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We the People: Is it time to rewrite the U.S. Constitution?

Each week, The Spokesman-Review examines one question from the Naturalization Test immigrants must pass to become United States citizens.

Today’s question: What is the supreme law of the land?

Since 1789 when it took effect, the U.S. Constitution has been the supreme law of the land, setting up a republic with powers and responsibilities divided among three branches of government.

The Constitution – drafted, debated and adopted at a convention of 55 men from the original 13 states – includes Article V, the rules on how to make changes to the original plan. It was something the Founding Fathers quickly realized would be necessary just to get the Constitution ratified.

Ten amendments guaranteeing certain individual freedoms, now known as the Bill of Rights, were passed by Congress and sent to the states in the first two years of the republic.

Cornell Clayton.
Clayton

Calls for a constitutional amendment convention are not new, said Cornell Clayton, director of the Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service at Washington State University. During the Progressive Era at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th, supporters of such reforms as women’s suffrage and direct election of U.S. senators were pushing for a convention until Congress acted to pass those amendments through the other method.

In response to President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and the expansion of the federal government, some conservatives began talking about a convention for amendments to rein in that growth, Clayton said.

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The Spokesman-Review

WSU Everett celebrates 10 years of STEM education in North Puget Sound

In 2012, 24 mechanical engineering students began their studies at Washington State University on the Everett Community College Campus. This year, Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture celebrates 10 years of STEM education in the North Puget Sound region. Voiland College students, faculty, staff, and alumni from WSU Everett are making a difference from coast to coast.

Now, a decade since Voiland College made its debut at WSU Everett, the campus offers 10 bachelor’s degree programs through WSU’s College of Arts and Sciences, CAHNRS, Carson College of Business, and the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication. They also operate in a 95,000-square-foot building filled with the state-of-the-art equipment students need to prepare for the workforce. “We are proud to make higher education accessible to students who need to be closer to home, work opportunities, and family,” said Chancellor Paul Pitre. “Our commitment to creating new programs and connecting students with rewarding careers has never been stronger.”

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WSU Insider

 

New X‑ray beamline instrument brings unique capabilities to WSU

An X‑ray beamline with a first-of-its-kind imaging source is being installed at Washington State University’s Dodgen Research Facility. The instrument, valued at over $1 million, will allow researchers to study a range of materials at nano- and atomic-scales. It’s also perhaps the only X‑ray beamline in the world to be housed in the same facility as a research nuclear reactor, facilitating the study of irradiated materials.

The 20-foot-long instrument sends a beam of light that can penetrate through a sample which then scatters the beam onto a detector. This allows scientists to see the material’s nanostructures and atomic features. WSU’s X‑ray beamline can analyze a wide array of organic and inorganic materials from plant leaves to irradiated heavy elements to nanoparticles used in smart medicine.

Liane Moreau.
Moreau

“It’s a very versatile instrument,” said Liane Moreau, a WSU assistant professor of chemistry. “It has some pretty unique capabilities. It’s the only one currently in the United States that has an imaging source. That allows us to take images and get data from a specific spot on a sample and correlate it to different spots and structures the sample might have.”

Unlike a high-powered microscope which requires dried samples, the X‑ray beamline can measure liquids and material dissolved in a solution. Researchers can also modify the environment, including changing temperature or humidity, or introducing a gas, and see how the material responds in real-time.

The machine can collect data on atomic and nanoscale structures of interest to a wide range of fields including biology, chemistry, engineering, medicine, and pharmaceutical sciences. The researchers encouraged other WSU faculty to explore how this instrument might help with their investigations.

Brian Collins.
Collins

“We are very open to working with people in different disciplines,” said Brian Collins, an associate professor of physics. “We have a team of faculty who are well versed in X‑ray techniques. We’ve worked with materials from the lightest down to the heaviest elements.”

James Boncella.
Boncella

Moreau, Collins, and chemistry Professor Jim Boncella helped secure the funding to bring the beamline to WSU, raising $850,000 from funds granted through the M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust and university support. Xenocs, the company that makes the machine, also gave WSU a discount and provided the unique imaging source, valued at over $110,000, for free, in return for helping test its capabilities.

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WSU Insider
Mirage News

Future student-exchange to Germany explores resilient, high-yielding crops

Students from Washington State University will travel to Germany next summer for a new research exchange program exploring complex plant traits underlying resilience and yield.

Funded by a $300,000 award from the National Science Foundation’s International Research Experiences for Students (IRES) initiative, the 10-week program expands WSU’s partnership with Germany’s CEPLAS — the Cluster of Excellence on Plant Sciences, which integrates the resources of the Universities of Cologne and Düsseldorf, the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research, and the Forschungszentrum Jülich research institute.

Mechthild Tegeder.
Tegeder

“Bridging the U.S. with Germany, this new program offers students an unmatched opportunity to learn how crop research advances happen through international cooperation,” added Mechthild Tegeder, co-lead and professor in WSU’s School of Biological Sciences. “The new perspectives our students will gain from this program will be critical to their future success in the increasingly global world of plant science.”

Knowledge gained by this fundamental research could pave the way for new crop plants that are more productive and robust against environmental challenges, leading to sustainable, efficient cultivation of crops for food, fodder, and energy.

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WSU Insider

 

Should Sec. of State, the ‘junk drawer’ of state government, be nonpartisan?

Washington’s secretary of state is an interesting job.

In a lot of ways, it’s pretty administrative. They supervise the state archives. They coordinate implementation of the state’s records management laws. But what they’ve become most well known for is supervising and certifying state and local elections.

Some say, to do that job properly, the position should be nonpartisan.

Cornell Clayton.
Clayton

Cornell Clayton is the director of the Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service at Washington State University, where he also serves as the C.O. Johnson Distinguished Professor of Political Science. He says there’s a history to the position’s partisan nature.

“It is a result of the fact that our constitution was created during the progressive era and the populist era — in the 1880s, 1890s,” Clayton said. “And many of the states that created their constitutions at that time were impacted by the desire to have more direct democracy. And so almost all of their executive branch officials, and many of their judicial branch officials are directly elected, and that includes the secretary of state in Washington.”

In other words, it was created to be a partisan system. Government officials wanted to weed out corruption in the system. Creating positions that were accountable to voters seemed like the way to do that. During less tumultuous times, Clayton says the system works.

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