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Mt. Hood glowing pink at sunset

Dana Baker honored for promoting disability rights

Dana Baker

Dana Baker, associate professor in the School of Politics, Philosophy and Public Affairs, will receive the university’s Annual Faculty Diversity Award for her work advocating for people with disabilities. Dana will be presented with the award at WSU Showcase on March 28.

WSU Interim Provost and Executive Vice President Daniel Bernardo said Dana has demonstrated significant accomplishments in promoting diversity at WSU through her teaching, scholarship and outreach activities.

“In advancing institutional change for diversity, she is implementing our vision of an inclusive educational environment for all,” he said. “She is certainly most deserving of the WSU Faculty Diversity Award."

As a Diversity Faculty Fellow, Dana is spearheading a project called “Enhancing Neurodiversity at WSUV.” The project includes creating the campus’ first formal program for Disability Awareness Month, developing an online training module, and working with students in her class to create and deliver a series of training workshops for faculty and staff.

Office of the Chancellor announces staffing changes

Chancellor Mel Netzhammer

Barb Holder, executive assistant to the chancellor, will begin working a reduced schedule in February. She will work 30 hours per week through the end of May, further reduce her hours to 24 in June and July, and plans to make her last day with the university July 31. Barb has spent the last year studying to earn her life coaching certification and is starting her own practice.

For now, duties in the Office of the Chancellor have not been redistributed. Feel free to contact Barb for all the things you have in the past. Chancellor Netzhammer is in the process of determining how he is going to restructure his team moving forward.

MLK Day of Service was a great success

Student volunteers sorting donated items

The 2014 Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service held on campus last Monday celebrated many successes. Together we:

  • Hosted 100 people at the event
  • Collected 1,275 donated items for Share Vancouver and Vida’s Ark
  • Honored 10 clubs/organizations that collected more than 100 items each
  • Sent more than 20 postcards to elected officials about issues involving women and/or poverty

Thank you to everyone who participated, to the American Democracy Project for leading the postcard effort, and to Albertsons, McKee Foods and Starbucks for their in-kind donations. Check out event photos on Facebook.

CSEJ presents Marcelo Diversi

Marcelo Diversi

Noon – 1:15 p.m. Jan. 28
Dengerink Administration Building, Room 110

The Center for Social and Environmental Justice is holding a lunchtime colloquium on Tuesday. Marcelo Diversi, associate professor of human development, will present “Damming the Amazon: The March of Self-destructive Consumerism.” The lecture is free and open to the public.

Culture Café is back

Sweet and sour chicken

Lunchtime Jan. 29
Dengerink Administration Building Café

Enjoy a taste of China on Wednesday. Sweet and sour chicken with fried rice and an egg roll will be available for $5.39. The soup special, sold separately for $1.89 a cup or $3.69 a bowl, will be egg drop.

See Michael Eric Dyson simulcast from Pullman

Michael Eric Dyson

7 p.m. Jan. 29
Dengerink Administration Building, Room 110

Michael Eric Dyson will speak in Pullman as part of the 2014 MLK Community Celebration. The speech will be simulcast to WSU Vancouver. Dyson, an American Book Award recipient and two-time NAACP Image Award winner, has been named one of the 150 most powerful African Americans by Ebony magazine. He is presently a University Professor of Sociology at Georgetown University and an analyst on MSNBC. He also has appeared on The Today Show, Nightline, O’Reilly Factor, The Tavis Smiley Show, Real Time with Bill Maher, Rap City, Def Poetry Jam and The Colbert Report.

He has published numerous works, covering topics such as Hurricane Katrina, Tupac Shakur and rap music, and Bill Cosby and the black poor. Related to the Civil Rights Movement, his “Making Malcolm: The Myth and Meaning of Malcolm X” (1994) was named one of the most important African American books of the 20th century.

Dyson then wrote “I May Not Get There with You: The True Martin Luther King, Jr.” (2000), which made a significant contribution to King scholarship by recovering the radical legacy of the slain civil rights leader. In 2008, he published a second book on King, The New York Times best-selling “April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Death and How It Changed America,” which was hailed by The Washington Post as “an excellent sociological primer on institutionalized racism in America.”

Dyson’s talk is free and open to the public.

WSU Vancouver employee’s artwork on exhibit at City Hall

Organic paint streaks and driftwood

Four paintings by Ruth Lantz, adjunct professor, and a dozen black-and-white landscape photographs by Dale Strouse, fine arts tech II, are currently on exhibit in Vancouver’s City Hall.

Ruth’s work is exhibited in the lobby. Her paintings are created on top of large-scale digital photos of land and seascapes. She then damages the photos with bleach and obscures them with paint. The result is an image that hints of the scene that was originally shown in the photos while expanding its beauty with colorful abstractions.

Ten of Dale’s photos are on display in the Aspen Multipurpose Room on the main floor and two are in the second floor conference room. His work focuses on framing and idealizing the landscape of both undiscovered places and iconic destinations around the Pacific Northwest.

City Hall is located at 415 W. 6th Street in downtown Vancouver. The building is open to the public from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Artwork in the conference rooms is available for viewing when the spaces are not in use.

Commute more efficiently with the Commute Trip Reduction Program

Bicyclist riding on I-5 bridge

WSU Vancouver, in compliance with the Washington State Commute Trip reduction law, encourages employees to find an alternative to single-occupant commutes as often as possible by using elements of the Commute Trip Reduction program:

  • An on-site Employee Transportation Coordinator, Katrina Long
  • Emergency Ride Home Program
  • Commuter Information Center, Parking Services
  • Bicycle racks, clothes lockers and shower facilities to support biking and walking to work

The CTR program is dedicated to reducing traffic by encouraging you to commute wisely and use the resources available to you. You can find a carpool partner on the City of Vancouver CTR website. Or take the bus. C-Tran's #19 bus route offers service to WSU Vancouver on weekdays. TriMet provides public transportation in the Portland metropolitan area.

For more information on resources offered by the CTR program, contact Katrina Long, program support supervisor for public safety, at 6-9002.