Moscow Education (Idaho)

Update: one of my readers pointed out that the seal is from Kansas State University. Someone down in Boise clearly Photoshopped a KSU picture.

Posted on Venom2020.

Apparently forwarded from someone at BSU …

As reported in today’s edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

The Board of Adjustment approved New Saint Andrews College’s conditional use permit. The permit requires the college to cap enrollment at 200 students, maintain publicly accessible uses for much of its first floor and provide 42 off-site parking spaces. The permit will run as long as NSA owns the property and uses it as an educational institution.

From the Northwest Professional Educators:

Cindy Omlin, Executive Director of Northwest Professional Educators, will be on the Glenn Beck Show on CNN Headline News this afternoon at 4:00 and 6:00 Pacific Time talking about Washington state's loss of a $13.2 million math and science education grant due to the intransigence of the Washington Education Association.  Because the grant called for direct payment of performance bonuses to teachers, the union said this violated Washington's collective bargaining laws and would not allow the money into the state.

For related information see, "WA high schools lose $13 million grant for AP teachers" at http://www.theolympian.com/breakingnews/story/440831.html and "Union Response to Grant Inhibits Its Success" at http://www.spokesmanreview.com/tools/story_pf.asp?ID=244569.

NWPE's letter to the editor in the Spokesman Review follows.

Time to Shake Up the WEA

The blame for our state losing out on the $13.2 million math and science grant is rightly laid at the feet of the Washington Education Association (WEA) and its local affiliates.

Union concerns with the money "pitting one teacher against another" ring hollow. Union leaders are more concerned with getting their hands on the money first and deciding how they can best distribute it according to union goals and core values. Ironically, the WEA is so focused on defeating anything that hints of education reform that it has effectively taken away the one thing it is seemingly always in favor of, namely, more money for teachers.

The teachers union consistently undercuts the teacher autonomy, empowerment and professionalism educators need to improve students' lives. Teachers who are fed up with the WEA controlling their local associations and professional destinies can contact Northwest Professional Educators ( www.nwpe.org) for information about local-only bargaining models that are community oriented, flexible, responsive to local issues and student needs, and free from the politics and self-interest of the WEA and NEA. It's time for a change.

Cindy Omlin
NWPE Executive Director

Via EIA:

 "With increasing cost of college loans and health care and the fact that the buying power of the teacher dollar is no more than what it was 20 years ago, we're pretty much back to where we were when I started teaching in the 1960s. I had to work in the summer to eat."
—Cheryl Umberger of the Tennessee Education Association.

From The Education Intelligence Agency.

I had a discussion with a friend yesterday about the “new” Idaho high school graduation requirements in math.

According to the Idaho State Department of Education website, government school kids will have to take three years of math in high school to graduate:

• One year of Algebra I
• One year of Geometry
• One year of “students choice” math.

Of course, these newer / better / improved math standards still don’t come close to what I was required to take in high school 30 years ago:

• Algebra I in 8^th grade
• Geometry in 9^th grade
• Algebra II in 10^th grade
• Trigonometry in 11^th grade
• Calculus in 12^th grade.

But my #1 son has me completely beat by an entire year. At Logos School he took:

• Algebra I and II in 8^th grade.
• Geometry in 9^th grade
• Trigonometry in 10^th grade

He’ll take Calculus next year in 11^th grade. And then his senior year he’ll take some advanced math classes (differential equations?) over at the University of Idaho.

As reported in today's edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

The Moscow School District will cut $400,000 from next year's budget in order to reissue contracts to 39 of its teachers by the May 25 deadline.

Let’s see: take $400,000 and divide by 39 and you get $10,256.

How did they plan on paying 39 teachers with $10,256 each?

As reported in today's edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Costs associated with University Place continue to pile up against the University of Idaho. The $136 million development in Boise may be on hold, but the State Board of Education's investigation into the project's financing has just started. 

The beginning of the end.

As you read this article, think about that following: what has changed in the last three years?

As reported in Friday’s edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

New Saint Andrews College Executive Vice President Bob Hieronymus said the college has met the conditions of its temporary conditional use permit and is ready for the city's permanent approval to stay in downtown Moscow.

