Pacific Lutheran University Research Articles

Robert A. Newton

Robert A. Newton, 98, died April 18 in Brady, Texas. “Bob was born in Oakville, Washington. He began college studies at Pacific Lutheran University. Upon his honorable discharge from the US Navy, he married and continued his education at the University of Washington. Bob retired from Dow Chemical Company after 29 productive years, during which he was awarded 6 patents. He was a member of ACS, Sigma XI, his church, the Bay Area Boy Scouts of America, Men’s Garden Club, and Brazosport Cares Food Pantry. He donated over 100 gallons of blood and volunteered as an ESL tutor. He was an avid reader, a lifelong learner, and a strong advocate for education, giving generously to universities, colleges, and more.”—Janette Newton Tomlinson, daughter Most recent title: Associate scientist, Dow Chemical Company Texas Division Education: PhD, University of Washington, 1953 Survivors: Sons, Kenneth and John; daughters, Joyce Powell and Janette Tomlinson; seven

Brother Wish, and: Submission

Brother Wish, and: Submission Jenny Johnson (bio) Brother Wish I know the systems hurt us allwhen the visibly repressed manwith elliptically oppressivefollow-up questionsasks me directly:"How do you write about the body?"If this were not a video callI'm not sure we'd ever sharea room in which we could heareach other. If we were dogshe'd have already pissed onevery tree that encircles me.I wish he'd think to ask:"How do you write about a body?"Or "how do you speak froma kaleidoscope of shapes?"I've rarely seen her, this body, as the.It seems to me that to be the bodyin all the hallowed roomsof one's life is to missso many cues, for example,how many poems aren'taddressing you at all.Dear Not-Brother, I wish for youto know how many brothersthis dyke loves.There's the one I liketo do morning pages with,preferably on a porch,his jean jacket worn-infrom giving good hugs.The one who texts backin complete sentences.A counter to doom is [End Page 177] waking to the voice of my brother,who sings Enya to himselfin a house we sometimes share.And coming home lateto sweet plantains in the oven,being asked, "What's good?"And dear to me, the one who sets a timerfor equal confessions.Not blood relatives, but if we wereracing up the gravel hill as kidsin the split second where he surges aheadand I feel for the first timemy hips betray me, and so in a panicgrab the back of his T-shirtwith my fist to pull his body back, too,he would know it isn't personal,it isn't personal. [End Page 178] Submission I can't remember evernot wanting thisclenching a painter's capout a car windowthe one I chose as a kidto wear backwardssun stunned in the back seatso many numbing miles to gothe cap flapping, my fisttightening, as it whippedand whirled andpirouetted in the wind.Above the brim in lettersairbrushed were the words:Let's get physical.Physical. A world whizzed by.A voice inside dared meto do it. Where it went when Ilet go I didn't seethough I felt a flutteringas the hat was suckedup and back in the pummeling airfast into the openmouth of a tunnel invisiblebeneath the bay. In this roomwhere we're playingmy arms have been upfor a while. I'm losing count ofthe smacks the falls makehow much pressure you've deliveredto each of my shoulders.When you tear the topoff a marigold, there areso many fine, loose strings.When I lose my grip, this timeI meet the slap of your voice:Did I ask you to let go? [End Page 179] Jenny Johnson Jenny Johnson is the author of In Full Velvet (Sarabande Books, 2017). Her honors include a Whiting Award, a Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. She is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at West Virginia University, and she is on the faculty of the Rainier Writing Workshop, Pacific Lutheran University's low-residency MFA program. Copyright © 2021 Middlebury College

New Director of Campus Safety builds community with student lunches, joint trainings

Tara Simmelink brought more than two decades of law enforcement experience to Pacific Lutheran University when she started the contract Director of Campus Safety position at the university. When she was with the Pierce County sheriff's unit, Simmelink worked with patrol, field training officers, specialty assignments, narcotics, domestic violence, the special assault unit, child abuse, homicide, and others. Simmelink's ability to work with various groups of constituents is valuable for her position at PLU. The Director of Campus Safety is a contract position with the Pierce County Sheriff's Department, ensuring a close working relationship between the Sheriff's Department and the university. “I know some universities struggle to get a response from local law enforcement, but [because of the contract nature of the Director position] everyone here knows they can just call me and say, ‘Hey, here's a concern I have, or I need a report on this.’ That relationship is pretty unique,” Simmelink said.

