EVERETT, Wash. – May 13, 2017 – Today Washington State University Everett held the second commencement ceremony for students at the newest WSU campus. Chancellor Paul Pitre conferred degrees on 70 students in engineering, communications and business.
Students received their degrees in front of family, friends and WSU faculty and staff in the Edward D. Hansen Conference Center at Xfinity Arena. Graduates were recognized for their academic achievement as well as personal achievements. These included military service, raising children or holding employment while earning their degrees.
“There are students here who drove miles or took ferries, all to be able to better themselves. Here in Everett – the little campus that could, and did. Full of students that could, and then did,” said Hannah Lu Marie, president of the student government and a first-generation college student. “As students at this specific campus, we had – and continue to have – the unique opportunity to better ourselves regardless of whatever situation landed us here in the first place.”
A committee of faculty, staff and students selected Michael Austin, who earned his degree in electrical engineering, as the student speaker.
“I am giving this speech, because I wanted to present myself as an example of hope. The hope that has drawn many of my WSU Everett friends to pursue degrees later in life than a traditional student. The hope that has driven WSU Everett veterans to try to further their lives with new career paths,” Austin said. “I have to thank all WSU Everett staff and faculty for making this school an environment where students don’t feel like a statistic. Be sure to retain this attribute as you grow into the future, because WSU Everett right now is a place of hope.”
Austin concluded, “I hope you all continue to redefine your success, by growing and adapting with new conflicts and moments of peace. For those of you who find yourself hopeless as we go forward, summon any bit of hope you can. Fight on to be the most triumphant you.”
Three students were selected to carry gonfalons, which are tall banners that represent each of the colleges at WSU Everett, based on their academic excellence. Those students included:
After students received their degrees, the presidents of the Snohomish County and Skagit Valley chapters of the WSU Alumni Association and special guest Butch T. Cougar led students and their families in a loud rendition of the WSU Fight Song, punctuated by crimson and gray streamer cannons.
View more photos on Facebook at this link.
Contact: Randy Bolerjack
EVERETT, Wash. – May 8, 2017 – After a nationwide search, the WSU Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine has hired three new associate deans to administer medical educational programs at WSU’s clinical campuses. At WSU’s campus in Everett, Dr. Larry Schecter will serve as Associate Dean of Clinical Campus for the college of medicine.
“Dr. Schecter has had a successful career as a physician and has demonstrated an incredible breadth of medical leadership experience,” said WSU North Puget Sound at Everett Chancellor Paul Pitre. “His local ties with the medical community, passion for educating future physicians and ability to connect with and coach medical students make him an ideal fit to establish and grow medical education on our campus in Everett.”
Schecter practiced General Surgery in Santa Monica, Calif. for 30 years. During that time, he took on multiple leadership positions including Chairman of Surgery at both St. John’s Hospital and Santa Monica Hospital. Although he was a widely recognized and respected surgeon, his love of teaching and his leadership skills led him toward larger administrative responsibilities culminating in an appointment as Chief Medical Officer of Santa Monica/UCLA Medical Center and Associate Professor of Surgery at the UCLA School of Medicine.
With the completion of his long and successful career as surgeon, administrator and leader in the medical community, Schecter and his family moved to the Northwest in 2003 when he became Chief Medical Officer of Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett, Wash. In Everett, he created a highly successful Physician Leadership Development program that was later incorporated throughout the greater Providence Health and Services System. He was the architect and leader in the development of a unique and innovative re-structuring of the medical staff at Providence Everett. He then became Chief Medical Officer of the Western Washington Region of Providence.
Schecter has received numerous teaching awards and his experience teaching has proven to be the perfect foundation for his most recent career transition to professional coach. The combination of teacher, mentor, innovator and humanist made Larry’s transition into coaching and consulting a natural evolution.
Dr. Kevin Murray, Dr. Farion Williams and Dr. Dawn DeWitt will serve in the same role on the Vancouver, Tri-Cities and Spokane campuses, respectively.
Schecter, who lives in Redmond, will start work on May 8. He will maintain an office in WSU’s new building at 915 N. Broadway, which will open this fall.
About the WSU Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine
The Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine was created to address physician shortages in communities across the state. It attracts talented students from rural and underserved communities. These students train within their communities, increasing the likelihood that they will remain there to practice medicine.