The City Council granted the classical Christian college the permit in 2006 after several controversial public hearings. The college is located in the downtown central business district, where schools are not allowed without a permit.

That’s no accurate. The University of Idaho has buildings located downtown. And there is a charter school located downtown.

Only NSA is not permitted downtown…

The permit is up for renewal Tuesday night before the city's Board of Adjustment. A public hearing begins at 7 p.m. in City Hall.

Hieronymus said an indefinite permit would be "acknowledging that we met the conditions that were set before us."

The 2006 permit required the college to cap enrollment at 200 and maintain 160 feet of commercial frontage. Hieronymus said NSA has no problems with these conditions and expects to keep them.

A third condition required the college to keep enrollment at 150 until it provided 42 parking spaces.

The city's reasoned statement for the permit states "the 42 parking spaces shall be provided for before a Conditional Use Permit can be permanently approved at a public hearing prior to the expiration of this temporary (permit)."

The college is leasing 60 spaces in and around downtown and has taken other measures to reduce students parking downtown, Hieronymus said. With the help of a parking advisory committee, which included downtown business owners, NSA developed a "leave your car at home" program. Students are rewarded with money for the NSA bookstore if they walk, ride their bikes or take the bus to school.

"We went out of our way to try to exceed what we were asked to do," Hieronymus said.

Parking advisory committee member and BookPeople owner Bob Greene, who filed an appeal of an NSA permit in 2002, said the college listened to the committee's input.

"I think they've tried to meet the conditions of the permit, which were really generous, if you can even call it a condition," he said.

He added that the city has compounded parking problems for downtown shoppers by allowing more non-business uses in the central business district.

The college would now like to have its parking requirements removed or reduced. NSA President Roy Atwood wrote in a May 2 letter to Moscow Community Development Director Bill Belknap that the college would voluntarily provide 23 parking spaces if it is granted a permanent permit.

Hieronymus said college officials believe the 42 spaces was an arbitrary number that "was not based in any reality."

He said 23 parking spaces is the difference between the maximum number of spaces the city would require NSA to have if it was located elsewhere in the city and the 42 spaces city staff said a commercial use of the college's building would demand. Businesses allowed by right in the central business district are not required to provide parking.

"We have a lot of empty parking space sitting around town because we have more than we need," Hieronymus said.

Hieronymus said he doesn't expect the permit hearing to be as controversial this time around.

"Honestly ... I think the community has grown past that," he said. "I hope it doesn't have the same polarizing sort of effect."

Green agreed the hearing will likely not be too controversial. He doesn't expect the board to reject the permit.

"Once you get it it's almost impossible to have it cease, especially if there are no complaints, and I haven't heard any," he said.

Moscow resident Jeanne Jacobson, who also filed an appeal of a 2002 permit, said she will not be able to come to the hearing but still doesn't believe NSA should be downtown.

However, she doesn't expect a lot of opposition to the permit renewal.

"People don't seem to care," she said.

What’s to care about?

I posted that WSU expects another record size freshman class while UI is the only university in the Northwest experiencing declining enrollment.

Frank writes the following, and it’s worth putting here on the front-page:

The enrollment drop at the UI in one of the fastest growing states in the union can be placed directly at the feet of the administration and its outgoing President. However, not to defend the administrators too much, but a lot of the drop is probably due to the explosive growth of BYU-Idaho. The old Ricks College was a 2 year one that used to feed a lot of students to the UI. Now as BYU-Idaho it's our competitor. BTW - I noticed a drop in the quality of our students when Ricks stopped sending us students.

The UI administrators have been clueless as to how to sell us, basically they want to tell prospective students that we have wide open spaces for recreation. What about academics? They never bothered asking the faculty for ideas, e.g. for engineers and scientists this is an excellent place since you'll have exposure to research at the undergraduate level with state-of-the-art instrumentation, and be integrated into research programs where undergrads are respected and work directly with faculty, many of whom have international prominence. We send our students to grad programs such as Berkeley, MIT, Stanford, UW etc. BSU and ISU just don't have the research capabilities or activity of UI. I'm sure my colleagues in other departments have good arguments as well.

I’m in full agreement with this. UI needs to play to its strengths, not its weaknesses.

