Western Washington University Athletic Director Lynda Goodrich shared a funny -- and uplifting -- story the other day about collaboration among the University of Washington, Washington State University and WWU crew teams:

"The nationals are in New Jersey, so the University of Washington coach, Bob Ernst, is using WWU coach John Fuch’s truck and our trailer to haul our shells and the UW shells to New Jersey. John will haul them home. But last week on the way out, John’s truck broke down in Montana. The dealer could not get it fixed in time, so Bob Ernst called the Washington State University coach (whose team did not qualify for nationals), and the WSU coach drove their truck to Montana for Bob to use to continue the trip ... so, we had the UW coach driving a WSU truck hauling a WWU trailer ... that’s what I call teamwork and a good example of the state’s universities working together."

The women's crew teams, by the way, rowed this morning in the opening heats of the NCAA Div. II national championships. Western didn't win either of its heats, so both the eight and the four will row Saturday, May 26, in the repechage heats for a chance to row in the grand final on Sunday.

Still on the topic of rowing, student Megan Northey has the highest gpa of any athlete at the Div. II rowing championships. That's landed her the prestigious Elite 89 award, the first ever won by a WWU athlete.

The Compass 2 Campus float won the Grand Prize for the Ski to Sea Junior Parade on Friday, May 18, says Shar Sarte Prince. C2C also will have a presence in the main Ski to Sea parade on Saturday, May 26, so be on the lookout for that.

A handful of students in the WWU art department have created a minigolf course -- functional sculpture, they call it, and one look bears that out -- in front of the Fine Arts Building. Check it out when you're out walking the campus. Or, watch this one-minute video from interns Michelle Naranjo and Sarah Richardson that explains the project.

The rumors that the doors to the Reading Room in Wilson Library are coated in whale leather aren't necessarily untrue, says librarian Gabe Gossett. "It doesn't exactly look like other leather you may have seen," he writes in the Western Libraries' "Ask Us!" service on the library website.

To help students deal with the stress of finals week, the Western Libraries is bringing dogs to campus in the next couple of weeks for students to hang out with. If the response to the university's Facebook post is any indication, this is a wonderfully popular idea.

Do you have a fun bit of news for the Scene at Western column? Send it to westerntoday@wwu.edu!