Diversions Café is starting a new sustainability program called Grizz Groundz. The program will include packaging used coffee grounds and giving them back to the campus community; neighbors, students, faculty and staff will be free to take home the used grounds. Community members can use these coffee grounds in their gardens, as coffee can be reused for many types of soil enhancement; this serves the dual purpose of reducing the campus’ carbon footprint as well. The community can pick up Grizz Grounds outside the Diversions Café/Wheelock Student Center entrance. “Instead...

Puget Sound seniors Kelsey Crutchfield-Peters and Haley Andres have been awarded the prestigious $28,000 Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. They were two of 43 winners chosen from over 700 student candidates worldwide and the only ones from the Pacific Northwest. Watson scholars are given the opportunity to pursue a research project in four countries for a year. Haley Andres, a double major in painting and psychology, will be researching the use of art therapy in helping victims of trauma through their recovery. Her project is titled, “Art, Trauma, and Creative Healing:...

Relay for Life has been involved in a lot of fundraising this year to prepare for their annual event on Saturday, May 3 from 4 p.m.—10 a.m. Students and families can participate individually or in teams. Some teams camp out overnight on the field and each one is asked to have at least one participant on the track at all times doing laps. The event honors cancer victims and survivors while raising money for cancer research. According to the Relay for Life website, over “14 million cancer survivors” will celebrate...

Actress and spoken word poet, Yazmin Monét Watkins stepped onto the stage at Puget Sound’s Take Back the Night, fearlessly declaring, “This is what a feminist looks like.” She is a queer woman of color (QWOC) who has had personal experiences with sexual violence. Watkins has no timidity approaching social justice issues through unorthodox methods. When Watkins was a student at Dickinson College, she was part of a group called the Silent Poets. “We would spit out poems to the faculty, saying to them, listen to us, these are our...

Recently there has been a change in Puget Sound’s $130 tuition insurance policy. Originally, students had the option whether or not they wanted to pay the tuition insurance. Now, because it is automatically included, they are required to deselect the insurance if they cannot pay it. Puget Sound offers tuition insurance through A.G.W. Dewar. According to the Puget Sound website, “This plan protects your educational investment by reimbursing 100% of paid tuition and fees if you are forced to withdraw due to serious personal illness or accident.” “Back in the...

Ukraine’s critical situation and Russia’s recent annexation of Crimea has no doubt been a focal point of discussion in International Relations and Politics & Government classes at Puget Sound. Since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine has struggled politically and economically as a country and culturally over its differences between its eastern and western halves. Protests began December in Kiev after Ukraine’s President Yanukovych dropped trade union plans with the European Union (EU) after pressure from Russia. After a three-month crackdown of violent protests, President Yanukovych was...

In five months, PAC Rim students will be off on a nine month, life changing experience across Asia after two years of preparation. This program, unique to the University of Puget Sound, offers students the opportunity to explore multiple Asian countries. Starting at the end of August, these students, accompanied by faculty, will travel to South Korea, Mongolia, China, Japan, India, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and Taiwan. During their time abroad, each student will conduct an independent research project in a chosen country. Afterward the students will present their projects...

Stephanie Anne Johnson, who starred on NBC’s “The Voice” last year, performed at Puget Sound on Wednesday, Feb. 12 to a small, intimate crowd. Her free concert was part of a series of cultural events to celebrate Black History Month. She was a season finalist last year on “The Voice,” bringing to the show her powerful voice in jazz, folk, soul, rock and blues. Before “The Voice,” she was a professional singer performing on cruise ships. When asked about the blind auditions with the judges, Johnson said, “It’s a lot...