A Groundless Clash of Freedoms?: The Religious Freedom of the Religiously Affiliated University and the Freedom of Faculty to Organize Under the NLRA

This article deals with the clash between faculty, especially adjunct faculty, wishing to use the processes of the National Labor Relations Board to organize at religiously affiliated universities and the objection of some of those universities who claim that the NLRB will violate their religious freedom under the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment and/or the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. This objection is based on the Supreme Court’s opinion in NLRB v. Catholic Bishop of Chicago where the Court invoked the “avoidance” doctrine to avoid deciding the First Amendment issues by deciding that Congress did not intend the NLRB to have jurisdiction over high schools operated by a church and where religious authority was pervasive. This objection, supported by two divided Circuits, wants to extend this “avoidance” mechanism to religiously affiliated universities where there is no such church authority and no pervasive religious atmosphere. The NLRB’s Pacific Lutheran University opinion seeks to preserve its jurisdiction in such cases. The effective right of many thousands of professors to organize is at issue. This article criticizes this extension of the avoidance doctrine as an evasion of a court’s duty to say what the law is and examines, on the merits, the constitutional and RFRA claims to show that the exercise of NLRB jurisdiction will in fact neither violate the Religion Clauses nor the RFRA.

Dysphonia

Dysphonia Jon William Stout (bio) I suppose the thrushes skittering about the yardSteeped in lilac in ways we calmly despiseAlso contain wet lingual rashes laid like cardsInterstitially arranged & with surprise, By which I mean I'm sorry, too, Father, you really areLosing your mind. We both seek outOdd term lexicon, knickknacks to scarBasic emotions, as if fibrosis will somehow Achieve complex harmony & crystal accuracy.I watched you slice tomatoes at the pace of . . .At the pace of . . . I look out the window, trees,Aspens, pitifully gathered. Oh okay, bradykinesia. I cut them for you, you turn on Jethro Tull.Something about innovation, flutes, rock, medi-Eval performances with Shakespearean skulls—I've never seen a body perform slow-diving Its own death before. You leave the roomTo weep, reminding me I've never seen you cry.Pathogenesis is nonetheless a spoonfulOf beginning, idiopathic maps, a jittery Herd &c.—Sure, I'll throw in the roast.You say, It's multiple system atrophy, you see?We walk Chloe, talk about the Pacific Coast,Parkland, Washington, about the disease, How it makes roads between mind & bodyTroublingly clear. Dopaminergic systems spitComplex happy while the basal ganglia seesNeural loss as one does loss itself—gilt [End Page 112] Beginnings, youth, debauchery, then sobriety,Guilt, wasted days, years, ruined marriages,Fealties turned faulty, the cumulonimbiWholly imaginary—the crashed carriage. Pull out the roast! I have to tell my legs to moveIn order to walk, my voice . . . dysphonia.We watch hockey, which is our provenBond. Their bodies carve gracefully on ice. [End Page 113] Jon William Stout Jon William Stout was born in Colorado and lived in Parkland, Washington, before moving to Iowa City. Jon received a BA from Pacific Lutheran University and an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. His poems have been published or are forthcoming in Prelude Magazine, Iowa Review Online, Omniverse, Poetry Is Dead, Tulane Review, Canada Quarterly, Horsethief, Lana Turner Journal, and elsewhere. His poetry chapbook, The Dream of Zukofsky, is a two-time finalist for the 2017 Omnidawn Chapbook Poetry Prize. He teaches Rhetoric at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. Copyright © 2018 Middlebury College

Mongrel is to Madness like Fire is to _______________, and: The Monster is to Damned as Lariat is to _______________, and: Solve for X

