Songwriting is experience filtered through words, melody and rhythm. It can be poetry. It can be political tract. It can be history, religion, a statement of faith or the lack of it. Songwriting also is the latest academic offering at 91̽�� Extension — with a little help from their friends.

This October, a trio of local celebrity songwriters will teac

To learn more 91̽��Extension will hold an informational meeting about its songwriting certificate program from 6 to 6:45 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 10, at the Puget Sound Plaza Building, Suite 400, 1345 Fourth Ave., in downtown Seattle.

h a new certificate program in songwriting at 91̽��Extension, giving amateur musicians and shower singers a chance to write, produce and record their original tunes.

“This is really the most red-carpet way of learning about songwriting,” said Eric Weisbard, senior program manager in the education department of the Experience Music Project (EMP), who also serves on the advisory board for the songwriting program. “A program at the UW, with three songwriters of this stature, is definitely a new order of magnitude,” he said.

The program will be taught by Jon Auer, lead singer of the 90s power pop band The Posies and a member of the reunited Big Star; Christy McWilson, a respected solo artist and lead singer of the Seattle country band The Picketts; and Sean Nelson, associate editor of The Stranger weekly newspaper and an accomplished songwriter who leads the band Harvey Danger.

Classes will be held at EMP’s facility at Seattle Center. Students will have access to the rock & roll museum’s collection of interviews with legendary songwriters, as well as other archival materials and musical equipment.

Students will learn the fundamentals of songwriting, such as rhythm, melody, lyrics and structure. Much of this will come from analyzing how successful writers in different genres put together their compositions, and by studying the evolution of popular music over time. Instructors will also share their personal methods for writing lyrics, developing melodies and arranging instruments into a song.

“When you get into my course, it will be basically a writing course with music in it,” said McWilson, who is teaching the second course in the three-term program. “(Students) will experience the craft in songwriting, with a little guidance from people who do it for a living.”

Auer, who will teach the last course, on song production and recording, said he hopes to show how the process itself can be a creative tool.

“I find that the process of recording a song often becomes part of writing it as well. It’s like having a concrete document that becomes more objective than subjective, one that you can react to and then refine. It truly can be a revelatory experience,” Auer said.

This program has been approved by the 91̽��School of Music and is overseen by an advisory board of notable musicians, music industry members and local scholars.

Students are not required to have formal musical training, for entrance into the program. But they must show an inclination for music and songwriting ability by submitting a letter explaining how they will express themselves musically, and a home recording of a song idea or a performance.

Tuition for this three-course program will be $1,605, plus registration and related fees.

For more information call 206-616-0673 or visit online at  

In a program that lives up to the spirit of distance learning, the 91̽��has been hired to teach an Internet technology program to students at an Aleut community in the middle of the Bering Sea.

91̽��Extension and the Information School are teaching the online Certificate in Web Technology Solutions to a group of 17 students in St Paul Island, a 40-square-mile island north of the Aleutian chain. The program has been sponsored by Tanadgusix Corporation (TDX), an Aleut native corporation, through a grant by the U.S. Department of Education.

Students in the program are learning basic Web publishing and data management skills, with an emphasis on programming. They take their lessons online, via satellite link with the mainland, and hold regular phone and video conferences with their instructors in Seattle. The program also has a local teaching assistant and lab coordinator to support the lessons and help with the technology.

Helen Letts, project director for the program, said TDX is sponsoring the courses to provide new technology skills to the local population, in an effort to attract new business opportunities and diversify the local economy. St. Paul is a very small community (590 residents during the 2000 Census, only one general store) that relies on fishing, crabbing, tourism and government for jobs.

Though the 91̽��program is still a novelty, she said most residents have eagerly welcomed it and are doing well. About a third of the students are high school seniors in St. Paul (and one student from the nearby island of St. George), but the rest are adult learners. Part of that has to do with the fact that St. Paul islanders are already very computer savvy.

“These kids live on the Internet out here,” Letts said. “The Web is an easy way to deliver technology, so why not learn what you are already doing?”

“It’s really interesting,” said Zoe Holbrooks, instructor of the first course in the four-course program, Introduction to Web Publishing. “People expected them not to be at all savvy. But quite a lot of them have been using computers since elementary school.”

