News

The Henry Luce Foundation awarded a $50,000 grant to fund a new pilot project that will send Environmental Studies students to Southeast Asia. The project entails a three-week study trip to Indonesia, is slated for the summer of 2014 and will create the model for more trips in the coming years.  The first trip will ferry 10 students and two professors to various Indonesian locales. The trips will include research, service work and cultural immersion. The program is underpinned with a focus on the environment. “Puget Sound has developed strong...

An attempted robbery of a student occurred off-campus around 2 a.m. Friday, April 12. The student reported the incident to Security Services soon afterward, and Director of Security Services Todd Badham sent a security alert to the campus community later that morning. The incident occurred near North 9th and Pine Street, as students walked back to campus from Engine House No. 9 Brewery.  One student felt a tug on her purse and turned to find a man with a gun demanding the purse. This student and one other struggled with...

One month after the original surprise surrounding the split-ticket results of elections for ASUPS President and Vice President, Eric Hopfenbeck and Santiago Rodriguez were sworn into their positions on Tuesday, April 16.  Originally campaigning with separate running mates, (Krista Haapanen and Scott Miller, respectively), Hopfenbeck and Rodriguez will serve as ASUPS President and Vice President for the 2013-2014 academic year. In the past month, Hopfenbeck and Rodriguez have been working together to plan for the year ahead.  An immediate hurdle in their duties was merging the ideas of both campaign...

The Bias-Hate Education Response Team (BHERT)—a subcommittee of the Faculty Diversity Committee that was formed to respond to incidents of bias and hate on campus—has received suggestions from multiple students that the committee publish a report of their findings in The Trail. Former ASUPS Senate member Sadie Boyers recently told The Trail that she felt BHERT’s findings should be made more public so that BHERT can truly promote awareness and discussions on bias and hate. Other members of the ASUPS Senate and student leaders in the Division of Student Affairs...

    A Seattle-based research firm has concluded that Pierce County had the highest amount of pollution out of the 12 Washington counties surveyed. This score, on the “Sound Behavior Index” scale, resulted in the country being the lowest in terms of environmental friendliness and highest in impact to the surrounding ecology. It has already been established that the Puget Sound population contributed to severe damage of the ocean and the surrounding area. This study, which pinpoints the impact from region to region, showed San Juan county as having the...

Psychologist, professor, author and host of the PBS series Discovering Psychology Philip Zimbardo was selected as the commencement speaker for the 2013 graduation ceremony. President Ron Thomas will also confer upon Zimbardo an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. Zimbardo is a professor emeritus at Stanford University, and conducted the well known Stanford Prison Study in 1971. He taught previously at Yale, New York University and Columbia University. He continues to work with doctoral students at Palo Alto University. “Dr. Zimbardo has had a profound influence on our understanding of...

Club Rendezvous in Wheelock Student Center was recently renovated to make the space more usable, multipurpose and inviting. “The project included the demolition of the carpeted and glass walls, patch and repair of damaged walls, new stage carpet, added lighting and painting throughout,” Chris Brookins, the Project Manager of the Rendezvous renovation, said. There have also been more surface-level improvements in Rendezvous, which serve a cosmetic as well as a functional end. Sarah Comstock, the Assistant Director of Student Activities for Wheelock Student Center, stated simply: “We got rid of...