It continues to pretend that BYU-Idaho, BSU, and ISU are inferior, second-rate universities that cannot compete with the UI. Yet UI continues to try and compete with those school’s strengths and ignore UI’s strengths.

Via the Latah County Eagle:

The Idaho Distance Education Academy (I-DEA), a statewide public charter school that offers research- based curriculum and professional guidance to home educators, has opened enrollment for the 2008-09 school year for grades K-12 and will be holding a series of informational meetings in May and June.

Checkout the full story on the Eagle’s website.

Compare this report to the continuing enrollment decline at the University of Idaho.

In fact, the UI is the only institution of higher learning in the Northwest with declining enrollment.

And they cannot figure out why?

As reported in yesterday’s edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Washington State University is expecting its second consecutive fall semester with a record-size freshman class.

The university has received 11,365 freshman applications for fall of 2008, an increase of 12 percent or about 1,200 more than last year's record numbers, according to WSU's latest enrollment count.

Vice President of Enrollment Management John Fraire said WSU officials set a goal of a freshman class of 3,300 students, which it expects to meet. Last year's class had 3,208 students.

WSU spokesman James Tinney said the university is accepting a lower percentage of applicants this year due to the larger numbers.

The university has extended offers to 8,150 students, or 71 percent of the applicants. Last year, 76 percent of applicants were extended offers.

 

I always thought that this lawsuit was a very bizarre — brining a suit against the Idaho Supreme Court because the Idaho Congress wasn’t doing its job?

Typical expectation of judicial activism by our school system.

From the Associated Press:

U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill has rejected a lawsuit brought by some of Idaho's public schools against the Idaho Supreme Court, saying the federal court doesn't have the jurisdiction to tell a state court how to run.

The school districts sued the state Supreme Court last June, contending they were denied their due process rights because the high court denied them a remedy phase in a case they had won two years earlier. That's when the high court upheld a lower court ruling in favor of a 1990 lawsuit filed by the districts that contended Idaho's school financing system was unconstitutionally underfunded.

Despite the 2005 win, the school-funding system has remained largely unchanged by lawmakers. And despite Winmill's ruling late last week, it doesn't look like the 18-year-old battle over school finances will be resolved anytime soon.

In his ruling, Winmill said he did not have the authority to order the Idaho Supreme Court to give the schools a remedy.

"Federal courts have no authority to direct state courts or their judicial officers in the performance of their duties," Winmill wrote.

 

From the Associated Press:

The State Board of Education has set a June deadline for appointing a short-term president to lead the University of Idaho while a search committee looks for Tim White's replacement.

White was named chancellor at the University of California-Riverside last week.

Board spokesman Mark Browning says trustees plan to name an interim president by June 30, the same day White is scheduled to resign as president of the University of Idaho.

Board Chairman Milford Terrell met with university officials Tuesday on the Moscow campus to discuss the scope of a national search for a new president.

North Idaho board members Paul Agidius and Sue Thilo will chair the search committee.

This is what UI needed to do years ago: cut out the dead wood and play to its strengths.

WSU realizes that.

When will UI?

From today's Spokesman Review.

Washington State University will cut the number of courses it offers by 20 percent, eliminate majors and minors, and redirect resources from those changes toward key areas of strength, a new university report says.

The report calls for an audit of all university courses, majors and minors, as well as an "overhaul" of general education programs – the core courses that students take in their first couple of years as the foundation of their education.

The report, issued Tuesday, is part of a widespread effort to sharpen the university's focus on its highest priorities, rather than trying to be all things to all people, administrators said.

"We are spread too thin as a university and we need to focus our resources," said Larry James, associate executive vice president of WSU. "Just about everything in this document is designed to do that in one way or another."

WSU now offers about 6,700 separate courses, but a lot of classes aren't taught very often or have low enrollments, the university said in a news release. Administrators hope that by eliminating such courses, faculty will be able to devote more attention to scholarship and teaching where WSU is the strongest.

 

“Even if the union demands it, 12 students does not a school make.”

Only a government-union could come up with this solution.