Mongrel is to Madness like Fire is to _______________, and: The Monster is to Damned as Lariat is to _______________, and: Solve for X Oliver de la Paz (bio) Mongrel is to Madness like Fire is to _______________ A fire moved, taking warmth with it. Unthinkable, its cargo. It mirrored birds in their fatal plumes. Too heavy to fly, they drag the weight of themselves, beautifully. As the fire trembles with motion, the fever also moves with a surprise like joy. Like a season on the brink of cool, yet holding. Holding on. Let me say that all that brilliance held me. Alarmed me. Betrayed all my verbs. [End Page 45] The Monster is to Damned as Lariat is to _______________ Asphalt, then lariat. The rope drags its wet silhouette into a trail of wounds. Little sidewinding torsos flashed in curlicues. Sibilances between a record of low voices. Low hisses insisting on its “yes.” Its omnipotent “yes.” Around the knot, the slickened knuckle, tight against its groove, shirring strands adjacent. The braid like rivulets against a window. The wet span of the noose splits what is done into undone. [End Page 46] Solve for X The body knows there is a world of glass and a world outside the bottle. The X is not real but a clutch of blue sequins. And there is still longing at X. A want to occupy. A want to splay the body in a meadow like it owned the meadow. X would just lie there encircled by a silent forest, full of atomized nothings. Thoughts. Some type of bound expectation. Something mortal. Soon the nights are filled with brutal trees. The cool, an astringent on the skin. Soon the wrong X is dead wrong and the flowers at the body’s back open into eons and eons of X, looking. Looking where to go next. [End Page 47] Oliver de la Paz Oliver de la Pazʼs most recent collection is Post Subject: A Fable (U. Akron Press). He also co-edited A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry. He teaches at the College of the Holy Cross and in the low-residency MFA program at Pacific Lutheran University. Copyright © 2017 University of Wisconsin Board of Regents

Reflections on the 12th International Transformative Learning Conference

This article is a reflective essay that explores the question: What can the content and experience of the conference tell us about the state of theory and practice in the field of TL; where is it today and where it may be going in the future? The 12th International Transformative Learning Conference (ITLC) held October 19-23 at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA was an opportunity to engage with this question and observe the emergence of some useful answers. The conference brought together 250 participants from 25 countries around the theme: “Meeting at intersections of places for transformative learning”. Presenters offered rich interaction of TL and Intersectionality through various symposia, presentations and experiential learning sessions that showed the application, development and potential evolution of TL. Open Space Technology was use to engage with this diverse community around the practice, theory, and future of TL. The attendees experienced different forms of TL practices and theory. The authors of this paper relied on their experience as co-chairs and presenters of the Conference, as well as faculty, alum and student of Fielding Graduate University to reflect on the main themes of intersections and intersectionality found in the content of the symposia, presentations, and experiential sessions. We found five main themes of intersections: between various theories and disciplines; between body, mind, and spirit as aspects of the self; between the self and social and political contexts in which it is embedded; between self and others in the engagement with difference; and between forms of transformative practice. In our closing comments and reflections, we addressed whether or not the conference was enough of a “holding space” for transformation to take place. We noted that there was a noticeable “call” from conference attendees for TL theory and practice to extend beyond individual and group support to the society and its social and systemic challenges.

Develop your professional skills year‐round

Julia Pomerenk's journey to the Registrar's Office began with a sticky note. After working as an admissions counselor at Pacific Lutheran University, Pomerenk first found an interest in the Registrar's Office when a colleague put a sticky note on the job announcement for assistant registrar that read, “This looks like a job for Julia.”

Low Completion and Disparities in Advance Care Planning Activities Among Older Medicare Beneficiaries

