For the opportunity to be crowned “Best in Bellingham,” six bands are competing at AMP’s Battle of the Bands. Each group will go head-to-head against another at the Viking Union Underground Coffeehouse.
A new exhibit titled “Centuries of Caricature: Critiquing Cultural Conflicts” opened earlier this January in Western Washington University’s Special Collections. The exhibit features more than 40 historic caricature art pieces focusing on major conflicts like world wars, political divide, antisemitism, capitalism, communism and morality.
Western Washington University’s theater department presents its fourth Hip Hop Theater, showcasing performances rooted in hip-hop music and the struggles students can face.
For the first time, Viking Swing and Western Americana Music Group are coming together to host a Valentine’s Day event. The Sweet Heart Swing Dance will be held in the Viking Union Multi-Purpose Room on Feb. 12th from 6 to 8 p.m.
Students at Western Washington University say they are questioning how safe campus spaces feel following a flashing incident inside Wilson Library on Jan. 28.
Western Washington University is at a crossroads when it comes to artificial intelligence (AI). Ask anyone on campus; faculty and students alike will tell you how controversial AI is.
Western’s Student Health Center will be switching to an insurance-based billing model, and with it comes a way to help under-insured students pay for their healthcare on campus.
This season, Western’s debate team has ranked in the top tier at every competition it has attended, with five finals placements, and will continue to compete for the national championship.
As transit fares are set to rise in the fall of 2026, Western Washington University student advocates and local officials are debating how public transit can be funded through existing tax revenues, rather than requiring additional financial contributions from the community.
Over the next few weeks, Western Washington University’s Arts and Music Productions (AMP) will provide students and community members with free film showings. Hosted in VU 552, these showings run bi-weekly starting on Jan. 15 and ending on March 12 from 7-9 p.m.
At Western Washington University’s north area front desk, winter quarter moves quickly. Students tap their ID cards, ask for packages and leave within seconds. Those brief exchanges add up to lengthy shifts of emotional labor for Samantha Andry, one of the student employees behind the desk.
Combining traditional sound bath meditation and floating, Western Washington University’s Wade King Student Recreation Center is hosting a floating sound bath on Feb. 3 from 6-7 p.m.
Not many universities can say they have a towering evergreen forest just steps away from campus. The Sehome Hill Arboretum is a major element of what makes Western Washington University’s environment unique.
Aspen Cates-Doglio and Sophia Maynard have hope for the future, specifically hope that students will get more involved on campus. Lobby Day, an opportunity for students, faculty and staff to travel to the Washington State Capitol in Olympia and meet with the state legislators, is coming up, taking place from Feb. 1-2.
The contract between Whatcom Transport Authority (WTA) and Western Washington University, which provides Western students with access to bus passes, is set to expire in September 2026.
Western Washington University’s Art Gallery welcomed the work of Bellingham artist Claude Zervas in his exhibit, “Pond Water,” which opened on Jan. 15.
Western Washington University’s student workers’ union is taking its fight for collective bargaining rights to the state legislature this session. A bill backed by the union shows promise of passing and enabling Western Academic Workers United (WAWU) to protect more student workers following a 2025 strike.
As the sun began to set on Western Washington University on Monday, Jan. 26, countless voices chanted “presente” in response to the reading of 38 names, one for each person whose death was caused by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or other federal immigration officers since the beginning of President Donald Trump’s second term.
Budget cuts have been a part of Western’s academic life recently. Twenty positions were eliminated in June, including the entire administrative division of Student Affairs, with most student services continuing under the Office of the Provost.
Jeff Jewell remembers his first impressions of Bellingham upon moving here in 1982.
Solutions by The State News