The charter class of the WSU Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine will include 60 students. In the first two years of medical, students will study foundational science for medicine, integrated with the fundaments of clinical practice. This training will be based at WSU’s health sciences campus is Spokane, but will also include six weeks of training and community engagement at the regional campuses. During years three and four, the focus on medical education shifts heavily to the clinical curriculum. Students will move onto hospital wards and into clinics to function as junior members of the medical team. Closely supervised by practicing physicians or residents, students will diagnose and treat patients. They will put into practice the basic science knowledge and clinical skills learned during the first two years.
Learn more at medicine.wsu.edu.
EVERETT, Wash. – WSU North Puget Sound at Everett announced an August 15 ribbon-cutting ceremony and open house for the campus’s new building at 915 N. Broadway in Everett.
“This is a landmark occasion for our entire region. Washington State University is thrilled to be opening the doors of our new, state-of-the-art building to the public on August 15,” Paul Pitre, chancellor of WSU’s newest campus, said. “This building represents decades of work by this community to create local access to four-year degree programs. WSU is incredibly proud to be an important part of that and to continue our growth into the future.”
The ribbon-cutting ceremony will take place at 3:30 p.m. and will include WSU president Kirk Schulz, Pitre, city of Everett mayor Ray Stephanson and Everett Community College president David Beyer.
“The programs offered in this building will help address some of our region’s most pressing economic challenges,” Stephanson said. “We are competitors in the worldwide marketplace and our businesses need a talented, well-trained workforce in order to thrive and expand. This is where that workforce will come from.”
The open house will include opportunities for tours and photos, chances to learn about the nearly 30 programs offered in the new building from WSU and the Everett University Center partners, information from the construction team, and more. Each WSU North Puget Sound at Everett and Everett University Center program/partner will be assigned a space to engage with community members, who will be guided by an event passport. Those interested can learn more on the Facebook event page.
The building’s name is WSU North Puget Sound at Everett. The four-story, 95,000 square foot building includes engineering, power and computer laboratories, active learning and general classrooms, a tiered-lecture hall, a math and writing tutoring center, an enrollment services center, a café operated by Bargreen Coffee, administrative and faculty offices, and various rooms for students to study and work collaboratively. On the first floor, the Boeing Innovation Studio includes state-of-the-art machining equipment for students. Last year, WSU built a new parking lot with 219 spaces immediately north of the building to offset the peak parking impact of Everett University Center students, faculty and staff.
WSU fall semester classes will begin the following Monday, August 21. Everett University Center partner programs, which use a quarter system, will begin on various dates in the month of September.
In the fall of 2016, WSU had enrolled nearly 200 students and Everett University Center had more than 500 students. The new building has capacity for 1,000-1,100 students. Though the building is just opening, about 160 students have already graduated from WSU programs in Everett.
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About WSU North Puget Sound at Everett
WSU North Puget Sound at Everett is student- and community-centered, bringing industry-aligned undergraduate programs to the North Puget Sound region to prepare students to compete globally in the local economy. WSU’s newest campus currently offers six high-demand bachelor’s degrees: mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, software engineering, data analytics, hospitality business management and strategic communication.
Students fulfill their general education requirements by taking their first two years of courses at any community college (or other university), and then finish their degrees be enrolling at WSU in Everett for their junior and senior years. Students save money by taking their first two years at any community college and by staying close to home. The model and location provide place-bound students who have started families or careers greater access to a four-year degree.
WSU North Puget Sound at Everett, by the numbers.
About Everett University Center
The Everett University Center is a product of 1997 state legislation that formed the North Snohomish-Island-Skagit (NSIS) Consortium of higher education institutions to create a flexible and innovative means for expanding higher education opportunities for residents of the three counties.
The NSIS Consortium was committed to providing opportunities for place-bound residents whose work and family commitments precluded travel to a distant university. Instruction is delivered in various formats including web-based distance education, two-way interactive video, technology supported classrooms and combinations of these. Washington State University took over the role of manager of Everett University Center on July 1, 2014.
Contact: Randy Bolerjack
EVERETT, Wash. – May 3, 2017 – Crystal Donner, President and CEO of Everett-based civil engineering firm Perteet, Inc. and Washington State University graduate, will describe her career and life experiences as commencement speaker for WSU North Puget Sound at Everett’s spring 2017 graduates. Donner will speak in front of graduates, family and friends in the Ed Hansen Conference Center at Xfinity Arena. The ceremony begins at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 13.