Holbrooks said the class represents the best aspect of online learning — providing education to folks who otherwise would have no access. “I’m strongly committed to the idea that education should be available as remotely as you can get it,” Holbrooks said. “For some people, going to a campus at 8 in the morning is not a realistic option,” she said.

Students who complete all courses in the program will earn 12 91̽��credits and a certificate of completion. Letts said she hopes the program can spark students’ interest in technology careers, and eventually build enough of a skilled population to attract investments from the mainland.

St. Paul Island is the largest of the Pribilof Islands, a small chain located about 250 miles from the Aleutian Islands. The Pribilofs were settled by Russian fur traders, who forcibly relocated Aleuts from the mainland to harvest seals. The islands have been part of the United States since 1867.

For more information about the Certificate in Web Technology Solutions, visit .  

The 91̽��recently received a $450,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to create a digital archive of Pacific Northwest cultural and historical items and to produce six online exhibitions over two years as the foundation for an online community museum.

The University, working with Olympic Peninsula Tribal Associations, the Clallam County Historical Society, the law firm of Preston Gates & Ellis LLP, Peninsula Community College and other partners, will design and carry out this digitization project that will document artifacts, stories, and events of northwest Olympic Peninsula heritage through photographs, videotape, and oral histories. The community-based curatorial and exhibition project will create Web sites, workshops, tools, and curriculum materials to aid local communities in preserving and sharing their history and culture.

The idea for the Community Museum Project surfaced in April 2000 in Forks, a town on the Olympic Peninsula, through a series of planning meetings to bring connectivity to all residents in the area.

“Frequently even tribal members don’t know some of their own traditions as well as they might,” says Viola Riebe, a cultural resource consultant for the Hoh Tribe who was one of the original participants in the early planning meetings. “A virtual museum would help pass knowledge of our traditions on to others.”

Community members, realizing that they did not have the resources to achieve the goals of the Community Museum Project alone, approached the 91̽��to assist them, recognizing that the University could bring significant intellectual, archival and technological resources to such a project.

Paul Constantine, Associate Director of Libraries for Research and Instructional Services, and Vice Provost Louis Fox saw the value and promise of such a project. Together, they provided the necessary leadership at the UW.

“As many of the resources to be included in the museum, especially objects, are now inaccessible outside the communities, the museum will be invaluable to anyone studying the culture, history, and social life of these communities from a distance,” says Constantine.

The office that Louis Fox oversees, Educational Partnerships and Learning Technologies, was established for the purpose of shaping University-community partnerships strengthened by the expert use of technology. Fox’s office will be providing management personnel based in the community to oversee and facilitate the Community Museum Project.

“The Community Museum Project establishes a model whereby a large, urban, public university partners with small, rural community groups and tribes to provide training, technical assistance, and access to collections,” says Fox. “Meanwhile, the community members themselves design and curate their own online exhibitions.”

Kathy Monds, Director of the Clallam County Historical Society, looks forward to making their rich resources visible to a broader audience.

“Our mission is to educate people about the area’s history, but the distance between communities and between our region and the rest of the state makes that difficult,” says Monds. “Having items digitized and online could help bridge that distance and make the cultures of the North Olympic Peninsula more accessible.”

Bruce Hevly, Director of the Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest at the 91̽��, will be directing the creation of curriculum materials surrounding the exhibits.

Hevly says, “This kind of project is exactly what the new information culture promises but as yet seldom delivers — a collection that does not echo a brick-and-mortar presence in a major population center, but adds to the breadth and diversity of our knowledge and cultural experience by presenting a digital collection as an introduction and an invitation to a major collection in an out of the way place.”

Seattle-based law firm Preston Gates & Ellis, is contributing hundreds of hours of pro-bono legal services to work through the intellectual property issues inherent in the project. This significant monetary commitment made the project feasible for grant funding.

“Preston Gates is excited to be part of this effort to help preserve the cultural traditions found on the Olympic Peninsula including the culture of the Hoh and Quileute tribes. The project represents a thoughtful use of technology and a fulfilling application of IP law,” says Bart Freedman, a Preston Gates partner. “While Preston Gates has a tradition of pro-bono work and community stewardship, the Community Museum Project is a particularly rewarding and cool project.”

The grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services will enable northwest Olympic Peninsula communities to create their vision of a cultural learning tool for all community members.

Sports fans now have a convenient way to prepare for a business career, thanks to a new certificate program at the UW.