Letters Chicago; Ann Thomas, MD, MPH, Oregon Public Health Division, Portland; Teri Moser Woo, PhD, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Washington; Rachel M. Zetts, The Pew Charitable Trusts, Washington, DC. Conflict of Interest Disclosures: Dr Hersh has received funding from the CDC, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Pfizer/Joint Commission, and Merck. No other conflicts are reported. Funding/Support: This project was made possible through a partnership with the CDC Foundation. Support for this project was provided by Pew Charitable Trusts. Role of the Funder/Sponsor: The CDC participated in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication. The Pew Charitable Trusts participated in the interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication. The Pew Charitable Trusts sponsored in-person and telephone author meetings and supported some author travel to in-person meetings. Disclaimer: The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the CDC. Additional Contributions: Tia Carter, MS, Allan Coukell, BSc Pharm, and Elizabeth Jungman, JD, MPH, of The Pew Charitable Trusts assisted in convening author meetings. They did not receive any compensation for their role in the study. 1. The White House. National action plan for combating antibiotic resistant bacteria. https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/national_action _plan_for_combating_antibotic-resistant_bacteria.pdf. Accessed August 3, 2015. 2. Fleming-Dutra KE, Hersh AL, Shapiro DJ, et al. Prevalence of inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions among US ambulatory care visits, 2010-2011. JAMA. 3. Joint Task Force on Practice Parameters; American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology; American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology; Joint Council of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. Drug allergy: an updated practice parameter. Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2010;105(4):259-273. 4. Piccirillo JF, Mager DE, Frisse ME, Brophy RH, Goggin A. Impact of first-line vs second-line antibiotics for the treatment of acute uncomplicated sinusitis. JAMA. 5. Capra AM, Lieu TA, Black SB, Shinefield HR, Martin KE, Klein JO. Costs of otitis media in a managed care population. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2000;19(4): Table 1. Characteristics of Participants Participants, No. (%) a Variable Sociodemographic characteristics Age, y Sex Female Male Race/ethnicity White Black/African American Hispanic/Latino English-speaking Spanish-speaking Other Education High school diploma or less Greater than high school Annual income, b $ Health-related characteristics Self-rated health Excellent or very good Good Fair or poor Dementia c None Possible or probable dementia Low Completion and Disparities in Advance Care Planning Activities Among Older Medicare Beneficiaries Advance care planning (ACP) is an iterative process that in- cludes discussions about preferences for end-of-life (EOL) care, completion of advance directives (AD), and designation of a surrogate decision maker in a durable power of attorney for health care (DPOA). 1,2 Engagement in ACP has increased over time. 3 However, the rising tide of ACP may not have lifted all boats equally. Minorities, those with lower levels of educa- tional attainment, and the poor may not have benefited from rising rates of ACP to the same extent that white, highly edu- cated, affluent individuals have. Rates of ACP by older Lati- nos in particular are unknown. Further, we do not know if ACP uptake is greater among those in worse health and with poorer prognoses. Methods | We used data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS), a longitudinal cohort study using a nationally representative sample of community-dwelling Medi- care beneficiaries ages 65 years and older (2011 round 1 re- sponse rate, 71%; 2012 round 2 response rate, 86%). 4 This cross- sectional analysis used a random one-third sample of 2015 d Number of chronic medical conditions None Number of ADLs requiring help e 1 or 2 (continued) participants who responded to a supplemental module on ACP fielded in 2012. This study was considered exempt by the institutional review board of the University of California, San Francisco. Outcome variables included 3 self-reported elements of ACP: (1) discussing with any individual the medical treat- ment desired if seriously ill in the future (EOL discussion), (2) having legal arrangements for a proxy to make decisions about medical care (DPOA), or (3) having written instructions about JAMA Internal Medicine December 2016 Volume 176, Number 12 (Reprinted) jamainternalmedicine.com Copyright 2016 American Medical Association. All rights reserved. Downloaded From: http://jamanetwork.com/pdfaccess.ashx?url=/data/journals/intemed/935892/ by a UCSF LIBRARY User on 06/15/2017

The Impact of Pacific Lutheran on Collective Bargaining at Catholic Colleges and Universities

In 1979, the Supreme Court found that teachers at a Catholic parochial school were exempt from the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) because of First Amendment religious infringement risks. Subsequently, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has faced controversy over its efforts to delineate an appropriate test for the religious exemption in the higher education context. This uncertainty over the NLRB’s test has resulted in time-consuming litigation and hampered faculty’s ability to organize at schools where Board jurisdiction would not present a significant risk of First Amendment infringement. This paper argues that the Board’s recent decision in Pacific Lutheran University will bring much-needed stability in this area of the law because the new religious exemption test is carefully crafted to protect both constitutional and statutory interests. More faculty will be able to exercise their right to organize, and this wider experience with collective bargaining within Catholic colleges universities will reveal how speculative the constitutional entanglement risks actually are under the NLRA.

