Hogan Named Divisional Dean for Natural Sciences
For Insights Into Seattle's Mayoral Race, Ask a Student
A Whaling Tradition Explored
A $2.5 Million Chair for Conservation Biology
Philosophy and Sociology Build a Path to the UW
Gregoire's Call to Action
Asian History Cracks the Top Ten
Major Grants Awarded to A&S Programs
On the Web: Journalism and Trauma

Hogan Named Divisional Dean for the Natural Sciences
Craig Hogan, professor of astronomy and physics, has spent his career studying the evolution and structure of the universe. Now he has entered another complex universe: the Arts and Sciences Dean’s Office. Hogan has been named divisional dean for the natural sciences in the College. He most recently served as chair of the Department of Astronomy.

Craig Hogan

Hogan, who joined the UW as an associate professor in 1990, has been involved in cutting-edge research as a member of the High-z Supernova Search Team. The team’s finding that the expansion of the universe is accelerating was described by Science magazine as “the science breakthrough of the year” in 1998. Hogan also is on the international science team for NASA’s Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) project, which will use spacecraft to study gravitational waves.

While his research is complex, Hogan has a knack for bringing his subject—the universe— down to earth. His book about the origins of the universe, The Little Book of the Big Bang, was written for a lay audience and is currently being translated into five languages.

“Craig brings considerable research, teaching, and administrative experience to his new role as divisional dean,” says David Hodge, dean of the College. “It’s a valuable combination. We’re thrilled that he has taken on this vital role.”

For Insights into Seattle’s Mayoral Race, Ask a High School Student
Seattle’s mayoral campaign this year will be closely watched by an unusual group of election analysts: more than 1,000 high school students.

Students in selected government and social studies classes at 15 local high schools will focus intensely on the mayoral campaign this fall. They will examine the issues, question the candidates, and make their choices known in a mock election. It’s all part of a new project that aims to strengthen civic identity and citizenship among young people. The Seattle Student Voices Project is sponsored by the UW’s Center for Communication and Civic Engagement, based in the Department of Communications and co-sponsored with the Department of Political Science.

During the fall semester students will research the mayoral candidates’ positions, explore local civic problems, and share ideas in class and over the project’s Web site.

The center recently received $400,000 to implement the project in Seattle. It is part of the National Student Voices Project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, University of Pennsyl-vania. Funding comes from the Annenberg Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts.

“Young people are increasingly disengaged from politics and elections, even more than other Americans,” says W. Lance Bennett, Seattle project director and UW professor of political science and communications. “We’re trying to change that by engaging students creatively in an actual campaign.”

Bennett notes that less than one-third of 18-to-20 year olds voted in recent presidential elections and fewer than 20 percent voted in off-year congressional elections, according to Census Bureau estimates. In contrast, turnout is consistently above 60 percent for those 65 and older.

Bennett also notes that slightly more than one third of citizens between the ages of 18 and 29 watch the nightly network news, compared to nearly two thirds of those over 50. Younger age groups are also less likely to watch local TV and cable news, and only 17 percent report regular newspaper reading. More than half of all adults over age 50 read the paper regularly.

The Student Voices Project will integrate campaign news coverage with class projects. In addition, by providing a computer and special software in every class, students will have an Internet-based information environment designed to appeal to their preference for the Internet as a communications medium.

Most of Seattle’s public high schools are participating in the project, along with a number of private schools. Participating teachers will receive honoraria, computers for their classrooms, and project assistance from UW faculty and staff.

Students will interact with the candidates in interview and discussion sessions. Shortly before the actual election, students will have their own electoral experience. Voting is planned to take place via the Internet.

The Seattle project is part of a national initiative first tested in Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Baltimore during the 1999-2000 school year. The pilot cities found that participating students were stimulated by personal contacts with candidates and community leaders. Participants showed significant gains in understanding of community, leadership, government, and elections.

A Whaling Tradition Explored
When the Makah people announced their first whale hunt in about 70 years in 1998, response from the public—and the media—was swift and unrelenting. The hunt raised complex questions about culture, society, and environment, most of which remain unanswered.

UW students have an opportunity to revisit those questions through “Makah Nation and the Whale Controversy,” a summer quarter course offered by the Comparative History of Ideas (CHID) Program and the Department of Sociology.

“As the controversy unfolded, I thought, ‘This issue is so complex and so interesting—how can I create a learning experience around it?’” recalls Erich Steinman, a graduate student in sociology, who will teach the class. Steinman secured a Huckabay Teaching Fellowship from the UW Graduate School to develop the course.

