Western Washington University Research Articles

Policy Dialogue: The Meaning and Purpose of Public Education

AbstractPublic education, at least as it has been known for the past several generations in the US, is under threat. Conservative state legislatures from Arizona to Florida have enacted sweeping voucher legislation, channeling taxpayer dollars to private schools. At the same time, a vicious culture war has engulfed the public education system in controversy, creating new political opportunities for ideologues and opponents. In this context, the editorial team at HEQ felt it important to reflect on why we have public schools in the first place. What are they good for and what should be taught? Whom should they serve, and who should govern them?For this policy dialogue, we asked Carol Burris and Johann Neem to discuss the past, present, and future of open-enrollment, taxpayer-supported public schools. Carol Burris is the executive director of the Network for Public Education Foundation and the author of several books. Prior to that role, Dr. Burris was a classroom teacher and a high school principal, earning educator of the year and principal of the year awards. Johann Neem is a professor at Western Washington University and a historian of the early American republic. The author of several books, including Democracy’s Schools: The Rise of Public Education in America, Dr. Neem is also a member of HEQ’s editorial board.HEQ policy dialogues are, by design, intended to promote an informal, free exchange of ideas between scholars. At the end of the exchange, we offer a list of references for readers who wish to follow up on sources relevant to the discussion.

From Mandatory to Meaningful: Setting the Stage for Accessibility, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ADEI) Professional Development in Technical Services

Developing knowledge and understanding related to accessibility, diversity, equity, and inclusion (ADEI) is critical to transforming libraries into more socially just institutions. However, building organizational structures that foster meaningful professional development can be challenging. At Western Washington University, leadership in the Western Libraries initiated a three-part effort to encourage and support employee ADEI growth, including the implementation of a SharePoint-based professional development repository, deployment of an employee engagement survey, and an analysis of employees’ experiences with ADEI professional development. In this presentation, Western Libraries Director of Collections Madeline Kelly presents each component of the effort in detail, including aspects of the work that can be applied at other institutions.

A Collaboration to Create Functional Frameworks from Multiple Components.

This invited Team Profile was created by the teams of Dana D. Medina, LMU Munich, Germany; Laura M. Salonen, CINBIO, University of Vigo, Spain ; Tim Kowalczyk, Western Washington University, Bellingham, USA; João Rocha, CICECO, University of Aveiro, Portugal; and Akshay Rao, University of Cambridge, UK. They recently published an article on a three-component synthesis strategy for the formation of covalent organic frameworks (COFs) containing extended fused aromatics, which enables the synthesis of the building blocks and COF on a similar time scale. The methodology was also successfully applied to produce highly crystalline, preferentially oriented thin films with nanostructured surfaces on various substrates. "Building Blocks and COFs Formed in Concert-Three-Component Synthesis of Pyrene-Fused Azaacene Covalent Organic Framework in the Bulk and as Films", L. Frey, O. Oliveira, A. Sharma, R. Guntermann, S. P. S Fernandes, K. M. Cid-Seara, H. Abbay, H. Thornes, J. Rocha, M. Döblinger, T. Kowalczyk, A. Rao, L. M. Salonen, D. D. Medina, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2023, 62, e202302872.

A Collaboration to Create Functional Frameworks from Multiple Components

AbstractThis invited Team Profile was created by the teams of Dana D. Medina, LMU Munich, Germany; Laura M. Salonen, CINBIO, University of Vigo, Spain ; Tim Kowalczyk, Western Washington University, Bellingham, USA; João Rocha, CICECO, University of Aveiro, Portugal; and Akshay Rao, University of Cambridge, UK. They recently published an article on a three‐component synthesis strategy for the formation of covalent organic frameworks (COFs) containing extended fused aromatics, which enables the synthesis of the building blocks and COF on a similar time scale. The methodology was also successfully applied to produce highly crystalline, preferentially oriented thin films with nanostructured surfaces on various substrates. “Building Blocks and COFs Formed in Concert–Three‐Component Synthesis of Pyrene‐Fused Azaacene Covalent Organic Framework in the Bulk and as Films”, L. Frey, O. Oliveira, A. Sharma, R. Guntermann, S. P. S Fernandes, K. M. Cid‐Seara, H. Abbay, H. Thornes, J. Rocha, M. Döblinger, T. Kowalczyk, A. Rao, L. M. Salonen, D. D. Medina, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2023, 62, e202302872

