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Dec 31, 2024 | 
postalley.org | Sally McMillan
In 2024, higher education faced increased pressures — dwindling public confidence, operational challenges, and economic woes. Public officials at every level of government, emboldened by wins among voters without post-secondary degrees, are likely to increase external demands on colleges and universities in 2025. At the same time, demographic and technological changes offer more challenges and opportunities.
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Dec 24, 2024 | 
postalley.org | Sally McMillan
Evan Friss’ recently released book, The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore, provides authoritative and engaging details about the challenging world of book selling. He chronicles key historical figures from colonial printer Benjamin Franklin to contemporary author and “patron saint of independent bookstores,” Anne Patchett. “Nineteenth-century booksellers worried that public libraries would destroy them.
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Aug 26, 2024 | 
postalley.org | Sally McMillan
Notorious delays in the release and processing of the “simplified” Free Application for Student Aid (FAFSA) application, COVID-related changes in post-secondary enrollment, and declining birth rates — all have created a cliffhanger for colleges this fall. Nationally, FAFSA applications have dropped 11 percent this year, due to serious timing delays. Washington state, which historically trails the national average, has seen a 12 percent decline in FAFSA applications.
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Jul 26, 2024 | 
postalley.org | Sally McMillan
Local journalist Maggie Mertens grew up in Seattle as the only girl with four brothers. She later graduated from the all-female Smith College. Both environments shaped her thinking about women and athletic performance. Her recent book, Better Faster Farther: How Running Changed Everything We Know About Women, uses meticulously researched and engagingly told stories to trace achievements of elite women runners from the first modern Olympic games through contemporary ultra-marathoning.
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Jun 17, 2024 | 
postalley.org | Sally McMillan
At the end of her first year of high school Ellie Adams felt miserable. She had spent more time in doctor’s offices and hospitals than in classrooms and study halls. When she felt well enough to go to school, teachers showed little interest in helping her catch up. “I started missing more classes because I was having panic attacks, and then I got sent to the guidance counselor,” she recalls.
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May 12, 2024 | 
postalley.org | Sally McMillan
Using a work light, a soldering iron, and a dental probe, Max Arnold carefully unfastens wires from a failed component within a giant electromechanical switchboard that connected phone calls on Mercer Island in the pre-digital era. Arnold, age 23, works in computer security by day, bakes for fun, and volunteers at the Connections Museum in Seattle’s Georgetown. His meticulous attention to detail will return the museum’s Number 5 Crossbar telephone switching system to full working order.
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Feb 21, 2024 | 
postalley.org | Sally McMillan
While they wait for expected data from the “simplified” federal financial aid application forms for students, college and university financial aid officers fret over missed deadlines and data they will not receive. Christine Taylor, Director of Financial Aid & Veterans Services at Bellevue College, said the new Free Application for Student Aid (FAFSA) will no longer ask students if they plan to live on campus. “We have to figure out how to set up our cost-of-attendance budgets,” Taylor said.
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Feb 14, 2024 | 
postalley.org | Sally McMillan
In the days after Super Bowl LXIII, a memorable, close game, people are more likely to be talking about the game than the advertisements. Forty years ago, an ad won all the buzz. In 1984, IBM was winning the battle for the desktop. Apple was about to launch the Macintosh computer. An advertisement for the Macintosh, which never mentioned the product by name and ran only once, became one of the most talked-about advertisements of all time. It also shaped the future of Super Bowl advertising.
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Feb 7, 2024 | 
postalley.org | Sally McMillan
On January 30, the United States Department of Education announced a delay in release of student information collected on the Free Application for Student Aid (FAFSA) form. This further complicates the rollout of the “simplified” FAFSA. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington negotiated bipartisan legislation to simplify the FAFSA. By the time the bill passed in November 2023 submissions were already delayed.
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Jan 30, 2024 | 
postalley.org | Sally McMillan
Mickey Mouse, Claudine Gay, and ChatGPT all are experiencing the pressures of keeping in step with copyright laws that were originally created in the analog age. According to the United States Copyright Office, “the principle that an author of a work may reap the fruits of his or her intellectual creativity for a limited amount of time” has been U.S. law since 1790. Congress created the Copyright Office in 1870 to register works and prepare them for storage at the Library of Congress.
