Central Washington University

Encyclopedia : C : CE : CEN : Central Washington University

Central Washington University, or CWU, is an accredited four-year educational institution located in Ellensburg, Washington in the United States. The university originally opened in the late 19th century as a teacher's college, which is still one of the primary majors taken there. Central Washington University is located about 30 miles (50 km) north of Yakima, Washington on Interstate 82, and 110 miles (180 km) east-southeast of Seattle, Washington on Interstate 90.

Contents

1 History
2 Research
3 Athletics
4 External links

History

Central Washington University originally opened up as Washington State Normal School in 1891. It was later changed to Central Washington College of Education, Central Washington State College and finally to Central Washington University. It continues to be one of the fastest growing universities in the state of Washington. Dr. Jerilyn S. McIntyre is the current president.

Research

The university has been home to the signing chimpanzee Washoe since 1980; since 1993 at the university's Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute. This continues to be only one of the two institutions of its kind in the world.

The Drama Teacher's Summer Institute, established in 1996. More than 500 teachers, representing 28 states and four nations, have attended the Institute.

Athletics

CWU students, alumni, and Varsity athletes are known as the "Wildcats" and their colors are Crimson and Black. CWU is part of NCAA Division II and is part of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. The Wildcats Sports are as follows in seasonal order.

Men's: (Fall) Football, Cross Country,(Winter) Basketball, (Spring) Baseball, Track & Field.

Women's: (Fall) Soccer, Cross Country, Volleyball (Winter) Basketball, (Spring) Softball, Track & Field.

The University used to have a competitive wrestling team that won two NAIA championships, produced 10 national champions as well as 26 All-Americans. However, since its move to Division II, it endured hardship. Although still a competitive force in the west, the school's athletic department opted to cut the program following the 2003-2004 season citing a lack of regional competition and a lack of conference affiliation. Despite an outcry by students, alumni and fans, the university stuck with its decision despite being offered a wrestling only membership by the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (which is the only Division II conference sponsoring wrestling), and the student body agreeing to increase the schools activity fees to help sponsor the sport, and an abundance of Regional competition at the Division I and NAIA level. Those that still compete on the wrestling team have to try out at the club level which competes in the less prestigious National College Wrestling Association in its three team Northwest Conference.

Football garnered much attention as being one of the most successful teams in Washington will be moving to the North Central Conference for the 2006 season, after the Great Northwest Athletic Conference announced it would discontinue its participation in football following the 2005 season. The football team shares an intense rivalry with Western Washington University (who will also be joining the NCC in 2006) as the two predominated football powers in the Northwest Division II ranks. Recently they've been competing in a game called the Battle in Seattle taking place at Seattle's Qwest Field before the even more traditional Cascade Cup game, although because of conference scheduling the two games will be combined starting 2006 (it will be played Oct. 21st).

Former CWU Wildcats include:

NFL QB Jon Kitna, Seattle Seahawks, Cincinnati Bengals, and Detroit Lions. Led the team to an NAIA Div. II championship in 1995.

MLB Pitcher Dave Heaverlo, San Francisco Giants, Oakland Athletics, Seattle Mariners

MLB Outfielder Billy North, Chicago Cubs, Oakland Athletics, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants

External links

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.