‘Engaging with Place Through Comparative Cross-Border Inquiry – The Canadian-American Studies Centre at Western Washington University’

‘Engaging with Place Through Comparative Cross-Border Inquiry – The Canadian-American Studies Centre at Western Washington University’

Le Jeune Homme by Annie Ernaux

Reviewed by: Le Jeune Homme by Annie Ernaux Edward Ousselin ANNIE ERNAUX Le Jeune Homme Paris. Gallimard. 2022. 48 pages. ANNIE ERNAUX'S latest book was published a few months before she was awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature. At roughly forty pages, it is closer in length to a short story than to a novel. While Ernaux has regularly distanced herself from the still-fashionable genre of autofiction (and from just about any literary movement), almost all her fictional works have been autobiographical in nature and characterized by the frequent use of first-person narration. "The Young Man" is no exception. In fact, this short book seems to encapsulate many of the events and themes found in her previous novels. In Passion simple (1992), and again in more detail in Se perdre (2001), she recounted her affair with a married man. This time, her love affair is with a much younger man, a student who wanted to meet the already famous author. As the narrator points out: "He was almost thirty years younger than me." She also remarks that the young man's small apartment was across the street from the hospital where—many years earlier, when she was nearly his age—she had been taken after a painful and dangerous backstreet abortion (in France, abortions were illegal until 1975). This traumatic episode of Ernaux's life is the topic of L'Événement (2000). The narrator often compares the young student's impecunious lifestyle to her own small-town, working-class origins, a long-running thematic thread in many of Ernaux's books and interviews. She notices that while she had long felt relegated to a lower social status, including during most of her seventeen-year marriage, with the student she suddenly seemed to be a part of the upper class. As the older, richer partner in this unlikely couple, she could, for instance, go off with him on vacations he would not have been able to afford. The sort of power imbalance that is more common between an older man and a younger woman was now inverted: "I was in a dominant position." Perhaps fittingly, this relationship lasted approximately as long as Ernaux was working on another book. The conclusion of Le Jeune Homme is a moment for Ernaux to relect on a turning point in her life, when she realized that she was happy to be independent at the turn of the twenty-first century. Ernaux is now eighty-two years old. Whether or not she publishes anything else, her place in French literary history is secure. While she has often been criticized for her choice of an unadorned écriture plate (flat writing style), she has renewed the autobiographical genre by turning much of her life story into an extensive and fascinating fictional domain. Edward Ousselin Western Washington University Copyright © 2023 World Literature Today and the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma

Understanding History, Building Trust, and Sharing Appraisal Authority: Engaging Underrepresented Student Groups through Culture Centers

Appraisal of student records is an essential part of building a complete narrative of a university’s history. Within this process, it is important to capture the experiences of underrepresented student groups. A rich source of documentation of both student life and campus diversity comes from the records produced by university cultural student clubs, cultural houses, and sororities and fraternities with historically BIPOC membership. The formation, activities, and dissolution of cultural student organizations can help to shape an understanding of a university’s demographic, social, and political history. Working with and building relationships with organization advisors and student members is important for forming good appraisal decisions about the records they produce. This article examines two case studies of appraisal projects involving the Ethnic Student Center at Western Washington University and the Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It also includes an analysis of the appraisal of records of cultural student organizations and discusses the importance of working with stakeholders and understanding ownership of records.

From food access to food sovereignty: Striving to meet university student needs

The ongoing neoliberalization of higher education has meant that college and university students at state institutions face declining state support for their education, increasing debt, precarious post-graduation job opportunities, and a dominant cul­tural emphasis on personal responsibility rather than collective care. These neoliberal conditions exacerbate structural inequities (along various axes, including race, economic status, disability, etc.) within student populations. This paper explores two aspects of inequity in food insecurity among students: specific challenges and inequities students face by virtue of their position as college students, and intersectional inequities faced by some stu­dents by virtue of other identities to which they belong. This paper presents findings from two research efforts at Western Washington University, a public university in the USA Pacific Northwest. First, we share findings from a 2018 qualitative, interview-based study of food-insecure students on the campus. We then draw from our experiences as practitioners and present critical reflections on our own campus food security efforts, differentiating between those that address food security (access), food justice, and food sovereignty. Our findings from the qualitative study suggest that students feel a sense of personal responsibility for their food insecurity, and that food-insecure students both rely on social networks for support and feel stigma­tized by their food insecurity. Our critical reflec­tions on campus programs reveal that most of the traditional food security efforts (e.g. emergency aid, food pantries) neglect to either effectively support BIPOC students and others most affected by food insecurity, or provide a sustained community-support mechanism for food-insecure students in general. We position food sovereignty-oriented programs as a way forward in addressing the inter­sectional inequities faced by students, and also in bolstering communities of support.