“Crystal Donner is a perfect exemplar of a WSU graduate who has found professional success as an engineer and has made giving back to the community a priority,” says Chancellor Paul Pitre. “Her career and community impact have been an inspiration to our engineering students. It’s an honor to have her with us to inspire the next generation of engineers and professionals from WSU North Puget Sound at Everett.”
Donner has previously spoken to groups of WSU North Puget Sound at Everett and Everett Community College students at events hosted by the Society of Women Engineers at WSU North Puget Sound at Everett, a student-run organization. She serves the community as Chair of the Board of Trustees for Economic Alliance Snohomish County and as a member of the WSU North Puget Sound at Everett Advisory Council. She received her undergraduate degree in civil engineering from WSU in 1990 and is a licensed, professional civil engineer with more than 26 years of experience.
Pitre will preside over the ceremony. Hannah Lu Marie, president of the student body, and Michael Austin, a committee-selected student speaker, will also deliver short speeches.
Students eligible to walk at commencement include spring 2017, summer 2017 and fall 2017 graduates. A total of 70 students are eligible in four programs, including: 28 mechanical engineering; 19 integrated strategic communication; 15 electrical engineering; and eight hospitality business management.
For more information about WSU North Puget Sound at Everett’s 2017 Commencement ceremony, visit everett.wsu.edu/commencement.
Contact: randy.bolerjack@wsu.edu
EVERETT, Wash. – Washington State University President Kirk Schulz will serve as a panelist at a symposium on Tuesday, May 2, that will examine the importance of public research universities in creating an educated citizenry and a robust national research enterprise.
The symposium will take place from 3-5 p.m. at the University of Washington Student Union Building 160 (Lyceum) in Seattle. A reception from 5:30 to 7 p.m. will follow.
Abraham Lincoln’s vision
The symposium is part of The Lincoln Project, a national initiative of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) named for President Abraham Lincoln, who in 1862 signed into law the Morrill Act, which created the nation’s modern system of land-grant universities.
“Recommitting to Lincoln’s Vision: An Educational Compact for the 21st Century,” is one in a series of similar forums held across the country by the AAAS. During the past three years, The Lincoln Project has studied the challenges facing public research universities, particularly focused on current and changing financial models and how that has affected the ability of public universities to meet their educational, research and public service mission.
Critical investment
“The national investment in public higher education played an instrumental role in our country’s competiveness in the 20th century, and that investment is more critical as the 21st century evolves,” Schulz said. “Higher education is essential to preparing the next generation for careers of the future — we believe government must continue to share in this investment so that access to higher education, regardless of family income, is assured.”
Daniel Greenstein, director of Education, Postsecondary Success in the United States Program for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will deliver keynote remarks. University of California, Berkeley Chancellor Emeritus Bob Birgeneau, who co-chaired The Lincoln Project, will discuss the project and its recommendations. Greenstein and Schulz will join University of Washington President Ana Mari Cauce and former Washington Governor Christine Gregoire for a panel discussion.
Margaret O’Mara, UW associate professor of history, will moderate the discussion.
Three strategies to ensure research
The Lincoln Project recommends three strategies to ensure the wellbeing of public research institutions and the communities they serve:
The Lincoln Project published a series of five publications that present key facts about public research universities; examine the challenges facing higher education funding at the state level; discuss current and changing financial models of public research universities; and consider the myriad impacts of the research conducted at these institutions. In its final report, the Lincoln Project offered substantive recommendations for sustaining these institutions and advancing their growth for the benefits of the states they serve and the nation as a whole.
WSU contributions
Some of WSU’s recent contributions in the Everett area include:
The university’s newest campus in Everett brings WSU’s world-class academics to North Puget Sound for place-bound students. WSU currently offers six in-demand bachelor’s degrees in Everett. Students save money fulfilling general education requirements by taking their first two years of courses at any community college, and then finishing their degree by enrolling at WSU in Everett for their junior and senior years.
The new Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, created in 2015, will expand health care in underserved areas of the state and give more Washingtonians a chance to earn a medical degree in state. The college’s innovative community-based model of medical education will rely on partnerships with existing clinic and hospitals to provide clinical education, including Providence Regional Medical Center, The Everett Clinic and Sea Mar Community Health. The inaugural class of 60 medical students enrolls in August.
