Anti-Coug myth busting

College rivalry is a great thing.

There is no better feeling than defeating the University of Washington and watching them suffer. Whether it is sports, academics, raising money for charity, a game of cards, or beating someone to a parking spot, competition always exists between the two institutions.

Creative quips are sent back and forth between Cougars and Huskies aimed to put each other down and give their own school a leg up. The only problem is the Huskies are lacking in their creativity, and one of their go to insults is factually incorrect.

“What do UW and WSU students have in common?” they ask. “They both applied to UW.”

This is the most absurd thing I have ever heard. Many students actually turn down UW on a yearly basis because the school simply cannot satisfy their needs as students.

Hundreds of different rankings exist for collegiate programs and majors, ranking different schools in different orders, but one thing is certain—WSU offers several programs that UW does not. There are also some instances when WSU actually offers a better program than the UW equivalent.

For example, WSU’s Murrow College of Communication is one of the top destinations for journalism, media production, and other communication majors in the country. Murrow is considered one of the best communication schools in the country, according to NewPro Magazine. One reason Murrow College has been successful drawing in students is its prestigious alumni, such as Edward R. Murrow and Keith Jackson.

Murrow is known to have shaped journalism as we know it today, while Keith Jackson set the standard for broadcasting football in the 20th century.

UW has no such icon and their current radio play-by-play broadcaster for football is a great example of how not to broadcast a football game – by acting like a two-yard gain is a game-winning touchdown in the national championship.

But journalism is not the only field where WSU has the advantage over UW. While UW is spending time researching medicine, WSU is busy saving the planet with environmental work.

Location has a lot to do with this. While UW is located in a metropolitan city, WSU is located in the countryside. We’re making our own kinds of progress in different parts of the world.

Another advantage that WSU has over UW is its veterinary program. Without people to conduct veterinary research and keep animal populations sustainable we would have an incredibly difficult time keeping the world fed. The veterinary grad school is consistently ranked as one of the best in the nation, according to U.S. News.

There is also a very simple factor for why some students choose WSU over UW, and that is the crime rate. According to the Pullman Police Department’s annual report, crime is at the lowest it’s been since 2007.

So UW is not a better school than WSU. WSU is not a better school than UW. They are two different schools appealing to two different types of students.

It is time UW recognizes that and creates some original material.

-Beau Baily is a junior communication major from Puyallup. He can be contacted at 335-2290 or by [email protected]. The opinions expressed in this column are not necessarily those of the staff of The Daily Evergreen or those of Student Publications.