“This is not a course about whales or a forum designed to debate whether Makah should be whaling,” Steinman explains. “The Makah decision to renew whaling and the reaction to it are about whales but also about much more than whales. It is the racial and ethnic element that we will explore and examine.”

To place recent events in context, the class will study the history of Indian/white relations during the last century, with an emphasis on American Indian political resurgence. Steinman also will introduce concepts from the field of sociology of race and ethnicity. Guest speakers—including Makah leaders, the director of the National Marine Mammal Laboratory, and representatives of anti-whaling groups—will present varied perspectives on the controversy. Several field trips to the Makah Nation at Neah Bay are also planned.

“Part of my intent in designing this course is to allow students to hear Native voices on this issue,” says Steinman, who spent many hours building connections with Makah leaders. “I believe that you can’t truly understand the Makah perspective until you see it from their corner of the world. By visiting Neah Bay, students will soak up a little bit of the context of their lives and what this has all meant for them.”

Also central to the course are letters to the editor about the whale hunt that have appeared in Northwest newspapers. “The letters are key,” says Steinman. “They reveal the depth and strength of reactions evoked by this issue. Many of the letters present virulent anti-Indian views—more so than one would expect, even given the issue of whales.”

Students will research and write several papers during the quarter and present their findings to the class. Steinman realizes that their exploration will be limited, but he believes their insights will make a difference.

“The topic is so complex, there’s no expectation that we are going to have it figured out,” says Steinman. “But hopefully this course will lead to more nuanced questions as well as some understanding of the social dynamics around the whale controversy.”

A $2.5 Million Chair for Conservation Biology
Gardeners call it “zoo doo” and use it for fertilizer. Some cultures burn it and use it for fuel. But conservation biologists like Samuel Wasser, research associate professor of zoology, use animal scat, or feces, as a research tool to learn more about endangered species.

	Northern spotted owl. Photo © Art Wolfe.

Through recent gifts totalling $2.5 million—including two anonymous $1 million gifts and $500,000 from the Craig and Susan McCaw Foundation—a new chair in conservation biology has been established, with Wasser serving as the first holder of the chair. An additional startup grant of $500,000 was provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the Leonard X. Bosack and Bette M. Kruger Charitable Foundation provided $50,000 in operational support.

Wasser and colleagues have pioneered the use of scat to gain genetic and hormonal information about animals. The information is used to monitor human and other environmental impacts on threatened and endangered species.

“Genetic and hormone techniques provide critical information that can be used to estimate the abundance, distribution, and physiological pressures of wildlife,” says Wasser. “Until recently, the application of these techniques has been limited by the need to acquire DNA and hormones from blood. Now that we have developed a way to acquire the same information from scat, we can gather information from large numbers of animals over broad geographic areas without disturbing the species being investigated.”

Already the researchers have gathered information about the status of grizzly bears in the Canadian Rockies, impacts of logging on Northern spotted owls in Washington, and developed methods to track the origin of poached ivory among African elephants.

One obvious challenge is locating scat in large or remote areas. The grizzly bear study, for example, covers a 5,300 square kilometer region. The solution: specially trained dogs. “Dogs trained in K-9 narcotics detection techniques are used to find scat from multiple species over large, highly remote areas,” says Wasser. “They can detect a scent half a mile away and can simultaneously search for up to 18 species at once.”

Wasser’s non-invasive approach, and the environmental benefits of his work, were what led the McCaw Foundation and other donors to make major gifts to conservation biology. “Craig and Susan McCaw have been supportive of environmental causes worldwide, including returning Keiko the killer whale to Iceland and protecting forests in Ghana,” says Bob Ratliffe, spokesman for the McCaw Foundation. “It’s nice when they can find causes close to home, like this one, that can have a worldwide impact.”

Wasser says the chair in conservation biology will lead to more research and improved genetic and endocrine tools. “Those of us involved in conservation biology are so appreciative of this private support,” says Wasser. “It will make an enormous difference in our work.”

Philosophy and Sociology Build a Path to the UW
It wasn’t that they didn’t care for the University of Washington. They just never thought about the UW.

That was the situation for a group of minority students prior to attending the UW’s Summer Institute in Philosophy and Sociology, offered for the first time this June. The students—soon to enter their junior or senior year in college—were invited to the UW for one week to learn more about the disciplines of philosophy and sociology and to experience the University first-hand.

The program, developed by Paul C. Taylor, assistant professor of philosophy, recruited students nationally with an emphasis on historically black schools. Funding for the program came from seven UW units, including the Departments of Philosophy and Sociology.

