This week, the celebration of the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. continues. For more on campus and community events in and around Pullman, see https://www.wsu.edu/MLK/. Washington State University Vancouver celebrates the life and work of King with an appearance by Benjamin Hardy of Flooney’s Theater at noon today in the Student Services Building auditorium and the presentation of the 2003 Student Services Humanitarian Award. For more information, see https://wsunews.wsu.edu/detail.asp?StoryID=4307.
The WSU Board of Regents will hold its regularly scheduled meeting in Seattle on Jan. 23. The meeting agenda is available online at https://www.regents.wsu.edu/agenda-1-23-04.html.
An exhibition that celebrates an historic 133-mile stretch of State Route 26 will run from Jan. 24 to May 2 at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture. The exhibit is a collaboration between the museum and WSU students. SR-26, stretching from Colfax to Vantage in eastern Washington, might seem an uninteresting stretch of routine highway linking farm fields and the Columbia River. But many of the features that represent the beauty of eastern Washington are crossed by SR-26 – from evidence of dramatic geological events, to historical trails, to diverse social, biological and agricultural zones. Through a series of proposals by students for a “museum” along the highway, the exhibit aims to increase awareness of its dramatic landscapes and residents. For more information, see https://wsunews.wsu.edu/detail.asp?StoryID=4294
In the news
Iowa Democrats met in schools, fire stations community halls and even their neighbors’ living rooms Monday in the official launch of the presidential nominating season. Although the Iowa precinct caucuses may appear a curious throwback to many observers, their impact on who wins the nomination historically has been large, according to Travis N. Ridout, an assistant professor of political science at WSU. And that is likely to be the case this year as well. Ridout, who has studied both voter learning and choice during the presidential nomination process, suggests that winning Iowa is less important than doing as well as or better than expected. The news media treat candidates who do better than expected in Iowa as viable contenders in the next nomination event, the New Hampshire primaries, and lavish them with attention. Ridout suggests that positive media coverage resulting from a good showing in Iowa will be essential for a candidate’s success in the seven states that hold Democratic nomination events Feb. 3, where voters’ impressions of the candidates have not yet crystallized. Ridout can be reached at 509.335.2264 or tnridout@wsu.edu.
