A
360-degree classroom highlights Washington State University’s new academic
innovation hub on campus in Pullman
By David Malone, Associate Editor, University
Buildings, Jan 19, 2018
Photo: The
circle-in-the-round classroom in The Spark. Photo: Benjamin Benschneider
The Spark,
Washington State University’s (WSU) new 83,295-sf high-performance digital
classroom building, provides the campus with a network of flexible,
technology-enabled learning environments. The ZGF Architects-designed facility
includes a variety of classroom types including formal, informal, large group,
small group, individual, active, problem-based, and maker spaces.
The
classroom spaces are flexible and allow for easy transition from a lecture
format to group discussion. Students can reserve a variety of group study rooms
by using iPads mounted outside of the rooms. “Learning lounges” are located on
each level and provide space for meeting and help manage the large numbers of
students congregating outside of classrooms before and after class. A naturally
lit central stair links the interior spaces together and acts as a wayfinding
tool.
The
highlight of the new building, and also the largest classroom in The Spark, is
a circle-in-the-round 360-degree active learning hall. This classroom forgoes
the typical tiered seating lecture hall concept and instead provides students
with 360 degrees of projected content that encircles the faculty.
Large
glass windows are found throughout the building to bring natural light and
transparency to learning and support spaces. A roof deck furthers the
connection to the surrounding natural environment. The Spark is currently on
track to receive LEED Silver certification.
………….
Plowing
through the Palouse
Whitman,
Latah counties responsible for roughly 2,300 miles of roads
By Garrett Cabeza, Moscow Pullman Daily
News
County
employees in Whitman and Latah counties are responsible for plowing roughly
2,300 miles of road - about the distance from Pullman to Buffalo, N.Y.
The
Whitman County and Latah County highway districts are only responsible for
clearing county roads, not state highways and city roads, but that can still be
a major task during major storms or snowy winters.
In Whitman
County alone, crews oversee the plowing of about 1,500 miles of roads, of which
only 430 miles or so are paved, according to Brandon Kruger, Whitman County
maintenance operations manager.
Kruger
said gravel roads in Whitman County are typically plowed when at least 6 inches
of snow piles up on the roadways, but paved roads are a bit of a judgment call.
"Anytime
there's accumulating snow we try and get out there and start plowing,"
Kruger said.
He said
Whitman County plow drivers, who generally do not work at night, are assigned
routes, focusing on clearing major roads and bus routes first.
For
example, Kruger said, one of the highest priority roads in the Pullman area is
Airport Road.
He said as
many as 36 county workers could be operating a snowplow, grader, loader or
sander at a given time.
"We
honestly have more snowplows than we have drivers if you add up all of our
loaders and our spare graters and spare equipment," Kruger said.
Drifting
snow and limited staff are constant challenges. Kruger said some rural roads
will only get plowed once in a day or not at all because so many other roads
need attention.
"Drifting
snow is the biggest challenge that we have because our roads are so rural and
those drifts can build up," Kruger said. "Depending on how hard the
wind's blowing we could plow that road at 9 in the morning and by noon it's
already drifted back as deep as it was if the storm continues."
On the
Latah County side, North Latah County Highway District Clerk Dan Carscallen
said the main challenge is dealing with untimely snowstorms. His crews do their
best to have roads plowed early in the morning before residents drive to work
and school bus drivers begin their routes, but snow does not always fall
overnight.
"It's
so difficult to get everything covered in a timely manner to make sure everyone
gets home safe," he said.
Carscallen
said there have been times in which the snow fell so fast that plowing did not
accomplish much.
"I
mean it snowed 6 inches behind you by the time you started heading back,"
he said. "That's the whole thing is the timing of the storms."
Carscallen
said if drivers start plowing at 2 a.m., they usually finish their routes by
the time people head to work.
"We'd
kind of like to wait until it's done (snowing)," he said. "Otherwise
you're beating your head against the wall as far as trying to make sure
everything is open because it closes up behind you."
Carscallen
said the county usually has about 20 to 22 plow drivers working up to about 600
miles of mostly gravel roads in northern Latah County.
Similar to
Whitman County, Carscallen said, the drivers have assigned routes that focus on
major roads and bus routes first.
Pat
Aherin, South Latah County Highway District road foreman, said his southern
district is responsible for clearing about 200 miles of roads, mostly gravel.
Aherin
said trying to clear the roads in a timely manner was a tough task last year
due to the heavy snowfall.
"Obviously
this winter is totally different," Aherin said. "We do with what we
have and try to do the best and make the best of it."