Reading Plato

Reading Plato Rick Barot (bio) I think about the mornings it saved meto look at the hearts penknifed on the windowsof the bus, or at the initials scratched into the plastic partition, in front of whicha cabbie went on about bread his fatherwould make, so hard you broke teeth on it, or told one more story about the plumbingin New Delhi buildings, villages to each floor,his whole childhood in a building, nothing to love but how much now he missed it, eventhe noises and stinks he missed, the avenuesuddenly clear in front of us, the sky ahead opaquely clean as a bottle’s bottom, each heartand name a kind of ditty of hopefulnessbecause there was one you or another I was leaving or going to, so many stalls of flowersand fruit going past, figures earnest withdestination, even the city itself a heart, so that when sidewalks quaked from trainsunderneath, it seemed something to love,like a harbor boat’s call at dawn or the face reflected on a coffee machine’s chrome side,the pencil’s curled shavings a litterof questions on the floor, the floor’s square of afternoon light another page I couldn’t knowmyself by, as now, when Socrates describesthe lover’s wings spreading through the soul [End Page 175] like flames on a horizon, it isn’t so much lightI think about, but the back’s skin crackingto let each wing’s nub break through, the surprise of the first pain and the eventuallightening, the blood on the feathers dryingas you begin to sense the use for them. [End Page 176] Rick Barot RICK BAROT was born in the Philippines, grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and received his MFA from the the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa. He is the author of The Darker Fall, Want, and Chord, and directs the Rainier Writing Workshop, the lowresidency MFA program at Pacific Lutheran University.* Copyright © 2016 University of North Carolina Wilmington

Legal Issues in Higher Education: Annual Review of Court & Administrative Developments (CLE) -- Pacific Lutheran University NLRB Decision

Legal Issues in Higher Education: Annual Review of Court & Administrative Developments (CLE) -- Pacific Lutheran University NLRB Decision

Resistance or complicity?

No AccessResistance or complicity?Balancing assessments of German churches under NazismRobert P. EricksenRobert P. EricksenKurt Mayer Chair in Holocaust Studies Emeritus, Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, WA 98447, USASearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:Mar 2016https://doi.org/10.13109/kize.2015.28.2.246SectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail About Previous article Next article FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited byIn the Name of the Cross: Christianity and Anti-Semitic Propaganda in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy1 July 2020 | Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 62, No. 3 Download book coverVolume 28Issue 2March 2015 ISSN: 0932-9951eISSN: 2196-808XHistoryPublished online:March 2016 PDF download

Though We Cannot See Him, We Think of Him

Though We Cannot See Him, We Think of Him Peggy Shumaker (bio) Setting red lentils to simmer,aroma of cumin spicing the afternoon, I give thanks for the womancaring for a child whose age(still measured in months) equals his body weight—eighteen. Too little even for one so little,evidence of littlenourishment. To each hearingthis temporary mother brings pictures, storiesof words he can say now.Such kindness. How he rocksto comfort himself. How he cannot helpbanging his headbanging and banging [End Page 117] his head,though she holds him, tight, swaddledwith firm kindness.Safe. But not calm. [End Page 118] Peggy Shumaker Peggy Shumaker has been selected as the 2014 Rasmuson Foundation Distinguished Artist. She served as Alaska State Writer Laureate from 2010 to 2012. Professor emerita from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, she teaches in the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University. Copyright © 2014 University of Nebraska Press

Reflection

A museum belonging to a school district demonstrates how teachers integrate museum resources into classroom curricula. A former teacher reflects on her experience with the Karshner Memorial Museum in the Puyallup School District (WA), and explains how the museum's exhibitions and artifacts are curriculum resources, specifically tied to grade level focus and standards. Now working with the Education Department at Pacific Lutheran University (Tacoma, WA) the author teaches teachers-in-training to use museum resources and has helped to develop a new major, Outreach Education, for students wishing to become educators in formal and informal venues outside the traditional classroom such as museums and other cultural venues.

Reflection

A museum belonging to a school district demonstrates how teachers integrate museum resources into classroom curricula. A former teacher reflects on her experience with the Karshner Memorial Museum in the Puyallup School District (WA), and explains how the museum's exhibitions and artifacts are curriculum resources, specifically tied to grade level focus and standards. Now working with the Education Department at Pacific Lutheran University (Tacoma, WA) the author teaches teachers-in-training to use museum resources and has helped to develop a new major, Outreach Education, for students wishing to become educators in formal and informal venues outside the traditional classroom such as museums and other cultural venues.