From EIA:

Back in 2003, Sacramento High School was closed and reopened as a charter school (under an organization run by Kevin Johnson, likely to be the city's next mayor). The Sacramento City Teachers Association (SCTA) sued, and under a settlement with the school district a new high school was to be opened to replace Sacramento High, even though Sacramento High was still there.

Well, after much planning and the expenditure of $26,000 in research costs, the school board decided to locate the new school on the site of a closed elementary school. However, the first phase of renovation and reconstruction is on hold because the district has managed to entice a grand total of 12 students to attend.

So, although the legal settlement requires the creation of a new school, the board won't spend the additional $1 million for building renovation and the hiring of a principal until demand reaches 150 students.

The SCTA president is a bit chagrined, though steadfast that the school needs to be built. It's enough to drive you to road rage.

From The Education Intelligence Agency.

The US Department of Education has published “The Nations Report Card”.

This is the “National Assessment Of Educational Progress At Grades 8 And 12”.

There are some interesting statistics for Idaho. The page number from the reports is included in parentheses.

• The average writing score for eighth-grade public school students (page 16)
• US: 154
• Idaho: 154
• The average writing score went up three points between 2002 and 2007 (page 17)
• Achievement levels in 8^th grade writing (page 56):
• In the US:
• 2% were at or above advanced.
• 31% were at or above proficient.
• 87% were at or above basic.
• In Idaho:
• 1% were at or above advanced.
• 29% were at or above proficient.
• 88% were at or above basic.

This confirms what university faculty members have been seeing for 30+ years now — in-coming freshmen do not know how to write.

Pretty good return on our $10,000 per person per year spent in the government schools…

I’m no fan of NCLB — for many reasons.

But there are a few good things that have resulted (which could have been mandated without all the other junk that went with it).

Here’s an extract of an excellent column by Greg Forster over at Pajamas Media :

When you set aside all the implausible multi-year plans, toothless sanctions, easily evaded school choice requirements, and other window dressing, NCLB boils down to one simple commercial transaction: the system got a big cash payoff, in exchange for which it agreed to give standardized tests and release up-to-date information on how students are performing.

Before NCLB, many states didn’t give standardized tests at all, or didn’t release the results in a timely and publicly useable format. Now they all do. And all 50 states now participate in the Nation’s Report Card, a single national test of a representative sample of students, which allows researchers to conduct cross-state comparisons.

This transparency represents an incredible boon. The amount of empirical research done on education has been growing at a breathtaking rate. Before NCLB, education was a fringe element at best in economics, political science, and other social science disciplines. Now it’s everywhere. A lot of that research is due to the data made available by NCLB.

Too bad it took NCLB to make the government schools more transparent to the taxpayers…

Recall that Joann Muneta complained in a letter to the editor that President Roy Atwood’s graduation address was “less than gracious”.

Dr. Atwood was kind enough to provide a copy of the opening comments that Muneta was referring to.

NSA’s Vision for those unfamiliar with the College

New Saint Andrews will confer associates and bachelor degrees in “liberal arts and culture” upon our graduates today, but the “liberal arts and culture” part of the degrees may be a bit misleading.

As a classical Christian college, New Saint Andrews offers no undergraduate majors, no specializations, not even in "liberal arts and culture." Instead, we follow the integrative curriculum and pedagogy of the classical tradition that nurtured literally dozens of generations before us. It is only in the last 100 years or so that colleges and universities became increasingly secular and pushed undergraduates to specialize. Today, post secondary education has been largely reduced to job training. The first academic major in the U.S. was not offered until 1878 at Johns Hopkins University. Before that, a bachelor’s degree was simply a bachelor of arts degree, with no specialization.

It’s hard to get our minds around that fact today, because the vocational paradigm is so dominant. But at NSA we still believe that undergraduate education is fundamentally not about majors or job prospects after graduation (as helpful as those may be), but about shaping character, gaining maturity and wisdom, and learning to love what our heavenly Father loves: namely, truth, beauty and goodness.

Jobs come and go. Careers change with the economic and technological seasons. But our students understand that they must be wise and faithful all their lives as a son or daughter, a spouse, a parent, a citizen, a voter, a member of their local community, a contributor to the economy, and a church member. Their many callings in these various areas of life are simply too important to allow their college years to be spent myopically focused on only one of their many callings.

