Archive: stories

Protein Gone Rogue

EWU biochemists with senior student researcher.

The itpa protein plays a crucial role in several metabolic processes that are essential to human life. Severe defects in ITPA are uncommon, but the results can be devastating. Infants born with a rare ITPA abnormality, for example, face the risk of a lethal neurological condition known as Developmental and Epileptic Encephalopathy 35. Few diagnosed

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Comeback Kids

EWU's 2024 women's soccer team

For most teams, a painful season like EWU’s 2023 soccer campaign would take years to bounce back from. Matches were usually tight, play was always competitive, but poor results spoke for themselves: Just two wins, 14 losses and one draw. After a particularly frustrating, season-ending losing streak that concluded with a dismal 4-0 beatdown at

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EWU: The Region’s Polytechnic

EWU: The Region’s Polytechnic

  We are the region’s polytechnic. It’s a bold phrase that I was honored to pronounce earlier this year, and since then we have seen remarkable enthusiasm for this earnest expression of who we are and why we’re different. Across our state and region, people are excited that Eastern is moving forward with the polytechnic

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Forever Eastern

EWU's Cheney campus in the fall.

Even as EWU moves to embrace a new identity as “the region’s polytechnic,” it’s worth remembering that much of what makes Eastern special will never change. That’s especially true in the fall, when returning students bring the campus back to life, filling the autumn air with their laughter, excitement and eager anticipation for the coming

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Agents of Change

Geneva Prigan ’01, ’17

  By Avery Knochel At the beginning of the 20th century, the United States was riding an extended wave of rapid industrialization and explosive urbanization — developments that, in a sense, created the modern nation we live in today. For millions of average Americans, however, our nation’s rise came at significant costs. Harsh working conditions,

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Machine Learning?

EWU professor Travis Masingale at a photo shoot in Spokane.

Text-based, generative artificial intelligence has emerged as a powerful tool for creating content and exploring ideas across various domains, including education. Travis Masingale ’03, an EWU professor of design, is a nationally prominent authority on AI’s potential for advancing student learning. In a recent conversation with Open-AI’s Chat GPT 4o, he explored the potential benefits

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A Lasting Legacy

Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, EWU Native studies founder.

Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, a professor emeritus of English and Native American studies at EWU, wasn’t just an influential novelist, short-story writer and poet — though her literary legacy speaks for itself — she was also a tireless advocate in support of research and instruction centered on tribal histories and cultures. Among her lasting contributions was a

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Back Story

Student researchers on a boat at the Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge, circa 1980.

On July 30, 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, signed Executive Order 7681 to create the Turnbull Migratory Waterfowl Refuge, a 23,000-acre, federally protected home for migratory birds and other wildlife in the Channeled Scablands near Cheney. Thirty-seven years later, after energetic lobbying by members of Eastern’s biology faculty, what is today known as the Turnbull

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Foundation Annual Report

Foundation Annual Report

View a complete PDF of the 2023-24 EWU Foundation Annual Report.    

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Transformative Impact

Transformative Impact

  The frontier settlement that had recently become Cheney wasn’t yet 5 years old when a committee of concerned citizens convened an urgent meeting at the offices of the town’s first newspaper. The topic? Education, or the lack thereof. If their growing community was to thrive, the attendees agreed, it needed a place for the

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