“Our goal is to reach students before they are deeply into the process of deciding what they are going to do after college and where they are going to do it,” says Taylor. “It’s good to make them aware of us and of options they may not have considered before their plans get set in stone.” Or, as co-organizer and Sociology Chair Robert Crutchfield puts it, “We want to build a path to our campus from some of these schools, so students will see graduate study at the UW as a possibility.”

While on campus, participants attended two daily seminars led by professors of sociology and philosophy. They discussed the issues and methods that define these two fields, the opportunities and challenges that characterize them as professions, and other aspects of the disciplines. The visitors also explored Seattle, both through field trips and on their own.

How successful was the institute? That will become clearer as the participants begin applying to graduate schools. “A lot of schools have been doing this for a while,” explains Taylor. “We’re catching up.”

Gregoire’s Call to Action
At the Celebration of Distinction on May 11, nearly 400 guests celebrated the accomplishments of Arts and Sciences alumna Christine Gregoire, Washington State Attorney General.

Christine Gregoire with Celebration of Distinction emcee Jean Enerson. Photo by Kim Wise, Cascade West Photography.

“If you had stopped me 32 years ago in the halls of the HUB [UW’s Husky Union Building] and told me that I would one day receive this honor, I never would have believed it,” said Gregoire while accepting the College’s Distinguished Alumnus Award. “I am deeply touched.”

Gregoire then urged guests to take on leadership roles in society. “For me and I suspect many of you, college was a wonderful incubator for leadership,” she said. “But something in the real world saps us. I worry about the level of community engagement I am seeing today. We should resist the urge to let our visions slip away.”

The UW’s Center for Women and Democracy, which shares the goal of encouraging leadership—with an emphasis on women in emergent and self-proclaimed democracies—will receive $25,000 as a result of this event.

Asian History Cracks the Top Ten
The University of Washington’s graduate program in Asian history is among the top 10 in the nation, according to U.S. News and World Report, which ranks graduate programs each year. This is the first time the program has made it onto the top ten list. The rankings are established using such measures as statistical analysis of academic attributes and surveys of deans and senior faculty at accredited schools in each discipline. Other A&S programs that have ranked in the top ten include atomic/molecular physics, clinical psychology, creative writing, drama, geophysics, mathematical statistics, nuclear physics, and speech and hearing sciences.

Major Grants Awarded to A&S Programs
Several new innovative A&S programs have been recognized in recent months with major grant support:

The Center for Astrobiology and Early Evolution has received a $4.9 million grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and membership in its Astrobiology Institute. The grant supports the study of life forms that thrive in extreme Earth environments (to further the understanding of conditions in which life might be found elsewhere in the universe), as well as the frequency of habitable planets and the causes of mass extinction that can end life on any planet. Peter Ward, professor of earth and space sciences, is principal investigator.

The Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences attracted a $5 million grant to develop statistical tools for weather forecasters. The aim is to improve assessment of the uncertainties in a forecast. The team includes faculty from statistics, sociology, atmospheric sciences, psychology, and the Applied Physics Laboratory, with Adrian Raftery, professor of statistics and sociology, as principal investigator. The grant is from the Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative of the Department of Defense.

The Center for Ethnic Conflict and Conflict Resolution will offer a two-year program, Ethnic Conflict in the Modern World, thanks to a $110,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation. The core of the program will be a Sawyer Seminar involving renowned experts, scholars, and professionals. “Mellon usually awards this to a very limited number of private universities, so this is a big coup for us,” says Resat Kasaba, professor of international studies and co-principal investigator with Professor Daniel Chirot.

“These grants are a real indication that our emphasis on interdisciplinary research is producing exciting results,” says David Hodge, dean of Arts and Sciences. “The support will allow our faculty—and students—to tackle complex questions in even greater depth. This is great news.”

On the Web: Journalism and Trauma
When journalists are sent to scenes of violence and tragedy, they serve as professional observers. But they can be profoundly affected, on a personal level, by what they see and hear. The Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, part of the UW School of Communications, serves as a resource for journalists who have experienced trauma as a result of their work. The Center also provides related information for students, educators, journalists, and news organizations.

Among the Dart Center’s offerings is a web site with research and timely comment on journalism and trauma. The site includes an extensive series of articles on implications of the first anniversary of the school shootings at Columbine High School, with first-hand accounts by journalists who were on the scene within moments of the tragic event and commentary by trauma survivors and clinical experts. The site also provides links to articles on post-traumatic stress disorder, guidelines to interviews and photographs at disaster scenes, and recommendations for journalists who experience symptoms of traumatic stress.

For those who do not work in the news media, the site offers an insider’s view of the emotional toll of reporting or photographing certain news stories. You may never view news coverage the same way again.

[Summer 2001 - Table of Contents]