This winter quarter, the 91̽��will offer a new Certificate in Sports Management, a five-month, evening program specifically designed for people who need the skills to work on the business side of a sports team, athletic department or a sports-related business or organization. This is the first such program offered by an educational institution in the Puget Sound area.

“This program is for people who are interested in a sports-related field as a career,” said Barbara Hedges, 91̽��athletic director, one of the advisory board members guiding the new program. “I think there is a need for this type of education, and this program provides an opportunity.”

91̽��faculty and top-level professionals in all levels of sports — including members of the Seahawks, Sonics and Mariners sports organizations — helped design the program’s curriculum. It covers critical skills such as leadership, contract negotiations, market research and public relations, budgeting and financial planning.

“This is a tremendous opportunity to learn about the ins and outs of sports management. It will show the broad range of positions available in the industry and also offer a tremendous introduction to a ‘dream job’,” said Gary Wright, vice president for communications with the Seattle Seahawks and an instructor in the program.

The program will also provide insight into the culture and vocabulary of a sports organization, skills particularly useful for getting noticed in the highly competitive and guarded business of sports.

“What a student will get out this course is the ability to go to a sports franchise, get an interview and discuss the business of sports,” said John Dresel, former executive vice president of the Seattle Supersonics and one of the program instructors. “They will understand all about planning and running the many aspects of a sports business.”

Students in the program will meet once a week in the evening, with some additional weekend classes. Though most of the program is classroom instruction, the last term will be devoted to an intensive research project of the students’ choice. Those who successfully complete the program requirements will earn a valuable certificate and 91̽��graduate credits that may be applicable toward a degree.

The Certificate in Sports Management is being offered by the 91̽��Business School through 91̽��Educational Outreach (UWEO), the 91̽��division that administers continuing education, evening degrees, distance learning and other opportunities for non-traditional students.

“The business school approved the program after reviewing the course content and finding it reflected an appropriate focus on management and marketing, topics that must be addressed by any enterprise that wants to succeed,” said Philip Kienast, an associate professor of business. He is also an instructor in the program.

For more information about the sports management certificate, visit .

For more information on UWEO programs, visit: .

This year’s applicants for 91̽��Educational Outreach (UWEO) certificates seem to be favoring professional, short-term programs that allow them to find work quickly, possibly because of the continuing weak economy in the Puget Sound.

According to figures collected by UWEO market researchers, eight of the top ten most popular certificate programs offered this fall are in fields that could quickly lead to a job — topics such as Paralegal Studies, Commercial Real Estate, Database Management, and Technical Writing and Editing.

Certificate programs are nine- to 12-month evening programs that offer practical education or training in a specific subject. They are designed and taught by 91̽��faculty and industry experts. UWEO offers more than a hundred credit and noncredit certificate programs in topics in business, information technology, sciences and the humanities.

Some certificate programs saw remarkable growth in the number of applications. Database Management, for example, had more than double the number of applications compared to last year, from 32 to 65. The program was the fifth most popular program in terms of applications. Construction Management also jumped from sixth place last year to second this fall, with 45 percent more applications.

The certificate in Project Management remained on top with 155 applications.

Though it’s hard to tell why students are behaving this way, administrators at UWEO said it is likely the result of the slow economy in the Seattle area.

“Some of these programs are directly translatable into employment,” said Muriel Dance, senior director of academic programs at UWEO. “Just general skills, that is, are not what people are looking for.”

The Paralegal Studies program, for example, drew 33 percent more applications than last year, raising its rank from 10th place last year to third this year. The program is one of the oldest in the 91̽��Extension portfolio, and it has a reputation as a solid program that can get people employed in law firms.

Another big surprise was the high demand for the certificate in Geographic Information Systems. The program was in 34th place last year, but it moved to 10th place this year, drawing 42 percent more applications.

John Stephens, program manager for the certificate, said the program is drawing interest from lots of government agencies and private companies. He said many organizations are realizing the usefulness of mapping software that bundles together all sorts of information about a place, allowing them to make better decisions about services and marketing.

“GIS is something that is used at all levels of government. That’s where it all started, in terms of demand,” Stephens said.

Some of the new programs offered this fall did very well. The new certificate in Private Investigations drew 35 applications, ranking at 24th place. Clinical Trials drew 41 applicants, making it the 12th most popular program this fall.

Shaun Bennett, program manager for the Clinical Trials program, said the demand reflects the strength of the biotech and medical industries in the Puget Sound.