WSU North Puget Sound at Everett brings industry-aligned undergraduate programs to the North Puget Sound region to prepare students to compete globally in the local economy. The campus offers programs focused on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) and the industrial, commercial and professional services needed in the region.
WSU North Puget Sound at Everett students take full advantage of their proximity to employers in aerospace and advanced manufacturing. Through programs like Boeing Scholars, they gain hands-on experience with industry mentors. Student-led organizations like the Society of Women Engineers and WSU Everett Engineering Club give those same students opportunities for experiential learning in competitions like the international University Rover Challenge or at industry conferences.
America’s Best Communities was a three-year, $10 million competition that aimed to increase economic development in small communities. The Metropolitan Center for Applied Research and Extension at WSU North Puget Sound at Everett provided leadership for the City of Arlington and the Town of Darrington as they progressed through the competition. Working in partnership with the two municipalities, Economic Alliance Snohomish County and numerous local partners, the Metro Center steadily guided the communities in their quest for sustainable economic prosperity.
EVERETT, Wash. – April 26, 2017 – Ol’ Crimson has a new home, flying 30 feet up at Grand Avenue Park in Everett, Wash. On April 25, Washington State University President Kirk Schulz hoisted the flag in a ceremony hosted by Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson.
“The vision for higher education was really to give our kids and grandkids a chance at wonderful, family-wage jobs that are in this community,” Stephanson said. “That’s what education does.”
Everett Community College President David Beyer also raised the college’s flag in the same ceremony that recognized the important partnership between the city of Everett, the college and WSU in bringing higher education access to the North Puget Sound community.
These flags will be a permanent fixture of the park located near the Henry M. Jackson bust and across the street from the historic Jackson house.
You can watch a highlight video hosted on Facebook below:
WSU/EvCC flag raising at Grand Avenue Park
Today, with the help of Everett Parks and Recreation, Mayor Stephanson was joined by leaders from Everett Community College, WSU North Puget Sound at Everett and Washington State University, to add a permanent reminder of Everett's continuous efforts to expand higher education opportunities in our city, with a raising of the schools' flags at Grand Avenue Park! Take a look below:#GoTrojans #GoCougs #ThisIsEverett
Posted by City of Everett, WA – Govt on Tuesday, April 25, 2017
Washington State University’s globally recognized Mars Rover Team has earned a spot in the 2017 University Rover Challenge. This is the second year the team from WSU’s Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture at the campus in Everett has entered the competition, which had entries from 82 teams in 13 countries this year. Last year WSU Everett’s team earned second place and was the top-placing American team.
A project of The Mars Society, the University Rover Challenge is considered the world’s premier robotics competition for college students. Held in the southern Utah desert for the past 10 years, the competition challenges students to design and build the next generation of Mars rovers that are one-day expected to work alongside human explorers on the surface of the Red Planet.
“I am so excited! It is an incredible feeling to earn a spot in the competition two years in a row, especially with the field this year being so big,” said Mitch Elder, a senior mechanical engineering student and president of the WSU Everett Engineering Club.
“The experiential learning is just incredible for the students,” WSU Everett Chancellor Paul Pitre said. The challenge provides students with hands-on engineering experience while they learn to collaborate and lead teams on a large-scale project from concept to competition.”
“Hopefully we can go to Utah and bring home the big W,” Elder said.
The team will largely utilize the same rover they constructed for the competition last year, calling it simply Rover 2.1. However, they will face new challenges, which means making major upgrades.
A multidisciplinary approach to new challenges
“The greatest challenge this year is that the rover has to be autonomous in the terrain-traversal task, which means the rover has to drive itself,” Elder said. “We have a great team working on that, including electrical engineering students. Our team lead, Mark Walsh, is writing the code and leading the rewiring process. Then he is going to work on the automation. We have most of the hardware, so now it’s about getting everything coded.”
Walsh’s 12 years of service in the U.S. Air Force gives him a great background for projects like this competition. “This is the ARDU pilot. It allows you to use GPS and grid coordination to set waypoints and drive to waypoints automatically without any user interface. It will do all the remote driving,” Walsh said while pointing out new pieces of equipment that will be part of Rover 2.1. “Once I start putting wires into this thing it’ll look pretty ugly, but it acts like a nervous system for the rover.”
Last year teams were able to pilot rovers remotely though the terrain-traversal task. “The automatic driving is completely new to the competition. Last year I think our rover shook the world,” Walsh said. “They didn’t think the tasks could be accomplished with the level of simplicity we used, and there’s beauty in simplicity. This year our rover is going to have a lot more brain power.”
