As the WSU Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art prepares to celebrate its 50^th anniversary, Nancy Spitzer has endowed a fund to help students experience art as a window into understanding the world.

When entering Nancy Spitzer’s home in Pullman, one immediately knows that she loves and appreciates art—her walls are arranged with many intriguing paintings, and here and there are several beautiful sculptures. Many of these works were created by WSU Faculty artists, whose works Nancy and her husband Ken admired and wanted to support. And though she did not attend WSU—she received her BA in Fine Arts at Western Washington University—much of her life and career have centered around WSU.

Spitzer had a 35-year career at WSU, first working in the agricultural economics department of the College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences and then for 30 years with the WSU Libraries, where she was the administrative assistant to the director of libraries and assisted the library development director. She retired in 2006.

Over the years, she has been a strong advocate for the arts at WSU and its many activities available to the Palouse community, much of which revolves around the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU. For many years, she has contributed to the funding of the museum’s exhibitions, as well as volunteering for other museum-related activities and events. It was even through her involvement in the museum that she met her husband Kenneth Spitzer, who was the associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the time they met.

“It was our mutual love of art that brought us together, but we discovered we had so many things in common,” said Nancy.

In 2000, they married and enjoyed eighteen years together—the two of them inseparable. They loved entertaining, travel, birding, photography, and, of course, art. Long-time supporters of the WSU Museum of Art even before they met, they continued that support, contributing to help pay for the costs of numerous museum exhibitions, and both served on the Board of the Friends of the Museum—Ken as president for several terms.

“Unfortunately, our time together ended in 2018 when Ken died after several years of illness,” said Nancy.

Ken enjoyed a 32-year career dedicated to WSU, initially as a faculty member teaching chemistry, but because of his leadership and problem-solving skills, he also served in several administrative roles, from interim director positions to director of the WSU Research and Technology Park, as well as associate vice provost for research. Ken also greatly appreciated WSU, and because he and Nancy shared so much enjoyment and enrichment through their mutual love of art and the museum, Nancy wanted to honor her husband with a gift of $50,000 to establish the Kenneth D. and Nancy A. Spitzer Student Experience Endowment at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art.

An experiential endowment for students wanting to learn about art
Nancy, who is presently on the museum advisory council, chose an endowment fund to benefit student experiences in art. “Works of art are like a mirror that have been held up to our culture and to us as a people,” Nancy said. “Art teaches us about the world, it’s a window into human thought, emotion, and creativity, but you have to experience it to understand its power, and this fund is an opportunity for students to immerse themselves in such an experience—and there are hundreds of ways to do this.”

The endowment fund will support student experiences that include exhibitions and their expenses, program operations, event costs, student employment and internship opportunities, and students can also propose their own ideas to immerse themselves in art.

Celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the university’s art museum
WSU’s art museum was founded in 1974 in the WSU Fine Arts Center. In 1977, the Friends of the Museum was established to support its operational costs. Ken Spitzer was one of the founding members. Since the mid-seventies, the museum has presented approximately 390 diverse and notable exhibitions, from “Objects from the Getty Museum” to “The Art of Satire: Goya, Daumier, and Hogarth” to “German Expressionist Prints from the Museum of Modern Art” to “A Song to the Creator: Traditional Arts of Native American Women of the Plateau,” to most recently “Jeffrey Gibson: They Teach Love,” from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family—to name a few.

In the 2010s, a campaign was launched to build a stand-alone museum that reflected the academic excellence of the university. Through a gift by Jordan D. Schnitzer and many other donors—including Ken and Nancy Spitzer—the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU, lovingly called the ‘Crimson Cube,’ welcomed nearly 4,000 people during its three-day building dedication.

“The more I learned about art and how it was made, the more it challenged and expanded the way I perceived the world around me,” she said. “That’s what I want art to do for our WSU students, and the Jordan Schnitzer Museum—an amazing place right in the center of campus—is a wonderful way for students to explore the world of art.”

