On this week's Inland Journal:
Next week, Gonzaga will hold a series of events leading to the inauguration of Katia Passerini as the university’s 27th university. Truth be told, she’s already been on the job for a couple of months. We talk with her about free speech on campus and its challenges and Gonzaga’s embrace of climate change as a focus of research and study.
"We need to always remember that we need to be always well-informed because some of the issues we're dealing here with today have historical roots. And we need to understand where they are and why are we so separated. It's years of misunderstandings that we need to be aware of...As an educational institution, we need to continue to educate the students on all sides of the issues."
Idaho Education News reporter Emma Epperly has written a new series about what it’s like to be a K-12 school superintendent in Idaho and why fewer people are seeking the job.
"I find very interesting that there are just short of 500 people who have currently a superintendent qualification active in idaho that could be a superintendent. There are 121 full or part-time superintendent jobs and 22 assistant superintendent positions....There are enough people who meet the current qualifications to do these jobs and they just either don't want to or are staying in like a principal job with the superintendent certification."
And, on the eve of the next Apple Cup football game, longtime Seattle sportswriter Bud Withers looks at the long history of the series in his new book, "Too Good to Be Through." As the Cougar and Husky programs go in different directions, should the series keep going?
"I really want to see the rivalry continue, and I think there's a lot of sentiment to make that happen. But if it got to a point where for an extended period of time Washington was winning by six touchdowns, then maybe they'd have to revisit the whole thing. But I just think it's—the thing is so ingrained in the state and so much a part of the state's history and something that brings East and West together, and it just makes too much sense for these two schools not to play each other."