For my out-of-town readers: Joann Muneta is chairman of the Latah County Human Rights Task Force. It appears that Dr. Atwood’s remarks hit a little too close to home for Muneta’s comfort — prompting her response.

Recall what the difference is between a tech school and an educational institution: a tech school (or trade school) teaches you how to do something (weld; play a piano; write a newspaper article; program a computer; etc).

An educational institution teaches you how to think.

Historically, US institutions of higher education shifted from education to tech schools after WWII (it’s actually an interesting history — the US providing job training for returning WWII soldiers was the impetus. But I digress).

But the difference is between education and training. Give me any day someone who knows how to think (e.g., who has had classes in logic, for instance), and I can teach them how to program a computer in under three months. There’s no need of four years of tech school to do that.

The following letter to the editor appeared in today’s Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

Recently our local paper, the Moscow-Pullman Daily News, was gracious enough to devote front-page stories on both May 8 and May 9 to New Saint Andrews College's graduation of 33 students. Sadly, NSA President Roy Atwood was somewhat less than gracious in his welcoming remarks at graduation, which included the statement that other forms of higher education "have been reduced to secular job training."

Since he probably includes his neighbors, the University of Idaho and Washington State University, in this assessment, we should take a look at what our universities do offer.

Yes, it is true that thousands of students look to higher education to help them on their career paths. They want to become financially independent of their parents and to find work they will enjoy, will be good at, and that will make worthwhile contributions.

Indeed our society does need well-educated teachers, scientists, businesspeople, doctors, lawyers, etc. But universities offer much more than this, such as courses in history, philosophy, literature, foreign languages, arts and more. They provide thought-provoking and important insights into the past, the world around us, and into the ideas and contributions of some of the world's great thinkers.

Hopefully the students at NSA who are quoted as saying they are learning curiosity and humility will not dismiss everything outside of their NSA Christian training as "secular" and thus unworthy of their attention and study.

Joann Muneta, Moscow

Muneta’s rebuttal is hysterical.

“But universities offer much more than this, such as courses in history, philosophy, literature, foreign languages, arts and more. They provide thought-provoking and important insights into the past, the world around us, and into the ideas and contributions of some of the world's great thinkers.”  

Clearly, Muneta needs to be brought up to speed on what NSA students read and study:

• Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations
• Aeschylus, Oresteia
• Anselm, Proslogion and Monologion
• Anselm, Various Selections
• Aquinas, Selections from the Summa
• Aquinas, Summa Theologiae (Selections)
• Aristophanes, Various Selections
• Aristotle, Ethics and Politics
• Aristotle, Poetics
• Aristotle, Rhetoric
• Aristotle, Various Selections
• Athanasius, On the Incarnation
• Augustine, City of God
• Augustine, Confessions
• Austen, Various Selections
• Bede, Ecclesiastical History
• Beowulf
• Berkeley, Various Selections
• Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy
• Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress
• Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion
• Cervantes, Don Quixote
• Chaucer, Canterbury Tales
• Cicero, De Inventione
• Conrad, Heart of Darkness
• Dante, Divine Comedy
• Darwin, Origin of Species
• Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
• Derrida, Various Selections
• Descartes, Meditations
• Dickens, Various Selections
• Dostoevsky, Brothers Karamazov
• Duns Scotus, Various Selections
• Euclid, Elements
• Euripides, Various Selections
• Faulkner, The Sound and The Fury
• Federalist and Anti- Federalist Papers
• Goethe, Faust
• Henry of Huntington, Historia Anglorum
• Herodotus, Histories
• Hobbes, Leviathan
• Homer, Iliad
• Homer, Odyssey
• Hume, Various Selections
• Irenaeus, Against Heresies
• John of Salisbury, Policraticus
• Kant, Various Selections
• Leibnitz, Various Selections
• Locke, On Civil Government
• Locke, Various Selections
• Luther, 1520 tracts
• Luther, Bondage of the Will
• Machiavelli, Prince
• Marsiglius de Padua, Defensor Pacis (Selections)
• Marx, Das Capital
• Marx, Communist Manifesto
• Melville, Moby Dick
• Milton, Paradise Lost
• Montaigne, Various Selections
• New Testament
• Newton, Principia (Selections)
• Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
• Old Testament
• Ovid, Metamorphoses
• Palladio, The Four Books of Architecture
• Plato, Gorgias
• Plato, Phaedrus
• Plato, Republic
• Plato, Various Selections
• Plotinus, Various Selections
• Plutarch, Moralia (Selections)
• Plutarch, Select Lives
• Pseudo-Cicero, Rhetorica ad Herennium
• Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria
• Rousseau, Social Contract
• Ruskin, The Seven Lamps of Architecture
• Russell, Various Selections
• Shakespeare, Various Selections
• Sophocles, Theban Plays
• Spenser, Faerie Queene
• St. Benedict, Rule
• Suger, Abbot of St. Denis, On the Abbey of the Church of St. Denis and its Art Treasures
• Thucydides, Peloponnesian War
• U.S. Constitution and Declaration of Independence
• Vergil, Aeneid
• Vitruvius, On Architecture
• Weber, Protestant Ethic
• William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum Anglorum
• William of Ockham, Various Selections
• Wittgenstein, Various Selections