“Seattle has a tremendous number of clinical trials going on,” Bennett said. “There’s a nexus between medical care, research and invention, right here in the area.”

David Szatmary, vice provost at UWEO, said the new application totals also reflect the perception out there of what industries are going to be in demand in the near future.

“The two trends I see are a steady increase in biotechnology and law related programs,” Szatmary said. He expects to see more interest in programs like Private Investigation, Paralegal Studies, or continued demand for programs with wide industry appeals, such as Project Management.

One expected change in this year’s list of top programs was the drop in applications for programming languages and Internet programs. Java 2, for example, was the third most popular program last year, but dropped to 54th this year.

But other information-technology specialties did very well, such as Game Development (17th), and Database Management (5th place, up from 30th last year). The changes suggest that students are moving away from specialties associated with the Internet and the dot.com bust, and instead are moving to areas with higher growth.

91̽��Educational Outreach is the 91̽��division that administers continuing education, evening degrees, distance learning and other opportunities for non-traditional students.

For more information on UWEO’s programs, visit:

Top ten most popular certificate programs in fall 2002

Top ten most popular certificate programs in fall 2001

Program name	Aut01 Apps	Aut02 Apps
Project Management	150	155
Introductory Computer Prog.*	136	29
Java 2 Programming	85	22
C++ Programming	73	36
Human Resources Management	68	65
Construction Management	67	97
Editing	63	53
Embedded Systems	61	38
Technical Writing and Editing	61	58
Paralegal Studies	55	73

*This program offered tuition assistance last fall, which was discontinued in 2002 

The UW’s Office of Educational Partnerships and Learning Technologies and its partners in Eastern Washington — Northwest Communities Education Center and Horizons Inc. — have been awarded a $576,331 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to create two community technology centers in Granger and Sunnyside.

These technology centers are designed to help farm workers and other low-income individuals improve their English literacy, become fluent in the uses of information technology, and provide access to a wide-array of education resources. Both centers will have video conferencing capabilities to communicate with and access resources at the 91̽��and beyond. The proposal was one of 53 selected from a pool of 1,400 applicants.

“Farm working families in our area will now have a means to access information that will facilitate receiving services from such state agencies as the Department of Social & Health Services and Job Service Centers,” said Ricardo R. Garcia, Executive Director of Northwest Communities Education Center. “They will have at their fingertips an educational service that will help them learn and appreciate the convenience of the computer systems. Many will also be able to keep up with the computer skills that their children are learning at school.”

The funds will allow the partners to create a community technology center at the KDNA radio station in Granger, and another technology center at a Horizons Inc. site in Sunnyside. The funds will also allow the sites to hire three instructors each, to assist farm workers and other low-income families with English classes, computing lessons, vocational programs, and other useful online educational sources.

“The creation of these technology centers will open doors to technology, education and job skills for some of the lower Yakima Valley’s most underserved families,” U.S. Senator Patty Murray said. “I am pleased to have helped provide federal funding for this very worthy cause. By increasing opportunity for farm worker families, we pave the way for new jobs and economic opportunities for our entire community.”

Faculty and graduate students from the UW’s Information School will assist in assembling the online resources needed and assessing the impact of these technology centers and their programs on English proficiency and job skills.

“This is a terrific opportunity for the entire Information School faculty and students across all its curricula,” said Professor Betty Marcoux, one of the 91̽��faculty who will be working closely with this project. “We welcome the chance to collaborate and assist with the development of information access and use in these communities,”

This is the second grant award to benefit residents of the Yakima Valley. In October of last year the 91̽��and the Yakama Nation were awarded a grant from the same program to create a technology center in the Yakama Nation Library. This center is already bringing tangible benefits to the community.

“We are pleased to build on our work in the Yakima Valley by creating centers to benefit the Latino and farm worker communities in the area, giving them opportunities to improve their English literacy skills and to learn how to access Internet resources,” said Robert Ozuna, Director of the UW-Yakima Valley Community Partnership.

91̽��staff, including a large group of volunteer undergraduate students, will help set up the technology centers this fall and winter. The center at Granger will likely open by late December, with the Sunnyside site opening by March.

Enrollments on the first day of summer quarter at the 91̽��are already ahead of last year’s numbers, which could make this summer session the most popular in the past 10 years.