Aherin
said the district is finally getting caught up in repairing equipment that
broke last winter.
"That's
how far behind we got," he said.
Aherin
said six snowplow drivers are available from the district's Genesee shop and
three from the Kendrick shop, but four of the nine total drivers work
part-time.
"We
just try to serve the public patrons as best we can," Aherin said.
………
Cougs' new
AD talks of taking the next step
WSU
introduces Pat Chun, who will train much of his focus on fundraising
By
Dale Grummert, Lewiston Trib
After
receiving a glowing seven-minute introduction from the school president, Pat
Chun stepped to the lectern and allowed perhaps 20 seconds of near-silence to
pass as, with an apparently practiced hand, he adjusted the two microphones
before him.
Finally,
in a surprisingly gruff voice, he said, "Go Cougs."
"I
apologize - I've got a cold," he added. "You'll have to bear with me
on this."
His
hoarseness merely added to something gritty and resolute in his manner Tuesday
as Chun was introduced as Washington State athletic director in a lavish news
conference and meet-and-greet session in the airy Rankich Club Room of Martin
Stadium.
Wearing a
dark suit and red tie, the 43-year-old administrator read a nine-minute
statement with rapid-fire concision and fielded numerous questions, in group
and one-on-one settings, as he gave reporters, fans, faculty and a few athletes
a glimpse of the can-do qualities that had impressed WSU president Kirk Schulz
and a search committee headed by former Cougar quarterback Jack Thompson.
"When
Pat came into the room and spent an hour and 15, 20 minutes with the search
committee, we were energized," Schulz said in his introduction. "When
Pat got up and left, one member of the search committee said, 'I think we might
be done right there.' And we still had seven great candidates to go."
It's been
known for more than a week that Chun was the Cougars' choice, after a field of
candidates had been pared to eight semifinalists, including seven sitting
athletic directors. Chun was among the seven, having spent the past five-plus
years as AD at Florida Atlantic.
He
traveled to Pullman last week for a news conference that had been scheduled for
Wednesday and abruptly postponed after the shocking news that WSU quarterback
Tyler Hilinski had committed suicide. Chun flew back to Florida on Wednesday,
then returned four days later.
Rather
than avoid that topic, Chun broached it directly at the beginning of his
statement.
"I
did not know Tyler, but I witnessed the enormous impact that he had on his
teammates, this university and all of Cougar Nation," he said. "The
love shown by this tight-knit Washington State community is a great reflection
of, not only the love that Tyler showered on everyone that he touched, but also
the incredible amount of compassion and resolve of this Washington State
family."
Schulz
spoke proudly of the fact that Chun is the first Asian-American to head an
athletic department of a Power Five Conference school. Chun later filled in
some of the details, saying his parents emigrated from South Korea before he
was born and settled in northeastern Ohio.
"My
parents arrived in America nearly 50 years ago, armed with a belief in the
American dream," he said. "They believed access to this dream was
through hard education and hard work, and those values were never far from my
mind, and stay with me today."
He said
his mother works in a grocery store and his father, now in his 70s, has long
taught taekwondo. "In full disclosure, I have a black belt," Chun
said, "although the belt line's gotten a little bigger as the years have
gone on."
Schulz
said Chun has agreed to a five-year contract worth $650,000 a year, which is
apparently $150,000 beyond what predecessor Bill Moos was making before he left
for the AD job at Nebraska in October. But while Moos' contract was rife with
bonus possibilities, Schulz wanted a simple agreement with Chun.
"There's
only one incentive, really, in the contract, and that's surrounding
fundraising," the president said. "He and I will agree on a
fundraising target and how that's going to look, and we'll put it out - this
won't be a secret. And he can earn another $25,000 a year based on achieving
that fundraising success."
Chun will
also receive an extra retroactive $25,000 a year if he remains at the school
for five years.
The
fundraising incentive reflects Schulz's present priorities for the athletic
department, which has finished more than $10 million in debt for four straight
years. Chun's success in raising money, first as an assistant athletic director
at Ohio State and then as AD at Florida Atlantic, was a big reason he landed
the WSU job.
"I
still think we have great coaches, great student-athletes, terrific facilities,
lots of faculty and staff report," Schulz said. "The financial part
is where we need most of our effort, and Pat brings that to the table, and
that's what we want to incentivize."
Cougars
football coach Mike Leach, an attendee of the news conference, said he spoke to
Chun and a couple of other candidates on the phone during the search process,
then met Chun in person after the hire. He said he was pleased by the school's
choice, and he too spoke of an athletic department that's already built a
strong foundation.