Not to mention four years of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew.

Now that’s an education.

And there’s no tech training involved. Thank goodness.

As reported in today’s edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

The Blue Knights came on the attack early and often as they defeated Coeur d'Alene 12-6 Wednesday in a semifinal game of the North Idaho Lacrosse League at the SprinTurf Practice Field at the University of Idaho.

Samuel Smathers started the barrage by hitting an open net five minutes into the game. Logos went on to score three more goals in the opening quarter while holding CDA scoreless.

The only time the Blue Knights looked vulnerable was in the second quarter when they went from an attacking team to a defensive one.

The Vikings took advantage of the second-quarter lull and worked the ball in and around the Logos defense to score two goals.

"The second quarter was the only part I was a little concerned about," Logos coach Wes Struble said. "We came out strong and then backed off a little. I think it's a psychological thing. We were up 4-0 and I think the temptation is to relax. When I recognized that, we talked about it at the half. I told them CDA is good enough to pass us."

The Logos offense returned in the third quarter and never let up.

Josh Bouma scored his second goal of the game minutes into the third quarter when he set up in front of the goalie, grabbed a short pass and ripped the ball into the net to give the Knights a 6-2 lead.

Daniel Paul, who finished with two goals for the Knights, snagged a pass that came from behind the net, shook a defender and slammed the ball past CDA goalie Justin Jacobson to give Logos a 7-2 lead.

The Vikings continued to pester Logos, adding four goals in the second half, but the play of Bouma and Dane Wilson kept them from gaining any more ground.

"Some younger kids are a little tentative and they flinch or bat at the ball because they know they are going to get checked," Struble said. "Josh and Dean Dane, they are courageous in that respect. They don't let up."

Midfielders Bouma, Wilson and Smathers controlled the second half. Wilson and Bouma charged head first to the ball while Smathers skirted the edges. Every time a Viking tried for a breakaway they were drilled, nullifying the attack.

Goalie Wesley Saunders also came up big for Logos, saving 15 shots and playing older than a freshman.

"Wesley is very gifted," Struble said. "All of my team, we are just tickled pink to have him there. He would be good on the field, too, but his big gift is his goalie work."

The win moves Logos into today's NILL title game against Lake City, the only team to have recorded wins against the Blue Knights.

"(Lake City's) Dwight Emmett is a very good coach and his kids are very good players," Struble said. "They have a good starting lineup, but they have better depth than we do ... as soon as I have to sub, that's when we start hurting. I told the starters they will have to dig deep."

The winner of today's game will play the winner of the Boise-area Treasure Valley League in the state title game at UI next Saturday. 

You heard it here first. You heard the rumor here first that White was leaving UI.

From the Office of the Chancellor of UC Riverside:

Timothy P. White, president of the University of Idaho, today (May 15) was named chancellor of the University of California, Riverside, by the UC Board of Regents. The appointment, made on the recommendation of President Robert C. Dynes, will take effect on or before Sept. 1, 2008.

An immigrant from Argentina who attended all three systems of California public higher education and received his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley, White has three decades of experience in public research universities. He has held faculty appointments at the University of Michigan, UC Berkeley, and Oregon State University, where he served as provost and executive vice president, and as president on an interim basis, before joining the University of Idaho as president in August 2004.

