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Caught in the Crossfire: Navigating Institutional Neutrality Amidst Campus Controversy & Competing Demands
No full textWhen controversies arise, colleges and universities often find themselves in the crossfire of heated debates over institutional neutrality. Some institutions claim neutrality to distance themselves from controversy and defuse tensions surrounding sensitive issues. However, when institutions choose not to engage—whether through nonresponse or by stating they will make no response—they may inadvertently suggest that their current position is neutral, a premise many dispute (A. Ford, 2024). How should higher education institutions (HEIs) navigate the various demands they face to either act or maintain neutrality? Moreover, once institutional leaders understand these competing pressures, how should they respond?
This paper has two main aims: to analyze the dynamics surrounding calls for institutional neutrality and to guide HEI decision-makers in crafting appropriate responses. In Part I, we examine HEIs amid recent campus controversies and renewed debates over institutional neutrality. Using the Spring 2024 campus encampments and protests over institutional involvement in the Israel/Gaza conflict as our primary example, we develop a framework for understanding the crossfire—situations where decision-makers face competing demands for institutional response during controversies. This framework is an analytical tool for HEI leaders and others interested in debates about institutional neutrality in higher education.
Part II explores a key implication from our framework: Pluralism is most challenging during controversy. Before presenting our recommendations for responding to the crossfire, we first motivate the importance of recognizing and attending to pluralism during controversy through appeals to political liberalism and organizational theory. We then conclude by recommending a two-pronged response strategy: education and dialogue facilitation
Friends of Issaquah Salmon Hatchery Intern
No full textBy maintaining riparian plots and developing a new plant garden, I learned that native plants are crucial to the salmon passage that goes through Issaqauh creek. Native plants provide shade for salmon, protecting them from warmer temperatures. This is crucial because warming water temperatures make it less likely for salmon to survive, they’re journey, which one of the key reasons why the wild salmon population is in decline. Native plants also provide salmon with insects which are crucial for a salmon’s diet
WSU AgWeatherNet Intern
No full textAgWeatherNet is a world class weather station network operated through Washington State university, comprising of three tiers of stations with the primary emphasis being the deployment of new tier one Mesonet stations. While interning I have had the incredible opportunity of being deployed throughout the western portion of Washington State, where my primary focus was the implementation of 5, 10, 20 and 50 cm soil sensors into existing Mesonet stations. My other tasks involved the maintenance of stations, and various miscellaneous tasks found throughout the extension center. My learning goals for the summer were to be able to connect the various meteorological measurements to the surrounding climates and be able to draw conclusions based on physical interactions with the environment and the data provided to me. Other goals included spending time amongst field scientists and getting an opportunity to work outside in a meaningful manner. Overall, this internship has been a wonderful opportunity to experience the differences that our climate brings throughout Washington State, work alongside field scientists and get my hands dirty
INTERA - Environmental Risk Assessment Intern
No full textUpon review, the current Hanford Primary Remediation Goals (PRGs) are revealed to be based on ineffective endpoints describing outdated studies designed for agricultural purposes. Our results using EC25s demonstrated the need to update the basis for deriving plant endpoints based on an ongoing risk assessment at Hanford. This highlights the necessity of aligning experimental data with regulatory frameworks to ensure accurate risk characterization. Ultimately, translating experimental data into usable risk assessment metrics requires consistency between research methodologies and regulatory needs. The SSD approach requires numerous rich and diverse toxicology studies standardized to a single endpoint type, which is not a reality today. This data review informs the recommendation of EC25s as standard to inform PRGs for plant data
Community Strong LLC GIS Internship
No full textAs an Environmental Studies student at Western Washington University, I have had the pleasure to spend the last three months interning with Community Strong Strategies LLC (CSS) focusing on data analysis and mapping for various projects this consulting firm has been involved in. These projects prioritized marginalized communities in regions with high rates of growth and increased urban development. My job as an intern was to compile, analyze, and present various data points, in the form of maps created in ArcGIS Pro, collected from reputable sources. This data was then used to help the consultants and clients further understand economic, environmental, and social impacts burdening various communities
AS Student Body President