"We
still have work to do, but we're well on our way," Leach said. "And
he (Chun) just seemed like a real dynamic guy that could continue the course."
Chun has
few ties to the West, though he noted that his father now lives in San Diego
and Chun's wife, Natalie, who attended the news conference with their three
daughters, is originally from Phoenix.
The
Cougars, in any case, were trying to make him feel at home. Outside the club
room, which is one of the jewels of the Martin Stadium renovation of 2012, the
stadium video board bore a giant image of new AD.
"This
place is incredible," Chun said. "We're in great shape. So it's my
job to make sure that this next chapter of our athletic program's history is
the greatest one ever written."
//////////////////
John
Blanchette: Pat Chun’s hire all about closing fund-raising gap
UPDATED:
Tue., Jan. 23, 2018, 10:26 p.m.
By John
Blanchette Spokane S-R
PULLMAN –
He didn’t miss a “thank you” or a tip of the hat. The tie was crimson. There
was the obligatory shot across the bow of the Huskies. But no vise-grip
handshakes, because Pat Chun was nursing a cold.
But this
was a fist-bump kind of day, anyway.
Washington
State has a new athletic director, introduced on Tuesday with the usual fanfare
but hyped even before he was offered and accepted the job. WSU president Kirk
Schulz had insisted more than a month ago that the Cougar constituency would
let out a “Wow!” upon hearing of the choice – which has happened exactly never
in the history of anyone’s AD hires.
Pat Chun
is an impressive enough guy, with a fine résumé and 5-star endorsements. But
he’s also a suit from another school, and the wows will be held in abeyance for
a couple of years until it can be seen what he does at his new one.
Until he
finds more ways to pay for some of the wow Wazzu has purchased on credit.
This was
no subtext at the introductory press conference. Chun’s mandate is to raise
WSU’s athletic treasure, and the transparency of the message contributed to an
odd aura on Tuesday, rosy expectation mingling with lingering regret.
As workers
readied the room for Chun’s entrance, kitty-corner across the Martin Stadium
complex, two women removed the last flowers from the makeshift memorial to
Tyler Hilinski, the young quarterback whose suicide rocked the Cougar community
last week. Chun’s hiring was hailed on the Martin scoreboard; across the
street, the Beasley Coliseum reader board continued to flash “RIP 3.” And Chun
took proper care to make his first remarks a tribute to how the school and its
many supporters grieved Hilinski’s memory, and rallied for each other with
remarkable spirit.
But the
bills keep coming all the while – especially in college athletics, which cannot
find a governor for its impulse shopping. And so the subject of the day was
fundraising.
It’s not a
new development. When Bill Moos rode into the AD’s chair on his utter Cougness
eight years ago, he quipped: “If you like the sermon, show it when the
collection plate is passed around.”
Chun’s
approach is likely to give off more missionary zeal.
This was
driven home when Schulz revealed the simple parameters of Chun’s contract:
$650,000 a year, a $125,000 retention bonus if he stays five and a lone
incentive – $25,000 for meeting a mutually agreed upon fund-raising target.
Symbolic
as much as anything else.
“We didn’t
want to go with a financial incentive for graduation rate or ticket sales or
things like that,” Schulz reasoned. “I worked with an AD for many years who
told me, ‘Kirk, that’s my job. You don’t go to the provost and say if you
graduate a certain number of students, you get more.’ There shouldn’t be an
incentive for doing what part of your normal job is.
“The only
reason we did it for fund-raising is we feel we have to put an extra emphasis
on raising those private dollars.”
And
everyone knows why.
The
athletic department has run up operating deficits totaling $60 million over
seven years, with likely three more years’ worth coming – by building the
facilities Chun marveled at Tuesday, and ramping up amenities and coaching
salaries. Schulz obviously doesn’t plan on spending less – hence his rewrite of
football coach Mike Leach’s contract – and anticipated Pac-12 Networks revenue
has been a comparative trickle. That leaves fundraising.
“Having a
deficit, if you look across the country, is consistent in college athletics,”
said Chun, not cavalierly but not exactly vexed, either. “But I understand
there’s a fiscal responsibility to the state of Washington and the
institution.”
Earlier,
he’d lauded his new school as having “one of the most loyal and passionate
alumni bases in the country,” leaving out the part where Wazzu collects roughly
$1,400 less per donor than even Oregon State. But then, you don’t win the press
conference shoveling dirt on your demographic.
“All of
the candidates for the job raised lots of money where they were,” Schulz said,
“but at Florida Atlantic, a young university, Pat did several gifts that are
far larger than anything we’ve done here for athletics. I felt if somebody
could operate and be that successful in an environment that didn’t have the
same alumni base we do, what could he do with a wealthier, larger set of Cougs
out there who really need to buy into our program?
