News

In his first state visit to the United States, Chinese President Xi Jinping stopped in Tacoma on Wednesday, Sept. 23, to exchange gifts and speak with students at Lincoln High School. This is President Xi’s second visit to the city of Tacoma; his first was in 1993, when he was a local government official in Fuzhou, Tacoma’s sister city. President Xi’s decision to visit Washington State before traveling to Washington D.C. and New York to meet with President Obama and the United Nations, respectively, highlights the significance of Washington State’s...

In my three years working for The Trail, I have had the privilege of watching this newspaper in its struggle to grow into a platform for critical change and conversations. I acknowledge that The Trail has struggled with misrepresentation in past issues and plan to implement a variety of solutions to this problem. With the creation of the managing content editor position, consultation of a professional adviser, thorough copy editing and fact checking, we hope to eliminate incidents of misrepresentation in future articles. Looking forward, I encourage the community to...

The Center for Intercultural and Civic Engagement, pictured here, is seeking to hire a new Director of Intercultural Engagement.   In the coming year, the University will not only be looking for a new President, but also a new Director for Intercultural Engagement. Czarina Ramsay, the now former Director for Intercultural Engagement, has left her position at the University. The school posted a position description and vacancy announcement on the website Higher Ed Jobs along with other outlets on Sept. 22. The last official day of Ramsay’s service as the...

Whether it’s The Big Siblings Program, Habitat for Humanity, Food Salvage or tutoring, the University of Puget Sound’s Center for Intercultural and Civic Engagement (CICE) provides many options to volunteer in our Tacoma community. The Pathways Program aims to provide direction with all of these opportunities, as well as in-depth personal advising and programming to help students develop their own unique niche within the world of Civic Engagement and social justice. Skylar Bihl, coordinator of the CICE, and student Mark Gilbert developed the program after the two attended a conference in Washington DC, along with several other students on staff at the...

University of Puget Sound announced their partnership this week with the Posse foundation, a national organization dedicated to providing full-ride scholarships  to students from diverse backgrounds with excellent academic and leadership potential. The foundation has partnered with over 52 colleges and universities that partner with a specific geographical area to recruit students involved with the Posse foundation with the offer of a full-tuition scholarship. University of Puget Sound is set to recruit from the Bay Area of San Francisco. The University will commit to providing full-tuition scholarships to 10 students...

Does the ASUPS Vice President just hire their friends to executive staff positions? Year after year, the perception is that ASUPS elections are popularity contests, and that the ASUPS VP, who makes the hiring decisions in consultation with the President, hires from their friend group. “It always comes into question when execs hire individuals they’ve had pre-existing relationshps with. No matter how strenuous the application process is, there’s never information released about why those individuals where hired or what qualifications they have,” Senate Chair Kaitlyn Vallance said. ASUPS President Nakisha...

This past Tuesday there was an informal ASUPS senate meeting that discussed the state of elections and whether ASUPS was within its authority to call for them. At the previous formal meeting on April 23, Ryan Del Rosario had raised concerns about whether the senate overstepped in some of the elections decisions they had made. In the statement they gave to the members of ASUPS and also posted on social media, Rosario said “even if we ignore the mishandlings of the elections from fall semester, I do not understand why...

On Sunday, May 17, University of Puget Sound will recognize three individuals for their lifelong contributions to their local, regional or global community at the Class of 2015 graduation ceremony. These honorary degrees will be awarded to Washington Supreme Court Justice Steven C. González, who has geared his career towards providing equal access to the justice system; Carrie Hessler-Radelet, Peace Corps director and public health leader; and Theresa Pan Hosley, who has served the Tacoma community as a leader in building intercultural understanding and reconciliation for more than 20 years....

The ECO club at University of Puget Sound is raising questions concerning the private companies in which the school is investing. They are concerned that part of the Endowment fund is being invested in energy companies that are not sustainable. “We cannot get the information about what specific companies it is. We basically want to get the Board of Trustees to direct the firm that manages our money to not invest in coal or any other extreme energy sources,” club member Luke Janssen said. Students involved in the ECO club...

The student body will be re-voting for both Senators-at-Large that were elected in this year’s spring 2015 cycle. On April 10, the Honor Court found that Kyle Chong had violated the sanctions levied against him by the Elections Committee but should not have been disqualified from the ASUPS Spring 2015 Elections. Initial charges of corruption were brought up against former senator Kyle Chong in February by Greg Reeser. While he was not found completely guilty by the ASUPS Senate Elections Committee, the committee had Chong’s name taken off the general...

Over Parents’ Weekend, the Lu’au wowed the students and their families with fascinating dance, food and traditions from the Hawai’ian culture. Meanwhile, as we were captivated watching hula dancers onstage, the land from which many of the dances  originated was facing deep turmoil.  Currently on the island of Hawai’i, colloquially  known as the ‘Big Island’ scientists are building a 30-meter telescope projected to be one of the world’s most powerful. What could be wrong about such significant scientific progress, you might ask?  This $1.4 billion telescope has been fueling much...