Loggers are a creative sort, always looking for new ways to express themselves. From knitting and crocheting to quilting and spinning wool, these alumni, faculty, and staff are taking traditional crafting to new heights, whether it’s making their own clothes or turning a hobby into an unexpected career. We caught up with a few Loggers harnessing their passion for crafting to address waste and unchecked consumerism, improve their mental health, teach the next generation, and make handmade sweaters cool again.

Two of the three faculty members in the theatre arts department at Puget Sound are Loggers through-and-though, having been students who majored in theatre arts who then left to earn graduate degrees, work in the industry, and return to Tacoma to teach new generations on a wonderfully familiar stage.

In 1964, freshman Louis Smith ’69 was one of two Black students living on Puget Sound’s campus, and one of just four Black students in the entire student body. He remembered those years as a time of great hope and despair. While the Civil Rights Movement was discussed regularly in his family home as he grew up, he didn’t hear students talking about it in the hallways, lunch tables, or classrooms when he arrived on campus. It felt silent.

Kevoni Neely ’25, outgoing president of the Associated Students of the University of Puget Sound (ASUPS), wrapped up her final semester after serving as a key student leader on campus and delivered the undergraduate student address at University of Puget Sound’s 133rd Commencement Ceremony in May.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

More than 700 alumni came back to campus in June for Summer Reunion Weekend. In addition to attending the Logger Barbeque and Reunion Dinner, they took tours of Tacoma, played pickleball, connected with students, learned at Alumni College sessions, and more. The Arches team asked President Isiaah Crawford to discuss why he looks forward to this event every year. Here’s what he had to say:

What does it mean to be a grandmother today? For many, it’s no longer just weekend visits or holiday baking. As Jennifer Utrata, professor of sociology at Puget Sound explains, grandmothers across the country, often assisted by involved grandfathers, are stepping into daily, essential caregiving roles like never before. Her in-progress book manuscript, Keeping the Kids Afloat: Intensive Grandmothering and Family Inequality, uncovers how this quiet shift is transforming family life, and placing new, often invisible demands on an older demographic.

In 2009, the University of Puget Sound awarded honorary degrees at the commencement ceremony to 36 Japanese American students whose education was abruptly stopped when they were sent to relocation camps in 1942.