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Focus on criminal justice reform

It was happening again. Another unarmed person of color killed by police. Another grieving city at the breaking point.

As images of George Floyd suffocating beneath the knee of Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin were broadcast globally last spring, Washington State University’s Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology was mobilizing.

Melanie-Angela Neuilly
Neuilly

“We are training the next generation of criminal justice professionals and have a responsibility here,” said department Chair Melanie-Angela Neuilly. “Systemic racial bias, fairness and equity are issues we’ve been mindful of and have been including in our curriculum, but we decided to put them at the forefront of everything we do.”

David Makin.
Makin

“It’s really a re-imagining of how we can incorporate action into the curriculum,” said David Makin, an associate professor and director of undergraduate education for the department. “It was a concerted effort. We looked at peer institutions, we met with students, we created focus groups and we took a baseline that helped us determine where we should go from here.”

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WSU Insider

Opinion: Breaking evangelical resistance to coronavirus vaccines will be hard

By Matthew Avery Sutton, WSU professor of history

Matthew Avery Sutton.
Sutton

Evangelicals make up one quarter of the United States population and they are the Americans least likely to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. Even as the Biden administration works fervently to overcome vaccine hesitancy and some in the evangelical community like Franklin Graham, son of legendary preacher Billy Graham, pledge to help them, they face a daunting task. The hurdle: For many evangelicals, the vaccine, and proof that you have had it, are tools of the Antichrist.

This may all sound absurd. But millions of Americans believe it, making evangelical fears over the vaccine a public health problem. The origins of these ideas, however, have little to do with science but are instead grounded at the intersection of history, theology and politics. Understanding, explaining and challenging these beliefs could be key to saving lives.

In the future, historians probably will write about how evangelicals worrying about the vaccine as the mark of the Antichrist will look as silly as those who once feared credit cards or bar codes do to us today. Indeed, during the past 50 years, evangelicals have always learned to integrate the supposed mark into their lives without diabolical consequences: They use Visa cards and scan bar codes at self-checkout lines.

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The Washington Post

Hatchery conditions linked to lower steelhead trout survival

Alterations in the epigenetic programming of hatchery-raised steelhead trout could account for their reduced fertility, abnormal health and lower survival rates compared to wild fish, according to a new Washington State University study.

The study, published May 18 in Environmental Epigenetics, establishes a link between feeding practices that promote faster growth, as well as other environmental factors in fish hatcheries, and epigenetic changes found in the sperm and red blood cells of of steelhead trout.

Michael Skinner.
Skinner

“Despite being genetically very similar, steelhead trout raised under hatchery conditions don’t have the same level of health and survivability of wild-raised fish,” said Michael Skinner, study co-author and professor in the WSU School of Biological Sciences.  “This research provides a molecular explanation for why we are seeing these differences.”

Skinner is an expert in the field of epigenetics, which is the study of molecular factors and processes around DNA that regulate genome activity independent of the DNA sequence.

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WSU Insider
Phys.org
Jioforme

Making her own way: A legendary Coug family finds a new field

Carly Ellingsen.
Ellingsen

Carly Ellingsen comes from a long line of Cougar blood.

She’s named after her great-grandfather, Carl “Tuffy” Ellingsen, who kicked, ran and threw the Cougars to their second Rose Bowl in 1931.

Her grandfather, Don Ellingsen, another Washington State University Athletics Hall of Fame inductee, still ranks seventh all-time in receptions among other WSU football greats.

The list goes on: uncle Bruce lettered in football; uncle Jim lettered in golf; uncle Rick lettered in wrestling; for uncle Ron it was tennis; and her cousin Taylor lettered in volleyball.

But May marked a rare Cougar first for the Ellingsen family: its first WSU post-bachelor’s degree.

Following eight years at WSU, Carly walked with her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree earlier this month.

Carly ventured to Pullman in 2013 to pursue a bachelor’s degree in zoology, in the School of Biological Sciences, and stayed on the Palouse to attend one of the top veterinary colleges in the nation.

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WSU Insider

Workplace pandemic protocols impact employee behavior outside work

Employer COVID‑19 safety measures influenced worker precautions even when they were not on the clock, according to a new study out of Washington State University.

The same held true for attitudes toward the COVID‑19 prevention measures recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention such as mask wearing and social distancing: employees working for companies with strong COVID‑19 prevention measures were more likely to have positive attitudes toward the CDC guidelines.

Tahira Probst“The workplace COVID‑19 climate had a direct effect on shaping employee attitudes towards the personal, preventative health actions that the CDC recommends,” said Tahira Probst, WSU psychology professor and lead author of the study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. “Public health officials and employers should be aware of the impact that organizations and workplaces can have on stemming the tide of the pandemic. It’s not just that employers have an impact on transmission that occurs within the workplace, but they are also influencing those same employees’ attitudes and behaviors outside of the workplace.”

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WSU Insider
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