No full textAfter being appointed to the role of the Associated Students Vice President for University Operations in the Fall, I became the Vice Chair of the student body’s executive board, the highest level of student governance at Western Washington University. In this role, I primarily focused on the financial health of the university, while working extensively to ensure transparency in all our business dealings and investments. A large focus of my time in that role was advocating for increased student participation in all levels of our financial dealings. In Spring 2025, I assumed the role of the AS President, also referred to as the student body president. Throughout the next ten weeks, I would steer our 31-person student government through escalating federal, state, and campus climates, work with my team to provide resources to students facing trouble related to immigration status, and reform our student government to allow for increased participation in the shared governance of this university
Wy’east Wildlands Firefighting Intern
No full textI got the opportunity to work in a 20 man crew on a fire incident, the Burdoin Fire, in southern Washington. We worked with other contractors and federal agencies to use our best efforts to protect as many structures as possible, and minimize the acreage burned from the wildfire- started from a train spark in the Columbia river gorge. We did our best to maintain safety and professionalism in a setting where we work long, flexible hours while keeping up with our understanding of fire weather and behavior. And, keeping up with situational awareness while completing fuel reduction tasks, prescribed burn operations, and direct hotline containment throughout our 2 week assignment. This was complimented by learning a variety of techniques and tools that help in this profession, such as reading a weather kit forecast, mitigating safety risks, reading offline maps, and using our radios to communicate with other resources on the fire. Here I document what led me to choose this internship and what I was able to take from my time at western into the firefighting world. I talk about the good and the bad of wildland fire, as well as the many things I learned while I was out. Lastly, I talk about how this allows me to gain experience in real world scenarios, as well as build connections to people that have worked in the broad field of environmental science, forestry, and pyrogeography
Running on Empty: A Review of Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport
No full textRelative energy deficiency in sport (REDs) is a condition that stems from low energy availability (LEA) in athletes, where their energy intake is insufficient to sustain normal physiological processes in addition to the extra energy expenditure of their sport. Due to LEA’s widespread effects on the human body, REDs can cause problems in various body systems and be challenging to recognize and diagnose. Many athletes, coaches, and healthcare professionals lack fundamental knowledge about the identification, diagnosis, and prevention of REDs, contributing to under-recognition and delayed intervention. As a result, more athletes are affected by REDs and do not receive appropriate, timely support needed for recovery. A literature review was conducted to better understand the topic of REDs, current approaches to diagnosing REDs, and the role of education in reducing its effects. The findings of this review highlight a clear gap in awareness and education surroundings REDs and suggest that increased educational efforts and programs may be beneficial in reducing its prevalence and long-term consequences
The Fabric of Our Future: Love and Justice Through Art
No full textThe three pieces that compose this project explore themes of legal justice, LGBTQ+ liberation, and my experience in a club, Out in Law. This project\u27s intention is to reincorporate art into my concentration—Law, Diversity, and Justice—and create a physical reflection of the work I have completed and the knowledge I have gained throughout my last four years at Western. The first painting is inspired by the theme of justice and represents the many forms through which we can achieve it, specifically in the legal system. The second piece explores intersecting identities, focusing on movements for LGBTQ+ and racial liberation. The third piece is a decorative quilt made with the contributions of seven students at WWU as part of Out in Law, a club centered around creating a community for LGBTQ+ students interested in law. Together, these pieces weave some of my experiences as a pre-law student, amateur artist, and club board member. Creating this art has allowed me to reflect on the themes central to my concentration and imagine a future where the hopes for justice that developed through my education may come to fruition
Autophosphorylation State Influences Casein Kinase 1 Substrate Specificity During DNA Repair
No full textCK1 enzymes are conserved acidophilic serine/threonine kinases involved in DNA repair and damage response pathways, contributing to homologous recombination and non-homologous end joining. CK1 activity is regulated by autophosphorylation in cis at two regions, the C-terminal tail as well as the kinase domain. Schizosaccharomyces pombe CK1 orthologs, Hhp1 and Hhp2, are known to phosphorylate numerous substrates, but the full scope of their target proteins is unknown, especially those substrates important for DNA repair. Additionally, for substrates involved in DNA repair, the impact of autophosphorylation state on kinase activity is unknown. These impacts upon activity towards DNA repair substrates, like actin-related protein 8 (Arp8), can be studied by assessing kinetic parameters like Vmax, Km and kcat. Chapter 1 of this thesis compares two methods for measuring Hhp1 kinetics parameters Vmax and kcat in vitro, the traditional Michaelis-Menten method and an alternative which resulted in overestimations of Vmax and kcat. Chapter 2 characterizes changes in autophosphorylation state of Hhp1 and Hhp2 in vivo in response to different sources of DNA damage. Further, in chapter 3 we identified and validated a novel in vitro substrate of Hhp1 and Hhp2, the mediator of the replication checkpoint (Mrc1), involved in DNA damage and replication pathways