Usability and perceived benefit of hearing assistive features in Apple AirPods Pro

Individuals with hearing loss face high personal costs for hearing aids, making over-the-counter hearing aids, or headphones featuring custom audio control, alternative options. Apple Inc.’s AirPods Pro contain a variety of headphone accommodations designed to help people hear better. Recent research has evaluated electroacoustic properties of AirPods Pro demonstrating good ability to fit prescriptive targets for different hearing losses. Here, we examine the usability and perceived benefit from engaging custom audiogram-driven features in AirPods Pro. Listeners with self-assigned hearing profiles ranging from normal hearing to a moderate degree of hearing loss take a hearing screener (Mimi Hearing Test). AzBio sentences are presented in quiet and in noise while enabling and disabling the custom features in Apple’s Accommodation settings. Listeners then complete a questionnaire targeting usability of the features and perceived benefit. Overall, listeners found the features easy to use and to be at least a little helpful, regardless of hearing status. Listeners with suspected or known hearing impairment reported slightly greater benefit than normal hearing listeners when listening in noise with the custom audio features. Headphone Accommodations in AirPods Pro may be an affordable option for an improved listening experience. [Work supported by Western Washington University.]

Sister Deborah by Scholastique Mukasonga

Reviewed by: Sister Deborah by Scholastique Mukasonga Edward Ousselin SCHOLASTIQUE MUKASONGA Sister Deborah Paris. Gallimard. 2022. 160 pages. BORN IN RWANDA in 1956, Scholastique Mukasonga moved to Burundi in 1973 (already because of anti-Tutsi persecution) before eventually settling in France in 1992. Many members of her extended family were killed during the 1994 Rwandan genocide. She published her first book, Inyenzi ou les cafards (Eng. Cockroaches, 2016), in 2006. Since then, much of her written work, including Notre-Dame du Nil (2012), has revolved around late twentieth-century Rwandan history and its multiple tragedies. In 2016 she started exploring new fictional ground with Cœur tambour. Her latest novel continues that trend by introducing African American (and Protestant) missionaries into Rwanda during the 1930s, when it was still a Belgian (and Catholic) colony. More than just another missionary sent to colonial Africa by a Western country, the title character, who is linked by her name to one of the few female prophets in the Bible, quickly takes on the attributes of both a spiritual healer and a messianic messenger. While the charismatic Sister Deborah is ostensibly subordinate to the leader of this unusual group of missionaries, the Reverend Marcus, she tends to overshadow him among the mostly female local converts, to whom she announces the imminent arrival of an unexpected savior, a Black woman destined to establish in Rwanda a blessed, prosperous realm ruled by women. An updated and rather ironic version of this imported messianic message is provided in the novel's epigram—"I met God; she's Black"—which serves as a nod to today's Black Lives Matter movement. Sister Deborah's narrative voice is framed by that of Ikirezi, a sickly village girl who seems to find healing, inspiration, and divine guidance through her contact with the Black prophet from America. Much later, after the African American missionaries have been expelled from Rwanda by the Belgian military, Ikirezi will roughly follow Sister Deborah's trajectory but in [End Page 63] the opposite direction, by moving to the United States and becoming a professor, known as Miss Jewels, at Howard University. As for the erstwhile female prophet once revered (or feared) as Sister Deborah, she will eventually end up as a traditional faith healer, under the name of Mama Nganga, in one of the slums of Nairobi, Kenya. Years later, the news of her fiery end reaches Miss Jewels and leads to the conclusion to this brief novel. At one level, Mukasonga's latest novel is merely the fictional account of a cargo cult's brief flowering and bloody demise. As such, it reflects the surprising forms of syncretism that resulted from the enforced propagation of Christianity during the colonial era and the necessarily more discreet resistance of African religious traditions. At another level, Sister Deborah is an allegorical retelling of the broader encounters and exchanges between rural Africans and (somewhat) idealistic African Americans, in spite of the misgivings and stereotypes held by each group. Edward Ousselin Western Washington University Copyright © 2023 World Literature Today and the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma

Cœur du Sahel Djaïli Amadou Amal

Reviewed by: Cœur du Sahel Djaïli Amadou Amal Edward Ousselin DJAÏLI AMADOU AMAL Cœur du Sahel Paris. Éditions Emmanuelle Collas. 2022. 364 pages. THE CAMEROONIAN NOVELIST Djaïli Amadou Amal (b. 1975) is best known for Les Impatientes (2020), which illustrates, from the contrasting perspectives of three main characters, the consequences of polygamy and arranged marriages on young women. While gender is the principal dividing line in Les Impatientes, the focus of Cœur du Sahel, Amal's most recent novel, is the apparently unbridgeable divide between social classes [End Page 64] (including the vestiges of Cameroon's caste system). In Les Impatientes, the recurring word is paradoxically "patience," repeated by the elders to each young woman who was coerced into an unwanted marriage. In Cœur du Sahel, the oft-repeated phrase is "nous ne sommes pas du même monde" (you and I come from different worlds). What this novel reflects is found in many of the countries on the African continent: the stark economic and cultural contrasts between a growing, relatively prosperous urban middle class and the less-educated rural villagers who are still trying to survive on subsistence agriculture. Faydé, the central character, has grown up in a farming village that is now being hard hit by both lack of rain and periodic attacks by the jihadi terrorist group Boko Haram. Faydé's father disappeared during one of those attacks, and her mother is left trying to work the land while raising Faydé's younger siblings. Faydé decides to do what other teenagers in her village have done: go find work as a domestic servant in Maroua, the biggest city in the area. This will allow her to send some money to her struggling mother. Faydé thus transitions from a remote village without electricity or running water to a regional center of commerce, a bustling metropolis with a university and other impressive buildings. Thanks to her extended family, she is hired by a wealthy household that includes—in an echo of Les Impatientes—one husband and three wives. The intelligent but initially naïve Faydé will quickly learn that she is, in terms of class, gender, as well as religion, at the very bottom of a rigid social hierarchy. Perhaps predictably, she will fall in love with an educated young man who is part of the local elite, but this will not be a typical Cinderella story. Amal writes about what she knows. Much of her own background—a Fulani Muslim woman from northern Cameroon who went through an arranged marriage at the age of seventeen—is present in her fictional work. She also clearly wants her readers from outside of Cameroon to learn more about her world. The narrative is preceded by a map of northern Cameroon, showing the main cities and the neighboring countries. The is also a map of the Sahel, the vast swath of semiarid land that separates the Sahara Desert from the lush coastal regions of West Africa. Throughout the novel, the author incorporates brief explanations about the socioeconomic and religious realities of the northern regions of Cameroon, a very diverse country with over 250 languages. The ultimate destruction of Faydé's village by the Boko Haram terrorist group, for instance, is an all-too-realistic pivotal event in the novel's plot. Also mentioned are global trends and events, from the foreign telenovelas that city-dwellers watch on their television sets to the disastrous effects of climate change on local farmers. In a country with a rich literary tradition, Amal confirms with Cœur du Sahel that she is one of Cameroon's most important living novelists. Edward Ousselin Western Washington University Copyright © 2023 World Literature Today and the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma

Engaging Underrepresented Groups Through Appraisal and Accessioning

 Appraisal of student records is an essential part of building a complete narrative of a university's history. Within this process, it is important to capture the experiences of underrepresented student groups. A rich source of documentation of both student life and campus diversity comes from the records produced by university ethnic student clubs, cultural houses, and sororities and fraternities with historically minority membership. The formation activities, and dissolution of ethnic student organizations can help to shape an understanding of a university's demographic, social, and political history. Working with and building relationships with organization advisors and student members is important to forming good appraisal decisions of the records they produce. This paper will examine examples from appraisal projects with the Ethnic Student Center at Western Washington University and the Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It will also include an analysis of the appraisal of records from ethnic student organizations, discuss the importance of working with stakeholders, and understanding ownership of records. 