“Pat is
not going to be able to turn this around in 12 months. It’s going to take us a
couple years to get us back to where we need to go.”
That could
be a “Wow!” moment.
It might
even get Pat Chun a salary bump, because that’s what college athletics does
when it raises more money: finds a way to spend it.
///////////////////////
Piecing
together who coaches where on defense
Three new
coaches on D, and how it all might fit together
By Barry
Bolton – Cougfan.com
HOW’S THIS
FOR CHANGE on the defensive side of the ball: Washington State the last three
seasons had one person coordinating the defense while also coaching the
safeties and cornerbacks. In 2018, those same three tasks will be spread among
three Cougar coaches.
WSU hasn’t
completely detailed what the 2018 coaching responsibilities will be on defense
but after looking at the coaching backgrounds and talking to people in and
around the program, we can make some educated guesses.
First, to
recap, two defensive coaches and one offensive coach have departed in recent
weeks. DC Alex Grinch, who also coached
the DBs during his three years in Pullman, left for Ohio State and Roy Manning
(OLBs, Nickels) moved on to UCLA. On
offense, running backs coach Jim Mastro left for Oregon. Also, the NCAA allows for a new 10th
assistant coach in 2018, whom Mike Leach is employing on defense.
Our best
guess on the defensive position coaching responsibilities in 2018, with the
three new assistant coaches listed first:
+Tracy
Claeys: DC/RUSH linebackers
+Kendrick
Shaver: Safeties/Nickels
+Darcel
McBath: Cornerbacks
+Jeff
Phelps: Defensive line
+Ken
Wilson: Inside linebackers
Claeys
said in his introductory press conference this past Tuesday he “probably” would
also coach a position group. He has experience in his career coaching
linebackers, safeties and the defensive line.
The seemingly most logical fit, with the OLBs unaccounted for, would be
for Claeys to also coach the RUSH position.
WSU named
Shaver as the safeties coach in its release this weekend, but the release
didn’t mention the nickels. So it’s
possible Claeys could still take the nickels too. But it seems unlikely the new DC would be
tasked with both those positions in addition to his role as d-coordinator,
while two assistants split only the safeties and corners.
WSU in its
earlier release announcing McBath said he would work with the defensive backs
so with Shaver announced as the safeties coach, barring something unexpected,
it would appear McBath's position group will be the cornerbacks.
Could RUSH
or nickel be folded in with the inside linebackers and Wilson ... or could RUSH
be added to the d-line (Phelps) responsibilities? Sure, though on paper Claeys coaching that
position group might be a better fit overall.
Meanwhile,
on offense, WSU now needs a new running backs coach. Unless, of course, Leach feels like moving an
existing coach to running backs, and then the new hire takes over that coach's
old position.
On the
surface, that might seem less likely than Leach simply hiring a running backs
coach to replace Mastro. That said, at
this stage of the offseason, it's possible the coming hire could go the way
recruiting sometimes goes as the end of the cycle draws near.
Sometimes
you take the best guy on your board, regardless of position.
………………….
Police
statement offers more details on Tyler Hilinski
Rifle
belonged to former teammate, taken without his knowledge, says PPD statement
COUGFANcom
THE
PULLMAN POLICE DEPARTMENT released a statement one week after Washington
State’s Tyler Hilinski took his own life, saying the weapon Hilinski used was a
.223 caliber rifle belonging to a former football teammate.
“It
appears Hilinski took the rifle without the teammate’s knowledge, on or before
Friday, January 12,” said the Pullman PPD statement.
Hilinski
was last seen the morning of January 16 when he dropped off a friend for class,
say police. Mike Leach on Saturday said
Hilinski had enthusiastically attended the team’s morning run and had been texting
teammates that morning to set up a throwing session.
CF.C
earlier reported Hilinski sent a cryptic text to his older brother Kelly on
Tuesday, worrying enough that Kelly contacted some of his Tyler's teammates who
went to try and find him. After a lengthy search, Hilinski's car was eventually
found by two teammates at the old apartment he hadn't completely moved out of
yet. The two were concerned enough they
kicked the door down, and found Hilinski. The police statement says they
discovered Hilinski just as Pullman police officers arrived on scene.
Hilinski
was found with a note and the rifle. “State law restricts the release of
suicide note details to family members. The investigation did not reveal any
particular motive for suicide. The investigation will remain open pending
toxicology results from the State crime lab,” the police statement reads.
#