Brainpower is not the only upgrade for Rover 2.1.
“We’re also adding a new claw that we designed and built from scratch. Everything that we field this year is purpose-built, so we have a claw built for the astronaut-assistance task, which includes picking up tools with handles. This claw will act more like a human hand in a way,” Elder said. “We’ll retain last year’s claw for doing the precise movements in the equipment-servicing task, like turning valves and flipping switches, because it was very well suited to those tasks.”
Competition experience
This year the team goes to the Mars Desert Research Station with actual competition experience.
“Having been there last year is a game changer,” Elder said. “Everything we thought we could expect was in writing. We had a little online video and the written rules, and that was all we knew. When we got there, we realized we had misinterpreted rules and had to make last minute changes, which led to working into the early morning each day. That made it difficult.”
“We gained valuable experience from last year,” said Dr. Xiaopeng Bi, the faculty adviser for the WSU Everett Engineering Club. “The previous success set a high bar going into this year. Although motivating for the team, this also makes it much easier to get frustrated along the way, since everyone is likely expecting great success once again. I hope the students enjoy the flavor of innovation facing new challenges.”
Elder welcomed fellow students to join the team and be part of the experience. “If you’re in any way excited about what we’re doing and you’ve been on the fence about getting involved, get off the fence, get involved,” Elder said. “It’s such a fun experience to be a part of and it looks great on your resume. There’s plenty to do and we need people to do it!”
Industry support
In order to participate, the engineering club has relied on industry donations of materials and money.
“I love our sponsors – I can’t thank them enough. Blue Origin made a financial donation that helped us get going when we had critical early purchases. Electroimpact was huge for us last year with a financial contribution. We wouldn’t have been able to travel to Utah without them.” Other material donors include Metal Supermarkets, Boeing, Pacific Power Batteries and Janicki Industries.
“Our biggest thanks go to Everett Community College and their AMTEC facility,” Elder said. AMTEC has provided a space for the students to work and Elder was hired as a volunteer employee, which provides him with access to machining equipment and the ability to supervise students.
Follow this link to contribute to the WSU Everett Engineering Club through the WSU Foundation that will help the team get to Hanksville for the competition.
PULLMAN, Wash.—Washington State University has announced that two books are the 2017-18 common readings for thousands of students in first-year courses: Ready Player One, for Pullman, Tri-Cities, Spokane, Everett, and the Global Campus; and Spare Parts, for WSU Vancouver.
Both award-winning books were nominated soon after the call went out in September from the WSU-wide Common Reading Selection Committee. Its 14 members read and evaluated 34 books in total, all of which align with the program’s two-year theme of “frontiers of technology, health, and society.” Members recommended three finalists in February to WSU Provost and Executive Vice President Daniel J. Bernardo for the final selection.
WSU Vancouver Vice Chancellor Renny Christopher chose a different book from the nominations list, one that provides students there with a good transition from the campus’s 2016-17 book.
Thematic ties localize readings
“Both selected books will allow our campuses to highlight cutting-edge innovations and applications of technology in a variety of fields, and to explore larger issues about the ethical dilemmas and changing sense of identity that arise in an increasingly digital world,” said Bernardo.
Christopher said, “Both books also highlight the importance of collaboration among diverse members of teams and the building of personal skill sets.”
Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline (2011)
The action in this book takes characters between the real world and the technological cloud. In year 2044, environmental fallout from global warming has led to social woes and economic miseries, with people seeking escape from reality in MMORPGs—massively multi-player online role-playing games. Teenager Wade Watts has devoted his life to the virtual reality utopia named OASIS, a simulation game created by a man obsessed with 1980s pop culture and who has hidden puzzles in the game with the promise of unimaginable fortune and power to the one who deciphers them. When Watts finds a clue, will he be famous, or the target of have-nots?
Why Ready Player One?
“Among the most compelling reasons for my selection (of Ready Player One) are that it has been used successfully (as a common book) at several peer institutions, it clearly appeals to a young audience, and most importantly, is it the first choice of the majority of the committee,” Bernardo wrote to Susan Poch, assistant vice provost and committee chair.
