Washington state Rep. Scott White, D-North Seattle, toured the WWU campus Wednesday with Sherry Burkey, associate vice president for University Relations, Tim Wynn, director of Facilities Management, and Rick Benner, executive director of capital planning.

Rep. White, here wearing a blue jacket and carrying an umbrella, paused to talk to the group after looking through the Communications and Academic Instructional Center buildings and adjacent plaza.

Charles Dickens opens his classic "A Tale of Two Cities" with the lines: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” This summer Western will experience an unprecedented amount of construction work. As I type my notes, I have counted a total of over 70 projects that are already either awarded to construction contractors or scheduled for Facilities Management execution.

State Sen. Dale Brandland (R-Bellingham) visited the Western Washington University campus on Wednesday, Jan. 6, for a tour of the ongoing construction at Miller Hall.

During his tour, Brandland and WWU President Bruce Shepard stopped to say a few words to members of the construction crew, from Dawson Construction.

"As bad as the economy is right now, I shudder to think where we would be if we didn't have projects like this," Brandland said. "We're going to recover from this, and stuff like this is really what's going to get us back."

This is the eighth edition of my Desk Notes. Facilities Management has finished up with almost all of the "summer" projects at this point (Yes, I do realize it's fall. I think I was tipped off by the torrential down pours … either that or the consistently bad news coming out of Pullman and Seattle vis-à-vis football) and we are starting to gear up for next summer. We have four major on-going projects that will continue through the academic year.

This is the seventh edition of my Desk Notes. I got a number of responses to my query as to whether I should continue with these Desk Notes through the academic year. The consensus seems to be that they furnish some good information or, failing that, a bit of a diversion in a busy day. That being the case, I will continue sending these out until the FCC intervenes. For those of you who have more than enough e-mail, please just hit “delete” when you see the Desk Notes subject or, better yet, set up a rule that automatically will send it to the trash bin.

This is the sixth edition of my “Desk Notes.” For those of you who have not been here this summer, the original concept of the “Desk Notes” was to give a little more insight to staff and faculty on the ongoing construction during the summer. I am uncertain whether I should continue through the academic year as I am acutely aware of the competition for the time and attention of the staff and faculty. On the other hand, I guess you can just hit “delete.” Let me know your thoughts.