White, 58, has led the renewal of the University of Idaho as president, placing a focus on strategic planning, diversity, improved communication, multi-disciplinary research initiatives and the fostering of a student-centered culture. His academic background is in physiology, kinesiology and human biodynamics, and he is internationally recognized for his work in muscle plasticity, injury and aging.

"I am deeply honored, and humbled, by this appointment. I am eager to get started," White said. "UC Riverside is an institution of great accomplishment and even greater opportunity. Its people are focused on providing high-quality education to students and tackling the economic, social, environmental, educational and health needs of the broader community. This campus is rapidly ascending to the next level of distinction and public contribution through teaching, research and creative activity, and engagement through outreach. I am excited by the opportunity to help it make that ascent."

As reported in yesterday’s edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Logos is the first local school to adopt lacrosse - the fastest growing sport in the Western United States

Most high schools on the Palouse are neck deep in baseball, track, softball and golf. Logos is the only school on the Palouse focused on lacrosse, which has been a way of life at the small school for the better part of two decades.

In its infancy, Logos had to travel extensively to find teams to play. At that time, Ketchum was the only other team in Idaho with a lacrosse team, so each team agreed to travel to Moscow and Ketchum once each spring to play each other. Logos also headed to Boise on weekends and spent at least two weekends a year competing in Seattle.

"When it first started it was more like a club than a varsity sport," Logos coach Wes Struble said. "We had kids from Moscow, from Troy, some who were home schooled. It was much smaller. We only had about 11 guys on a team."

Logos now competes in its own league, the North Idaho Lacrosse League. The Blue Knights are in second place behind Lake City, and they lead fellow NILL members Sandpoint, Coeur d'Alene, Bonners Ferry and Gonzaga Prep.

"It's called the fastest game on two feet," Logos senior Josh Bouma said. "In football, after every play, they stop and line up and then go. I love football, it's fun, but in lacrosse you just go, go, go. If it goes out of bounds you just go and scoop it and go at the whistle. The only time you stop is after a goal."

Lacrosse players are constantly running. The ball can be passed all around the field or a player can keep it and try for a breakaway goal. Middies must cover the entire field, but Bouma said when the game's being played properly everyone is on the run.

"You do a lot of running, but it's not just running," Bouma said. "It's a full body sport. You're not just running in circles. You're shooting and there's a lot of contact."

Contact is a big reason Dane Wilson enjoys the sport.

"I came in during the eighth grade and really, it was the only sport during this season," the Logos senior said. "I thought it sounded kinda fun. It was difficult at first, but it's become really fun. You get to run, you get to hit people, and that's fun - not because you're angry at them, just because it's part of it. And it's entertaining. The fans love it and when they cheer they really pump you up."

Lacrosse is arguably the fastest growing sport in the west. The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association recently heard arguments from schools in the Seattle area asking that girls' lacrosse be added to the list of varsity sports. The Boise area already has exploded with lacrosse leagues from very young kids to middle-aged adults of both genders. The Spokane area also is experiencing a lacrosse boom.

"We have a good league up here and I think it will continue to grow," Struble said. "The Spokane area is really taking off and Lewiston has mentioned they are interested in starting a league," Struble said. "We'd really like to see the sport grow on the Palouse. I think there are a lot of kids that would benefit and enjoy it. And we'd love to have a southern and northern league."

The Blue Knights will host Coeur d'Alene on Wednesday in a semifinal NILL match. Face-off is set for 6 p.m. at the field just east of the Kibbie Dome on the UI campus.

The following is from the online edition of the Lewiston Tribune.

MOSCOW -- University of Idaho President Tim White could be named chancellor of the University of California Riverside as soon as tomorrow morning.

The Logos Mock Trial team took 16^th in the national competition in Delaware.

Logos senior Maggie Church received one of only 10 national commendations given for her fine work as an attorney.

Congratulations to Maggie and the whole team!

One piece of good news for the CAMBR.

But this could be another stick-in-the-eye for the University of Idaho. Recall, the UI auditors said that CAMBR deliberately and improperly used university resources. The Idaho AG’s office disagreed.