In addition to her gift to the Jordan Schnitzer Museum, Nancy has also established the Ken and Nancy Spitzer Library Endowment and the Ken and Nancy Spitzer Scholarship in honor of Ken.

Visit WSU’s website celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the WSU’s art museum.

Join the WSU community and the staff of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU in celebrating its 50^th anniversary with events on September 26 and September 27.

To give a gift to the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art WSU, call Kira MacPherson at (509) 335-4748 or email her at kira.walters@wsu.edu or visit the museum website.

A recent gift from ALSC Architects created a cross-campus graduate course exploring the impact of infrastructural racism in east Pasco.  

Thanks to a gift from ALSC Architects, a cross-campus course helped architecture and history graduate students learn the story of east Pasco’s racial history—a history that led to building decisions that still impact its residents.

Phil Gruen, professor in the School of Design and Construction in Washington State University’s Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture in Pullman, and Robert Franklin, assistant professor of history in the WSU Tri-Cities College of Arts and Sciences, co-taught the Pullman course, which culminated with a visit to east Pasco, one of the cities of the Tri-Cities region.

The spring 2024 course, Issues in Architecture (Architecture 542), examined how racism and discrimination shape the built environment in communities. After weeks of course readings and discussion about the marginalized populations of east Pasco, 21 architecture students and two history students from WSU Pullman spent a day-and-a-half in the Tri-Cities, where they encountered the “built” consequences of racism in east Pasco and met with community members.

The gift from ALSC Architects (Spokane) to establish the “School of Design and Construction Experiential Fund” covered the cost of travel (hotel, food, and transportation) for Pullman students and faculty for their day-and-a-half visit.

Acknowledging the importance of experiential learning for students, ALCS Architects was glad to donate to the School of Design and Construction, stating in their gift use agreement, “We have a proud history of hiring WSU graduates and appreciate the WSU academic programs that provide them with the basis for a successful architectural career.”

“The gift permitted the students the ability to meet with and hear from community members in east Pasco,” said Gruen. “Because of Pullman’s rural location, private funding is often needed to permit students the chance to confront ‘real life’ urban conditions and not just read about them. Tackling on-the-ground conditions by seeing them in person is part of our land-grant institution’s mission.”

The course was funded by a combination of private and government funding. Franklin and Gruen also received a Transformational Change Initiative (TCI) grant for advancing inclusion, diversity, equity, and access (IDEA) through WSU, which paid for the course preparations. The WSU Center for Civic Engagement and the WSU School of Design and Construction also provided additional funding and support. Franklin also received a grant from the National Park Service that allowed him to hire three students from the class as 2024 summer interns to continue working on class projects that were part of National Park Service grant.

The course began in 2022, emerging from Franklin’s involvement in an earlier National Park Service grant to document histories of migration, segregation, and civil rights at the Manhattan Project National Historical Park (MAPR), Hanford, in the Tri-Cities.

Franklin, along with his colleague Robert Bauman, a professor of history at WSU Tri-Cities, used these histories, along with other research, in their second co-authored bookon Hanford history, Echoes of Exclusion and Resistance: Voices from the Hanford Region (WSU Press, 2020). Franklin is also the assistant director of the Hanford History Project, a Department of Energy-funded effort to preserve physical artifacts and archival material of the Hanford Site.

According to Bauman and Franklin, the Tri-Cities area during World War II faced a system of segregation similar to that of the Jim Crow South, a result of a combination of federal policy and racism of local white residents coupled with the racism of many recent Southern white migrants to the area from the Jim Crow South.

Not until after WWII in 1947 did President Truman desegregate the military. Prior to that, at Hanford, the work crews, the barracks, the mess halls, bathrooms, government housing, restaurants, businesses, and the neighborhoods were all segregated. Moreover, African Americans and Asians were forced to live in east Pasco, and for several decades, Kennewick was a sundown town, banning African Americans after dark.

