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.
A student senator at Western Washington University is creating more low-sensory rooms to improve accessibility for neurodivergent students. A pilot room will be available by the end of fall quarter in Miller Hall 150.
At Western Washington University, a student-run boxing club is giving women and nonbinary students an on-campus space to throw punches, talk through their feelings and build community in a supportive environment.
Western’s Basic Needs Resource Navigator, Gina Ebbeling, said that the WHOLE pantry’s number of visitors has quadrupled since last academic year. Though she thinks part of that increase is awareness of the pantry and its outreach efforts, the primary driver of increased pantry use is the rise in living expenses.
Western Washington University's first pop culture magazine, devoted to uplifting Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) voices on campus, had its official launch on Oct. 25th, 2025.
Dylan Gibson may no longer be struggling with a chilly office, but the same cannot be said for all of his colleagues at Miller Hall.
Students may not notice Dr. Pepper Man until a can of Dr. Pepper is suddenly in their hands, before his quick departure and subsequent posting of the interaction on his social media accounts. The fast handoff and his anonymous nature have quickly become a viral campus moment.
Solutions by The State News
