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Samuel H. Smith Center for Undergraduate Education opens

The Samuel H. Smith Center for Undergraduate Education (CUE), a $32 million, five-story, 94,000 square-foot building, opened in early 2002 as a hub for student-centered and active learning.  The Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology, the WSU Writing Program, General Education Program, and the Student Computing Services Lab are all housed in the building along with 20 classrooms of various sizes.  The building was named for WSU’s eighth President, Samuel H. Smith, who served from 1989-2000.

 

Herbert Eastlick passes away at 94

Herbert Eastlick, a devoted mentor and self-described “taskmaster and autocrat in the classroom” who taught at WSU for 33 years, passed from complications to Alzheimer’s disease at the age of 94.  Eastlick came to then-WSC in 1940 as an assistant professor in zoology from the University of Chicago where he earlier became acquaintances with President Holland.  He was chairman of the Department of Zoology from 1947 to 1964 and chaired the Faculty Executive Committee in 1955-56.

He also helped create WSU’s nationally ranked Honors Program and presented the University’s eighth Faculty Invited Address on his research in 1961. In 1979 the new Eastlick Biological Sciences Building was dedicated in honor of the Herbert and his wife Margaret Eastlick.

 

Gary P. Brinson receives 41st Regents Distinguished Alumnus Award

Gary P. Brinson (69′, MBA), a nationally recognized leader in investment management renowned for his intellectual contributions to the financial investing world, is the 41st Regents’ Distinguished Alumnus Award honoree.

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Bill Moos hired as Director of Athletics

During the spring, Bill Moos joins Cougar Athletics as director. A 1973 WSU graduate in history, former Cougar football player, and WSU Athletics administrator, Moos returned to WSU after serving as director at the universities of Oregon and Montana.

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Ralph Yount receives the President’s Eminent Faculty Award

Ralph Yount, a distinguished chemist and Regents Professor Emeritus, receives first WSU Eminent Faculty Award, granted for distinguished lifetime service at WSU. His research was funded through National Institutes of Health without interruption for 40 years, one of the longest continually funded projects at NIH.

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President Floyd announces statewide tour of Washington counties

President Elson S. Floyd announces WSU will hold “town hall” meetings in each of Washington state’s 39 counties starting in March to hear from stakeholders and discuss initiatives.

WSU Museum of Art is a player in one of the biggest art donations in state history

Chris Bruce, the director for Washington State University’s museum of art, travels to Seattle in late February to help sort out the disposition of the one of the most significant art donations in Washington State history – that of Safeco Insurance’s gift of more than 800 artworks.

Robert Nilan receives President’s Award for Distinguished Lifetime Service

Robert Nilan, WSU professor emeritus and former College of Sciences dean, received the WSU President’s Award for Distinguished Lifetime Service. Nilan is a leading international authority on barley genetics who came to WSU in 1951 as an agronomist and geneticist.   While at WSU he served as chair of genetics, and his worldwide recognition as a plant geneticist earned him an appointment to the Danish Academy of Science. He trained more than 75 graduate students during his career at WSU and, as dean, he oversaw development of programs in statistics, environmental science and plant physiology; laboratories in bio-analysis and biotechnology; and centers of electron microscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance.

Nilan and his wife Winona have given generously to the arts and sciences at WSU. Attracting students to WSU’s Department of Genetics and Cell Biology was at the center of their decision to create the Robert A. and Winona P. Nilan Graduate Fellowship in Genetics.

Bob Nilan, 1963
Bob Nilan, 1963

Robert Bates steps down from his position as Provost and Executive Vice President

Provost and Executive Vice President Robert Bates stepped down on July 1 after six years as WSU’s academic leader. A WSU master’s graduate in bacteriology, after leaving his position he joined WSU Vancouver as Director of Research and Graduate Education.

WSU renovates Martin Stadium and the WSU Golf Course

Renovations on the Compton Union Building and Martin Stadium continued on the WSU Pullman campus. The nine-hole WSU Golf Course was also renovated into an 18-hole championship course and renamed WSU’s Palouse Ridge Golf Club.  The renovations were completed and both the CUB and Martin Stadium were open for the fall semester in 2008.

