February 16, 2001

Contact: Robert Lowery (509-963-1487/fax 509-963-2301/ e-mail loweryr@cwu.edu)

For the seventh consecutive year, the American Institute of Physics (AIP) has named Central Washington University's Society of Physics Students (SPS) an Outstanding Chapter. Covering the 1999-2000 academic year, the Outstanding Chapter award is the highest honor given to a student organization by the AIP.

CWU was the only chapter in zone 17, which includes 21 schools in Washington, Oregon, Alaska and part of Idaho, to receive to receive the award. In fact, Central's chapter was the only one in the entire Pacific Northwest, including the rest of Idaho, Montana and Utah, which are in zone 15, Sharon Rosell, CWU physics professor, says.

Rosell is the zone 17 councilor and serves on the national SPS council.

"They choose outstanding chapter recipients based on how active those chapters are," Rosell says. "They look at how you've promoted physics at your university and within your region."

Promotional activities included chapter members participating in physics-related programs for middle school students at CWU and Yakima Valley Community College, and sixth grade students in the Yakima School District; offering free tutoring for all CWU physics classes during the academic year; and helping to host six university guest seminar presenters.

In notifying CWU of the new award, Jack G. Helm, national SPS/Sigma Pi Sigma Director and head of the AIP Educational Division, congratulated the CWU chapter for "setting a high standard of extracurricular professional development."

CWU's award was among 31 given nationally. In all, there are more than 650 SPS chapters throughout the U.S.