The story is ongoing (since a federal audit is ongoing).

From the Associated Press:

The Idaho attorney general's office concludes that researchers at a University of Idaho research center at Post Falls broke no state laws in blending the interests of the university and two private companies.

But an attorney involved in the case says the Center for Advanced Microelectronics and Biomolecular Research still faces an investigation into how federal grants were handled over the years.

The Spokesman-Review reported Sunday that NASA's Office of the Inspector General is investigating how the federal space agency's grants were handled by CAMBR officials.

UI Provost Doug Baker says he hasn't been notified of the status of the state investigation and was unaware of a federal probe.

A university audit in 2005 that found the center's officials deliberately and improperly used university resources to further private business interests.

CAMBR researches computer chips and microprocessors that routinely go into space on major projects like the Hubble Space Telescope. The center has brought in more than $17 million in grants since setting up in Post Falls in 2002.

More in the ongoing saga about UI and CAMBR.

As reported in today’s edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

A federal agency may have taken a lead role in the investigation of the University of Idaho's Center for Advanced Microelectronics and Biomolecular Research.

CAMBR, which is in UI's research park in Post Falls, has been under investigation since 2005. Employees Kenneth and Martha Hass reported concerns about the center's operations to the UI's internal auditor. A resulting audit report revealed irregularities such as conflicts of interest and misuse of university funds.

Kootenai County Prosecutor Bill Douglas asked the Idaho Attorney General's Office in 2007 to conduct an investigation of the issues in the CAMBR audit.

The attorney general's office still is investigating the center, but state Rep. Tom Trail said he is confident a federal agency has taken over.

Trail said he was talking to an attorney general's office official about another matter when he decided to ask about the CAMBR investigation.

"I asked the question, 'How are things going?' And the response was, you know, the feds are taking over the lead on the investigation with the Idaho State Attorney General's office in a supporting role," Trail said.

Trail said he did not know which federal agency was involved. He speculated it could be the Department of Justice or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which provided a large amount of grant funding to CAMBR.

As reported in today's edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

The Idaho Constitution prohibits charging tuition at the state's universities, but students still pay "fees."

The Idaho Board of Education will consider a proposal to hike student fees by $50 a semester, considerably raising the current cost of $400 a semester.

The tuition this semester is $2,205.00

Let’s do the math:

Can you think of any other costs that have risen by 450% in the last 25 years?

Update: The inflation since 1983 has been 216%

Education expenses have risen over twice as fast as inflation.

As reported in today’s edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Alexander Van Someren said all the stress he's felt over the past four years immediately dissipated when his name was called at graduation.

"I was mostly just relieved," he said. "It was nice; it was refreshing."

Van Someren was among 33 graduates who took part in New Saint Andrews College's 11th commencement ceremony Thursday at the Church of the Nazarene in Moscow.

NSA President Roy Atwood began the ceremony by welcoming family and friends of the 12 students graduating with an associate of arts in liberal arts and culture and the 21 graduating with bachelor's degrees in liberal arts and culture.

Atwood expressed the importance of following an integrated classical Christian education and explained the school's goal in shaping character and wisdom when other forms of higher education "have been reduced to secular job training."

Which is an excellent point. Most of higher ed is now training, not education. Education teaches you how to think. Training teaches you how to do something.

"It's hard to get our minds around that today," Atwood said. NSA students "learn to love what the heavenly father loves."

Following Atwood's speech, the NSA Board of Trustees recognized Sarah Field, David Henreckson, Kelly Johnson and Katherine Morin for their outstanding academics, leadership and service.

Logos School Principal Tom Garfield served as keynote speaker. His speech, titled "Only the Beginning," congratulated NSA for having graduated 300 students following Thursday's commencement.

The student address was presented by Henreckson, who summed up his experience at NSA as a "consistently humbling experience."

"Everything I was learning at NSA was nothing if I wasn't curious," Henreckson said. "The essence of NSA was captured when I realized the teachers actually enjoyed what they're teaching."

Henreckson summed up his speech by giving his peers some parting wisdom.

"I got a taste of how intimidating, complex and wonderful the world is," he said. "But the more you know, the more you realize you don't know squat."