 

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Architects David Miller and Robert Hull receive the 37th and 38th Regents’ Distinguished Alumnus Award

David Miller and Robert Hull, members of the class of 1968 and founding partners of Seattle-based The Miller|Hull Partnership, LLP, were honored as the 37th and 38th recipients of the Regents’ Distinguished Alumnus Award.  In 2003 the Miller Hull Partnership received the 2003 American Institute of Architects Architecture Firm Award, the AIA’s highest honor.

David Miller, left, and Robert Hull, right.
David Miller, left, and Robert Hull, right.

WSU Regents rename two buildings

The WSU Regents renamed two Pullman campus buildings. Wilson Hall became Wilson-Short Hall, honoring James F. Short, Jr., influential WSU sociology professor. This building was first named for James Wilson, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture from 1897 to 1913. The Plant Biosciences Facility I, part of a multi-building bioscience complex, became the Orville A. Vogel Plant Biosciences Building, named for one of WSU’s great agricultural researchers and wheat breeders.

 

 

The College of Business and Economics is renamed

The College of Business and Economics was renamed the College of Business by the WSU Regents to reflect the impact of business on society and the relocation of the new School of Economic Sciences to the WSU College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences.

Dr. Irwin “Ernie” Rose receives 35th Regents’ Distinguished Alumni Award

Nobel Prize winner in chemistry Dr. Irwin “Ernie” Rose received the 35th Regents’ Distinguished Alumnus Award. A graduate of Spokane’s Lewis and Clark High School, he attended WSU in the mid-1940s and was influenced by Herb Eastlick, a prominent WSU zoology teacher.

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R. James Cook receives President’s Award for Distinguished Lifetime Service

R. James Cook received the WSU President’s Award for Distinguished Lifetime Service. Prior to becoming interim dean of the College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences, he was a plant pathologist with the USDA-ARS at WSU and later held an endowed chair in wheat research at the university.

Spokane Chancellor Rom Markin receives first President’s Award for Distinguished Lifetime Service

WSU Spokane Chancellor Rom Markin received the first WSU President’s Award for Distinguished Lifetime Service. His WSU service included 15 years as the dean of the College of Business and Economics.

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Murrow School Of Communication expands

WSU’s renowned Edward R. Murrow School of Communication was strengthened by the opening of a 24,000-square-foot building, now known as Goertzen Hall, that includes communication research and teaching labs, TV news studio, faculty offices, and an auditorium.

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Construction begins on Plant Biosciences Building

Construction began on the new Plant Biosciences Building, the first of several new buildings that will create a new research and education complex along Stadium Way. The building was dedicated on October 14, 2005 and named for wheat researcher Orville Vogel in 2007.

 

 

Dr. Robert W. Higgins wins 32nd Regents’ Distinguished Alumnus Award

WSU graduate Dr. Robert W. Higgins, former U.S. Navy Deputy Surgeon General and Navy Medical Corps chief, received the 32nd Regents’ Distinguished Alumnus Award. Also the recipient of the Distinguished Service Medal, the highest military peacetime award, he was former president of the American Academy of Family Physicians and of the World Organization of Family Doctors.

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Sociologist James E. Blackwell receives 31st Regents’ Distinguished Alumnus Award

WSU graduate and sociologist James E. Blackwell received the 31st Regents Distinguished Alumnus Award. Blackwell is a leading scholar in the areas of minorities in higher education and social movement in black communities.  Blackwell received his Ph.D. in Sociology from WSU in 1959 and worked during the turbulent early 1960s as the president of the San Jose NAACP and as a teacher at San Jose State University.  In 1970 the University of Massachusetts hired Blackwell to build its fledgling Department of Sociology and Anthropology at its five-year-old Boston campus where he stayed for 20 years.  Blackwell remained passionately dedicated to teaching, not for the sake of knowledge alone, but to help students ” go on to graduate and professional schools and becoming important, contributing citizens.”

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