But the idea for the Issues in Architecture course really materialized for Franklin when the city of Pasco announced it planned to close the Lewis Street Underpass, built to go under the train tracks that separated Pasco from east Pasco—literally the “wrong side of the tracks.”

That’s when Franklin contacted Gruen and said, “Phil, I have a project for us. Let’s teach architecture students who are going to go out in the world and practice, to look at underrepresented communities and at how architecture and infrastructure shapes those communities.”

While the underpass underscores past infrastructural racism of the area, it made Pasco businesses and services more accessible to those in east Pasco, as the trains that rolled across those tracks were often long and slow, sometimes taking 20 minutes to pass by. Even today those in east Pasco remain segregated by infrastructure decisions from long ago that created race barriers. East Pasco is not only separated by train tracks but also by US Highway 395, another example of infrastructure separating Latine and Black communities from the majority-white area to the west.

Both Franklin and Gruen wanted their students to consider examples of the built environment, the role Pasco’s infrastructure has played in furthering discrimination, and how that discrimination has contributed to east Pasco’s marginalization—the most disadvantaged area in the Tri-Cities.

The concepts learned in the classroom and on the trip were applied to student projects to bring east Pasco’s lesser-known history of racism and resistance to light, as well as illuminate how residents suffered from lack of investment, neglect, and discrimination—and how a built environment free from discrimination might create a better future. Over the course of the semester, students worked collaboratively on one of four projects:

• A digital walking tour of east Pasco, with drawings and maps identifying historical and community significance sites.
• Historical essays for the Hanford History Project, highlighting marginalized people, places, and stories of east Pasco that were previously unresearched and untold.
• Design proposals, including digital renderings, plans, and elevations, for new buildings and landscapes that address community needs in east Pasco.
• A story map, using geographic information systems (GIS) software, which places stories of significance in east Pasco within the broader history of the Tri-Cities region.

Before the study tour, Rae Hendricks, an architecture student originally from Richland, said she hadn’t connected the dots between the racial history of the Tri-Cities and modern architecture.

“As a future architecture professional, I hope to be the type of person who can speak about important topics that other people may be inclined to ignore due to their sensitive nature,” she said.

The students conducted a virtual presentation on April 12 this past spring to allow the community to provide input on the progress of each project. Franklin explained that this maintained the course’s priority of a “bottom-up” approach of listening to and learning from the community rather than a “top-down” approach where faculty dictate every measure of course content.

Though the students completed the course in May, the grant that Franklin received from the National Park Service allowed three of the students to work as paid summer interns with Hanford History Project, continuing to work in collaboration with Franklin on their projects—part of the grant deliverables that include a digital walking tour, essays, and a story map that will be unveiled on the National Park Service app and website for future public use.

“Without the funding, the students would have missed the opportunity to meet with east Pasco residents directly and hear about the long-standing issues of discrimination their community has faced over time,” said Gruen. “Students brought information they learned from the on-site visit into their final projects, and the faculty—and some of the students, as well—are now busy re-casting some of that information into publicly-accessible materials.”

The public can explore some of the work developed by students in the course online. Many of these projects, including the essays, are still in progress, as they are part of the work students are involved in to fulfill grant deliverables that the National Park Service will include on a new website.

To support the School of Design and Construction Experiential Fund, please contact Dana Sprouse in the Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture at dana.sprouse@wsu.edu or at 253-987-5052.

A recent gift from Geri and Chris Carlson is increasing access to education and enhancing the Cougar learning experience.  

Sergey Lapin has long advocated research as part of the undergraduate experience. A professor of mathematics and statistics and current vice chancellor for research at WSU Everett, Lapin’s philosophy is straightforward: research makes learning tangible for students. “Math can be very dry and boring unless students understand how it impacts the real world,” Lapin explains. “Research gives them the chance to see that.” 

