Five Questions With Associate Professor of Philosophy Sara Protasi

Sara Protasi

The discipline of philosophy is more than 2,500 years old, but it still has plenty to say about how we live, how to grapple with our darkest impulses, and how to relate to others. Associate Professor Sara Protasi teaches courses in ethics and ancient Greek philosophy, and is the author of The Philosophy of Envy. We sat down with Protasi to discuss her professional journey from Rome to Tacoma, her love of Aristotle, and the value of a liberal arts education.

University of Puget Sound student helps baseball players refine their pitching technique

Kevin Covarrubias ’23

It’s midmorning at Driveline Baseball, a performance training facility in Kent, Wash., and Kevin Covarrubias ’23 is spraying a thin layer of adhesive on the skin of an athlete in preparation for attaching 45 reflective markers to their arms, legs, chest, and back. Once the markers are in place, he has them step into the center of a massive, motion-capture camera rig that will record their tiniest movements, track the movement of each marker, and send the data to a computer for analysis. It’s all part of the company’s data-driven approach to helping baseball players perfect their form.

Five Questions With University of Puget Sound Director of Sustainability Lexi Brewer

Lexi Brewer

Lexi Brewer considers herself a sustainability generalist, having worked with city government, nonprofits, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration before becoming University of Puget Sound’s director of sustainability. Since March 2022, she’s has been getting to know the campus community and starting to lay the foundations for new initiatives to help Puget Sound achieve its environmental goals. We recently sat down with Brewer to discuss the new role, how environmental justice has to figure into any climate plan, and more.

College Success Foundation Finds New Permanent Home at University of Puget Sound

College Success Foundation group photo in front of its campus house

TACOMA, Wash. – College Success Foundation (CSF), a national nonprofit organization that helps students from low-socioeconomic backgrounds achieve their dream of a college education, recently relocated its Tacoma regional office to the campus of University of Puget Sound. The foundation hosted an open house event Aug. 25 for local principals and school officials, community leaders, and more, to show off the new space. 

University of Puget Sound professor turns an interdisciplinary lens on electoral redistricting

Prof. Courtney Thatcher stands at the chalkboard during a class

In 2019, as the federal government began preparations for the 2020 U.S. Census, Associate Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science Courtney Thatcher was doing a lot of thinking about the problem of redistricting. Every 10 years, population data from the census is used by states to redraw election maps. In theory, this redistricting process ensures that there are the same number of people in each district, giving them equal representation in Congress. In practice, this process is often mired in partisan attempts to gerrymander districts to benefit one political party.

Roots Reflections: A Rich Education

Nabil Ayers ’93, photo by Bill Cardoni

Nirvana’s debut album Bleach was released in June 1989. Three months later, during my first week of college, Soundgarden released their second album, Louder Than Love. And that November, Mudhoney’s self-titled debut arrived. “Grunge,” I quickly learned, was a real thing, and bands from Seattle were playing powerful, heavy, sweaty music at exceptionally high volumes and rebelliously slow speeds.