Buddhist Nuns and Gendered Practice: in Search of the Female Renunciant. By Nirmala S.Salgado. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. Pp. ix + 319. $35.00.

Religious Studies ReviewVolume 40, Issue 1 p. 62-62 Buddhism Buddhist Nuns and Gendered Practice: in Search of the Female Renunciant. By Nirmala S. Salgado. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. Pp. ix + 319. $35.00. Paul O. Ingram, Paul O. Ingram Pacific Lutheran University (Emeritus)Search for more papers by this author Paul O. Ingram, Paul O. Ingram Pacific Lutheran University (Emeritus)Search for more papers by this author First published: 27 February 2014 https://doi.org/10.1111/rsr.12117_5Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Volume40, Issue1March 2014Pages 62-62 RelatedInformation

2012 Washington State Budget: A Year of Political Earthquakes

DOI 10.1515/cjpp-2013-0031 Calif. J. Politics Policy 2013; 5(3): 557–576 Francis Benjamin*, Maria Chavez and Nicholas Lovrich 2012 Washington State Budget: A Year of Political Earthquakes Abstract: Washington State continues to battle a slowly recovering economy, and the budgeting decisions which the legislature is required to make remain very difficult. Some legislators see the budget solution to Washington State’s current economic condition to rest not solely on budget reform and program cuts, but also on increasing revenue through new taxes. These legislators have felt unduly hampered by the 2/3 legislative supermajority vote requirement established by citizen initiative. The budget process, normally controlled by the majority caucus, became subject to intense political maneuvering and power plays so intense that the minority caucus — which historically has minimal clout during budget pro- ceedings — ended up with significant influence. The Seattle Times called the situ- ation “a political earthquake not seen in 25 years”. Keywords: Washington State; Budget; Citizen Initiatives; Court Rulings; Chang- ing Party Affiliation. *Corresponding author: Francis Benjamin, School of Politics, Philosophy & Public Affairs, Washington State University, Washington, USA, e-mail: benjamin@wsu.edu Maria Chavez: Department of Political Science, Pacific Lutheran University, Washington, USA Nicholas Lovrich: School of Politics, Philosophy & Public Affairs, Washington State University, Washington, USA 1 Introduction Washington State experienced continued budgetary challenges throughout the 2012 60-day regular legislative session and subsequently held a 30-day special session to deal with budgetary issues, followed by a 1-day special session to address remaining budget shortfalls. These challenges occasioned by ongoing revenue shortfalls put legislators in the uncomfortable position of needing to continue their budget-cutting efforts while looking for additional sources of revenue. The budget process, normally controlled by the majority caucus, became subject to intense political maneuvering and power plays so intense that the minority caucus, which historically has minimal clout during budget pro- ceedings, ended up with significant influence. The Seattle Times called the situa- tion “a political earthquake not seen in 25 years” (Seattle Times Editorial 2012b).

Teaching the Physics of Energy While Traveling by Train

Pacific Lutheran University (Tacoma, WA) is renowned for the number of its courses that offer international and study-away opportunities. Inspired by the theme of sustainability, and my growing concern about the environmental impact of conventional fuels, I offered a course, Physics of Energy, for the first time during PLU's January 2011 term (a one-month semester). The two-week travel portion of the course took students on the Amtrak Coast Starlight train route from Tacoma, WA, to Los Angeles to study various forms of energy production. Students studied physics topics in the classroom, through hands-on activities, by traveling to energy research and production facilities, and while working on their interdisciplinary term projects. The course, which utilized local talent and focused on sustainability, provided a positive physics learning experience for majors and non-majors alike.

Creating a Culture of Good Writing

Following American Sociological Association’s recommendations for a cumulative curriculum in sociology, sociology faculty at Pacific Lutheran University created cumulative writing competencies to integrate writing into the curriculum on a department level. In this article, I explore the rationale for this programmatic approach to writing, describe the process by which we developed cumulative writing competencies in our major, discuss implementation, and describe our plans for assessment. The writing competencies emphasize that good writing is about more than good grammar; it also requires clear and complex thinking. This model of writing instruction offers students an opportunity to develop their writing skills in a sequential, intentional, discipline-specific way.