Poch said that one consideration for the committee is the availability of the author to visit campus in person as part of intense year-long programming around the selected book. More details will be forthcoming, but she confirmed that Ready Player One author, Ernest Cline, is scheduled to visit Pullman in August. A spoken-word artist, DeLorean car owner, classic video-game collector, and blogger, Cline also wrote the script for the 2009 cult film “Fanboys” and published a second book, ARMADA, in 2015.
Bernardo also noted one additional reason to select Ready Player One. “The book was published in 2011 and a movie release (based on the book) is scheduled for 2018. Using the book now makes it very timely.” His reference is to a film by the same name that has been in production in the U.S. and U.K. since July 2016 under the direction of Hollywood icon Steven Spielberg. The movie is set for a March 2018 release, which is mid-spring semester for WSU students using the book.
Common reading as a system-wide shared initiative
“Representatives from every campus and many academic disciplines look forward in the coming year to continue the concept of common readings being a ‘system-wide shared initiative,’” said Karen Weathermon, Common Reading Program co-director. “While common reading programs across the WSU system have long had many touchpoints with each other in terms of books and programming, we worked together more purposefully starting in 2016-17 to have increased collaboration and cohesion at multiple campuses.” [https://commonreading.wsu.edu/2016/05/06/wsu-common-reading-becomes-system-wide-shared-initiative-for-2016-17/#more-1200]
WSU student-learning outcomes associated with common readings are: Create a common point for new students to enter intellectual conversation; introduce students to the diversity of ideas and the intellectual life of a research university; and illustrate how a complex issue can be explored from a variety of perspectives.
The Common Reading Program began in 2006-07 in Pullman. Common readings are intended to provide students, faculty, and staff with shared text around which they can create academic discussions, learning opportunities, and special programming. Frequent guest lectures allow top WSU researchers and others to share their knowledge about topics raised in the year’s book. Read more at CommonReading.wsu.edu. [https://commonreading.wsu.edu/]
EVERETT, Wash. – Washington State University President Kirk Schulz is the keynote speaker for the Everett Community College Foundation benefit breakfast April 25.
The breakfast is at 7:30 a.m. at EvCC’s Walt Price Student Fitness Center, 2206 Tower St. To attend, RSVP by April 20 online at EverettCC.edu/Foundation or by emailing foundation@everettcc.edu.
There is no charge for the breakfast; attendees will be given an opportunity to contribute to the EvCC Foundation.
Schulz, WSU’s 11th president, is guiding WSU’s transformation into one of the nation’s top public research universities.
The WSU system includes six locations in Washington state, most recently WSU North Puget Sound in Everett at EvCC’s Everett campus. Many EvCC engineering and communications students transfer to WSU North Puget Sound.
The breakfast is part of the EvCC Foundation’s efforts to increase the number of student scholarships, emergency loans and grants. The Foundation is also working to seek out equipment and support to ensure students have the technology they need in the classroom.
The EvCC Foundation, in partnership with corporations, businesses, foundations, and individuals, is committed to continuing the college’s tradition of serving as the region’s leading provider of academic and technical education.
For more information about the EvCC Foundation, visit EverettCC.edu/Foundation.
On Monday, Jan. 30, WSU North Puget Sound at Everett Chancellor Paul Pitre sent the following message to students, faculty and staff:
Dear Students, Faculty and Staff:
In light of the recent executive order temporarily restricting travel to the U.S. from a number of countries, it is important that Washington State University North Puget Sound at Everett reaffirms its commitment to our international scholars, students, researchers, faculty and staff.
The federal ban has cast a cloud of uncertainty over members of these groups who are traveling internationally. According to figures cited by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, more than 17,000 students from the seven countries that the federal ban targets studied at U.S. universities last year.
I want to validate and repeat the statement made this morning by WSU President Kirk Schulz. In it, he wrote:
“We welcome and support all members of the Washington State community—regardless of the country they call home. We remain unflinchingly committed to respecting the dignity of each individual—regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, national origin, gender identity or expression, religion, or sexual orientation. We will continue to foster a diverse and inclusive community, embrace civil discourse, and strive to ensure a welcoming and safe environment for all.”
For international students who are part of the Cougar community or aspire to be one day, please know that you are welcomed at our university.
The WSU system – which includes WSU Everett and five other campuses around the state – has been enriched and strengthened by the scholarship and talent brought by international students, scholars, faculty, researchers and staff.
Students with questions or concerns are encouraged to contact me directly or WSU’s International Programs Global Services staff.
Paul Pitre, Chancellor
WSU North Puget Sound at Everett