Adultère by Yves Ravey

Reviewed by: Adultère by Yves Ravey Edward Ousselin Yves Ravey Adultère Paris. Minuit. 2021. 140 pages. YVES RAVEY HAS been writing well-received novels and plays since 1989. His seventeenth novel demonstrates once again that he is one of the best living representatives of le roman noir, the literary counterpart to film noir. In the United States, his work could be likened to the genre of the hard-boiled detective novels written by Dashiell Hammett and others. In France, Ravey is often compared to the master of detective novels, Georges Simenon, although he has not produced a recurring character who would be comparable to Simenon’s Commissaire Maigret. Adultery is ostensibly the motive and the driving force that leads to a sordid murder in Ravey’s latest novel. In this short [End Page 78] narrative, the author once again describes in detail the actions of his characters, while providing little in the way of introspection or insight into their private thoughts. In a small nondescript town, Jean Seghers, the owner of a failing service station, is mainly concerned that his wife seems to be having an affair with a friend (and sometime business partner) of his. As it turns out, she is, but with another man. In Adultère, the traditional plot elements of a roman noir—the love triangle, the femme fatale, the vengeful husband, and the murder victim—are less important than the weight of the gloomy atmosphere that envelops the banal characters and their dreary urban environment. Seghers, the main character, remains strangely passive, indeed often submissive, as his marriage and his business slowly but steadily collapse around him. His unexpected outburst of violence is therefore all the more shocking, as is the sudden and tersely reported plot twist that closes the narrative. Despite having resorted to drastic measures, Seghers is not a changed man afterward. He continues to be the drab, withdrawn, unassertive character whom others can easily ignore or scorn. Ravey’s writing builds up the tension between the various characters by successive but slight degrees. The contrast between his minimalist style and the level of anguish endured (or callousness exhibited) by some of the characters provides a particularly vivid reading experience. The same can be said for the disparity between the carefully constructed banality of his novels’ settings and characters and the sophistication of his dramatic storytelling. Like the best of his predecessors in the noir genre, Ravey conveys complex, powerful emotions by means of an austere, pared-down literary technique. If he were a film director, he could be compared to Alfred Hitchcock. Edward Ousselin Western Washington University Copyright © 2022 World Literature Today and the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma

Using State Workforce Data to Report Graduate Outcomes

Survey methodology is the dominant approach among universities in the United States for reporting employment outcomes for recent graduates. However, past studies have shown that survey methodology may yield upwardly biased results, which can result in overreporting of employment rates and salary outcomes. This case study describes the development and application of an alternative reporting methodology, by which state wage records are analyzed to determine employment and salary outcomes for recent graduates. Findings at Western Washington University suggest the significant sample sizes that can be achieved using wage record methodology may provide a more reliable option than survey methodology for accurately reporting graduate outcomes.

Building Community Virtually on the Fly

The Recreation Management and Leadership (RML) program at Western Washington University utilizes a cohort-based model in which sequenced courses and overnight retreats work in tandem to cultivate an inclusive learning community. COVID-19 necessitated not only that we quickly move all of our courses online, but it challenged us to transition our nature-based retreats to a virtual environment as we attempted to build community and foster connections over Zoom. In this piece, the RML faculty shares how the missteps of our first virtual retreat taught us lessons about connecting, interacting, and teaching in a virtual space and prepared us to run a vastly improved, successful Zoom retreat the following year.

Compulsively Moral: OCD, Ethics, and the Law.

Compulsively Moral: OCD, Ethics, and the Law.

Mark W. Orme

Mark W. Orme, 58, died Feb. 27 in Seattle. “Mark was a passionate, dedicated, and visionary chemist in pharmaceutical R&D. He was a talented leader and brought an enthusiastic and creative approach to his work with his breadth of experience. He was a natural mentor who strove for and enjoyed camaraderie with his team. Mark passed away peacefully at home with his family after a courageous battle with cancer. He had so much more to experience and contribute to in life, which included science. Mark touched many lives and is forever in our hearts and memories.”—Stephanie Beigel-Orme, wife Most recent title: Senior director, chemistry and CMC, Apellis Pharmaceuticals Education: BA, chemistry, Western Washington University; MS, chemistry, University of Chicago Survivors: Wife, Stephanie Beigel-Orme; daughters, Chenoa, Sara, and Tessa To recognize your late loved one or colleague, submit obituary information at cenm.ag/obits .

Advancing Preservation for Archives and Manuscripts

Advancing Preservation for Archives and Manuscripts

Call for papers: NORM 2021

Abstract submissions are being accepted for the 75th Northwest Regional Meeting, which will be held virtually May 9–11 . The meeting, hosted by Western Washington University, will highlight challen...

FoodWISE: a whole systems guide to sustainable and delicious food choices

With a background in food systems and cultural geography, Dr. Gigi Berardi is a professor of Environmental Studies at the Western Washington University (WWU) Huxley College of the Environment with ...