President Crawford Featured in "President to President" Thought Series

President Isiaah Crawford smiles at the camera as he stands in front of the campus arches.

University of Puget Sound President Isiaah Crawford is featured alongside other esteemed college and university presidents in the "President to President" thought series, distributed electronically throughout the 2023-24 academic year. The series explores the environmental priorities of 10 college presidents and their campus strategies for a sustainable future driven by change-making insights.

An Evening With Acclaimed Poet and Essayist Ross Gay

Ross Gay faces the camera with his chin resting in the palm of his left hand.

The University of Puget Sound welcomes the public to an enchanting evening with Ross Gay, an expert in appreciating life's small delights, the featured speaker of the Fall 2023 Susan Resneck Pierce Lecture in Public Affairs and the Arts. Everyone is welcome to attend and listen to the acclaimed essayist and poet on Monday, Oct. 9, at 7 p.m. in the Schneebeck Concert Hall.

University of Puget Sound Announces New Department of Environmental Studies & Sciences

Ellie Olpin ’24 and Reisha Foertsch ’25 collect seedling samples from nurse logs in the Hoh Rainforest in Washington’s Olympic National Park.

University of Puget Sound announced today that it is creating a new academic department to house its environmental programs starting in Fall 2024. The Department of Environmental Studies & Sciences will allow students to explore the evolving issues of environmental studies through an interdisciplinary approach combining natural sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities.

Environmental Studies & Sciences will offer four academic options:

University of Puget Sound Partners with Sound Transit to Unveil T-Line Extension

Signs are displayed on a fence with Sound Transit and the University of Puget Sound logos visible.

The Sound Transit T-Line Hilltop extension was launched on September 16, with the University of Puget Sound in attendance to mark the occasion. The project, which took years to complete, includes one relocated station, the Old City Hall, and six new stations: St. Joseph, Hilltop District, 6th Avenue, Tacoma General, Stadium District, and South 4th. Puget Sound proudly sponsors the Stadium District platform, and is thrilled about the connectivity, accessibility, and sustainable future that the T-Line brings to Tacoma.

Puget Sound Professor Tanya Erzen Awarded Prestigious NEH Public Scholars Grant

A clear bag with the words Freedom Education Project Puget Sound in green on the exterior.

Tacoma, Wash. — Tanya Erzen, associate professor of religion, spirituality, and society and director of crime, law, and justice studies and gender and queer studies, has been awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Public Scholars grant for $60,000. The NEH Public Scholars program supports nonfiction authors in producing well-researched books for a broad public audience.

The Call of the West

Provost Drew Kerkhoff

When Drew Kerkhoff left Ohio, to follow his future wife to New Mexico, he had no plans of ever heading back east. The western landscape and ecology fascinated him, and Kerkhoff—who at the time made a living building custom furniture—spent his downtime exploring his surroundings. It was out in nature that he found a new career path, a path that would eventually lead him to become Puget Sound’s new provost.

University of Puget Sound Professors Awarded Grant for Pioneering Exploration of Existential Philosophy and Artificial Intelligence

Professors Justin Tiehen and Ariela Tubert.

University of Puget Sound philosophy professors Ariela Tubert and Justin Tiehen have been recognized for their work on the intersection of existentialist philosophy and artificial intelligence. The two have been awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Collaborative Research Grant of $147,840 for their project, "Robot Existentialism: Artificial Intelligence and the Limits of Rationality."