SENATE RESOLUTION

                                                                  1993-8611

By Senators Spanel and Anderson

            WHEREAS, One hundred years ago, under the provisions of the Federal Statehood Enabling Act, the Washington State Legislature designated property overlooking Bellingham Bay and the San Juan Islands as the site of a proposed normal school; and

            WHEREAS, In 1895, the legislature appropriated funds for New Whatcom Normal School to construct a single structure, now the central portion of Old Main; and

            WHEREAS, In 1899, the legislature voted thirty-three thousand five hundred dollars to equip and operate the school and on September 6, 1899, Principal Edward T. Mathes welcomed the first class of eighty-eight students, a number which doubled by week's end and rose to over two hundred within one month; and

            WHEREAS, In 1933, the legislature granted to the institution the right to confer degrees, following which a continuing expansion and elaboration in academic and degree programs, including graduate, interdisciplinary, and international studies, transformed the institution's educational role from one limited to the training of teachers to its status today as a multipurpose, comprehensive, regional university; and

            WHEREAS, Commensurate with its increasing academic diversity, the school's name was changed by legislative action from New Whatcom Normal School to Western Washington College of Education in 1937, to Western Washington State College in 1961, and to Western Washington University in 1977; and

            WHEREAS, Distinguished faculty, staff, and administrators have successfully acted in concert to fulfill the call for traditional educational values, to transmit new academic knowledge, technologies, and methods, and to prepare for the imminent educational challenges inherent in a new century; and

            WHEREAS, Over the past century, Western Washington University has provided outstanding, nationally recognized liberal arts and business programs to more than one hundred thousand Washington citizens; and

            WHEREAS, The graduates of Western Washington University have distinguished themselves in many fields including teaching, government service, business, the arts, the professions, and the sciences; and

            WHEREAS, Ceremonies scheduled by Western Washington University to take place during the week of February 22 to 26, 1993, will formally observe and commemorate the one hundred year anniversary of the founding of the institution;

            NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, That the Senate of the state of Washington honor and proclaim the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of Western Washington University and the celebratory events as the University enters into its second century of service to the state of Washington reaffirming its dedication to educational excellence; and

            BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That copies of this resolution be immediately transmitted by the President of the Senate to Mary Kay Becker, Chair of the Board of Trustees, and Dr. Larry Marrs, Chair of the Founders Celebration Committee, all of Western Washington University.

 I, Marty Brown, Secretary of the Senate,

do hereby certify that this is a true and

correct copy of Senate Resolution 1993-8611,

adopted by the Senate February 24, 1993.

MARTY BROWN

Secretary of the Senate