This belief in the power of research to elevate learning is at the heart of a new WSU Everett initiative made possible by a gift from Geri ’77 and Chris ’75 Carlson. Their generous donation will establish the Student Research Fellowship at WSU Everett, ensuring that undergraduate students across disciplines can engage in hands-on research experiences that connect classroom knowledge to real-world applications.  

Geri and Chris Carlson’s commitment to supporting WSU is deeply personal. Both Geri and Chris are WSU graduates—Geri with a bachelor of science in computer science and a bachelor of arts in business administration, and Chris with a bachelor of science in computer science and a master of science in computer science. Throughout the years, they have provided critical funding for a variety of projects, including the naming of a large laboratory classroom at the new WSU Vancouver Life Sciences Building. Their passion for expanding student opportunities has been a consistent thread in their philanthropy, with their latest gift aimed at enhancing research for undergraduates at WSU Everett. 

A Vision for Undergraduate Research 

Over the course of his career, Lapin has witnessed undergraduates publish their findings and even present at international conferences. But the lack of financial support for these research opportunities has long been a challenge. He noticed this was especially true at WSU Everett, where non-traditional students comprise a significant percentage of the campus. 

In spring 2024, WSU Everett Chancellor Paul Pitre and Lapin launched a pilot undergraduate research grant program, funded through the chancellor’s budget. The grant offered $1,000 per student for a semester’s worth of research, encouraging students from across disciplines to apply. Three students were selected for the pilot program, with research topics spanning data analytics, hospitality and business management, and sustainable agriculture. 

One of the pilot grant recipients, WSU senior Scott Sensiba, used his grant to dive into a project analyzing NHL hockey data. Sensiba and his mentor sought to develop an objective comparison between hockey players from different eras, focusing on metrics such as the percentage of team goals and performance under pressure. “My mentor and I are big hockey fans, and we wanted to come up with a way to definitively answer who was the best player, looking at comparisons like Wayne Gretzky versus Alexander Ovechkin,” said Sensiba.  

For Sensiba, the grant was a game-changer. “Working full time, going to school full time, and being a full-time dad doesn’t leave much spare time. The grant allowed me to take a break from work to focus on this project,” he said. “It speaks volumes about WSU and its donors. They have a vested interest in my professional success. I am grateful for the opportunity.” 

Sensiba was recently accepted into the Boeing Scholars program. He plans to continue his research into his senior year and present his findings at the 2025 WSU Showcase.  

A Transformative Gift for WSU Everett 

The success of the pilot program was undeniable, but sustaining it required private support. Geri and Chris Carlson were eager to step in, ensuring that more students like Scott would have the opportunity to conduct meaningful research. With their contribution, the Student Research Fellowship at WSU Everett is now poised to offer year-long funding, opening the door to a wider range of projects and allowing students to dig deeper into their fields of interest. 

For the Carlsons, this gift is about more than just financial support—it’s about providing a distinctive educational experience. “I had the privilege of working with faculty on a research project as an undergraduate, and I want to give others the same chance,” Geri said. She and Chris view undergraduate research as a direct way to enhance student learning and differentiate WSU from other universities. 

Their hope is that the fellowship will not only increase access to research for students across the campus but also support those who might not otherwise have the resources to pursue these opportunities. “I knew a student who was invited to an international conference to present her research with a professor. Her family helped cover her travel costs, but not all students are in that position,” Geri explained. “Success for us means making sure all students who are interested can participate in research, regardless of their financial situation.” 

As applications open for the fall cohort of the Student Research Fellowship at WSU Everett, anticipation is high. Both Pitre and Lapin are excited to see what the next group of students will achieve with the support of this innovative program. Thanks to the generosity of Geri and Chris Carlson, WSU Everett is now even better positioned to give its students the tools they need to succeed in research and beyond.  

“We’re starting small, but we’re ambitious,” Lapin said, referring to his hopes for fall applicants. “If you have big ideas, we can help you implement them.”