As of Monday, the first day of classes, there are 15,027 students enrolled in summer quarter on the Seattle campus, compared to 14,127 last summer, an increase of 6.3 percent. Last summer’s 10th-day count for the Seattle campus was 15,041. (Tenth-day enrollments — generally greater than first day — are considered the official number for the quarter.)

This year, two factors may have joined forces to draw more students to campus. First, this fall’s freshman class of 5,382 was the largest in the history of the UW, thanks to the long-anticipated arrival of the Baby Boom Echo. Also, a stagnant economy has reduced the available internships and summer jobs that many college students flock to during the slack months, so some students may be choosing to stay in school instead.

“When the economy is weak, enrollments are good,” said Kei Quinlan, 91̽��director of Summer Quarter. “I would say we’ll see a slight increase because of that.”

Nationally, unemployment has grown among workers ages 16 to 24, from 10 percent in May 2001, to 11.6 percent last month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The percentage of people ages 16 to 24 who work also fell to 62.5 percent in May, about 5.2 percent lower than in 1987. In addition, Washington had the second highest unemployment rate in the country — 7.1 percent in May.

Another factor that could attract students is the recent tuition increases authorized by the state. The new higher tuition doesn’t become effective until the fall, which makes summer quarter a relative bargain. For example, a full-time undergraduate resident attending the 91̽��at Seattle would pay $1,291 during summer quarter, compared to $1,545 during fall quarter.

But the bulk of students will probably attend summer quarter because it is traditionally a slower time on campus. Many classes — especially field courses that take advantage of the nice weather and of outdoor research facilities owned by the 91̽��— are only offered in summer. And some students use summer quarter to get ahead with their studies, particularly with classes required for certain majors.

“I’m five credits behind in my major. I decided to take 10 credits this summer, so I can graduate on time,” said Sabrina Paulette, a senior majoring in communications, who chose to enroll in summer quarter instead of taking a summer job. “Summer quarter is easier to schedule.”

Teachers also appreciate the summer atmosphere. Jura Avizienis, a doctoral candidate and teaching assistant in Comparative Literature, will be offering a new class this summer titled “Amnesia in Film,” which she designed to attract summer quarter students. She said summer students tend to be more motivated — she doesn’t expect an apathetic crowd when she shows them films like Memento and Vertigo to study the concept of memory loss as a plot device.

“The people who signed up for this class really want to be here, because they are willing to give up their summer for this,” Avizienis said.

Teachers at the 91̽��now have an easier way to keep track of their classes, contact students, and produce course Web pages

MyUWClass, a web portal for faculty and instructors, is up and running on University servers, giving teachers a central place to manage their courses and to access the latest Web-based teaching tools.

MyUWClass gives instructors a customized set of tools and resources for each of their classes, from the class description, to lists of enrolled students. Faculty can use the portal to look up information about the equipment in their classroom or to check on their reserves with the 91̽��libraries. They can set up e-mail lists for their students, easily post Web pages for a class, or use any of the other Web-based teaching tools from the Catalyst Toolkit.

Most of these resources were already available to faculty, but not in one place, and not always easily. What MyUWClass does is bring these services together in a personalized Web portal that doesn’t require faculty to know anything about Web design, computer programming or database management. It is also easier to maintain and to scale.

For example, teachers setting up a Web page for their class through SimpleSite, one of the Catalyst tools available through MyUWClass, only need to fill out a Web-based form. Faculty can then post the page to the Web without the need for specialized software. Once posted, the address for the Web page is published to the students enrolled in the course who see it in their My 91̽��course schedule.

Bill Shirey, manager of Student Information Systems with 91̽��Computing & Communications, said his staff worked with the Educational Technology Development Group and the Office of the Registrar to assemble MyUWClass from existing computer systems and databases, avoiding the need for proprietary — and expensive — tools. A version of MyUWClass has been created for UW’s distance learning offerings, with the help of 91̽��Educational Outreach.

“We didn’t seek an outside vendor to provide a portal for us. We just put all the people together in one room and decided how it would work” said Tom Lewis, director of the Ed-Tech Development Group.

Lewis said this approach is often the exception at universities, where traditional boundaries between schools, departments, and distance learning units keep people from sharing resources, or from using them in the most efficient way.

Faculty can access MyUWClass through the “Teaching” tab of the My 91̽��portal. For an example of what MyUWClass looks like, visit . For more information on Catalyst, visit