Skip to main content Skip to navigation
CAS in the Media Arts and Sciences Media Headlines

WSU’s online bachelor’s degree program earns high ranking

Washington State University has again ranked highly in a list of the best online bachelor’s degree programs in the country. In U.S. News & World Report’s ranking, WSU came in 15th among all bachelor’s programs in the U.S. Last year, it ranked 34th.

Four of the six most popular majors for WSU online students are in the College of Arts and Sciences: social sciences, psychology, criminal justice, and political science. Last fall, more than 2,000 undergraduate students, and nearly 1,000 graduate students, were enrolled.

The university plans to add three online degrees this summer, including a bachelor of science degree in data analytics with specializations offered through CAS.

Find out more

Seattle Times

Moscow-Pullman Daily News

WSU News

WSU Professor Hikes Mountains with Cello to Play Music in Nature

Ruth Boden
Boden

WSU associate professor Ruth Boden from the School of Music has been hiking up mountain trails with a full-size cello on her back and playing music to the sky. This has given Boden some unique perspectives on the nature of music and life.

As part of her research project “Music Outside Four Walls,” Boden, who teaches cello, bass, chamber music, and music theory at WSU, has carried her 12-pound instrument to Northwestern mountaintops, along the Appalachian Trail, and deep inside other spaces.

She will present a public concert and talk about her research on Thursday, January 19th, at 8:00 p.m. at the Kimbrough Concert Hall.

Through Music Outside Four Walls, Boden aims to create “transformative experiences in music that transcend the commonplace,” she said. To that end, she has hiked with her cello more than 400 miles during the past three years and sent at least 100 hours of music into forests, meadows, mountains, rivers and clouds.Ruth Boden backpacks with her cello across the historic Potomac River railroad bridge on the Appalachian Trail in Harpers Ferry, WV. Photo credit: Dean Luethi

Find out more

The Daily Fly
WSU News

The Changing English Major

Amid enrollment declines, speakers at Modern Language Association discuss shifts in the major, such as a de-emphasis of traditional survey and the addition of more writing-related courses.

Leeann Hunter
Hunter

In a panel on writing within the English major at the MLA convention on Saturday, Leeann Hunter, a clinical assistant professor and assistant director of undergraduate studies in the English department at WSU, presented on the Passport Program, a new set of related courses she developed to get students to think beyond the classroom and university. She began her presentation by observing that “one of the greatest barriers to recruiting for the English major has been the perceived lack of professional opportunities.”

The one-credit, pass-fail seminar designed by Hunter — of which there are a couple iterations — is structured as a series of workshops. One key assignment is a “finding your why” activity in which students identify six “foundational memories,” choose three to use (to) develop into pieces of creative writing and, with the help of a partner and Hunter, the professor, identify patterns, such as common beliefs or values, across the various pieces. A version of the course tailored for seniors focuses on things like résumés, cover letters, social media profiles and digital portfolios, and includes performance-art activities aimed at helping students develop confidence and presence. Hunter brings other faculty from the English department to help with various class sessions. She said 20 faculty members participated in the course last fall. » More …

WSUV teacher creates cyberspace memorial for gun violence victims

Approximately 190 miles separate the campuses of Washington State University Vancouver and Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore. But that distance seemed to disappear when 10 people were gunned down in a mass shooting at Umpqua Community College on Oct. 1, 2015.

John Barber
Barber

“It’s not safe to be anywhere,” John Barber realized. “What if a similar thing happened here?”

Barber, a digital-media artist who teaches in the Creative Media and Digital Culture Department at WSUV, wanted to find some meaningful way to memorialize the victims of that tragedy — and all the victims of intentional, homicidal gun violence in America. » More …

How an AG Jeff Sessions could change the conversation on criminal justice

Cornell Clayton
Clayton

As Sen. Jeff Sessions’s confirmation hearings for Attorney General draw closer, critics worry that his nomination could slow the momentum of police reform measures, disrupt a growing bipartisan effort to roll back the war on drugs, and further polarize a divided America.

Sessions’s nomination has drawn some comparisons to the similarly controversial appointment of Edwin Meese as attorney general under Ronald Reagan. But Sessions may take a less overt approach to reform than Mr. Meese, who aggressively pushed a clear policy agenda during his time as attorney general, says Cornell William Clayton, director of the Thomas S. Foley Institute of Public Policy and Public Service at Washington State University.

“My guess is what you’ll see is him simply use the softer power of the executive branch, prosecutorial discretion, to send important signals to local law enforcement agencies and state and local governments,” Dr. Clayton tells the Monitor in a phone interview. “That’s where you’re most likely to see the shift in federal law enforcement policy. There’s not going to be a sweeping reform bill. What you’ll see is an under the radar shift in enforcement policy and funding priorities.”

“That’s very real and very important, but it’s not high-profile like a crime reform bill would be,” he adds. “So it doesn’t provide the same lever for counter-mobilization.”

Find out more

Christian Science Monitor