping the question

Crosscut — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 11:36:01 PDT

It's the one question in my brief, unremarkable career as a pseudo-journalist that I've ached to ask, and the tempest over question screening at this afternoon's University of Washington convocation honoring His Holiness the Dalai Lama provides just the opening.