TCAC
August 1999 Report Index
| UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON |
August 10, 1999
Provost Lee Huntsman
Office of the Provost
Room 301, Gerberding Hall
Box 351237
Dear Lee:
Enclosed please find the first report of the newly formed Tri-Campus Advisory Committee (TCAC), which commenced meeting on February 25, 1999. At our most recent meeting, the fourteenth, those present unanimously supported forwarding this report to you. The first section of the report consists of an Executive Summary, the second is the main body and the third spans appendices. These appendices provide detailed information and important perspectives supporting the commentary of the first two sections and are intended to be substantive components of the report.
The scope of the report is defined by two points found in your charge letter of January 5, 1999 to the TCAC:
"I ask the committee to provide advocacy and vision for the Three Campus University."
primary focus will be on how best to serve the needs of students across the UW Bothell, Seattle and Tacoma campuses. To accomplish this, the Committee will consider such topics and issues as encouraging collaboration and linkages between and among the campuses."
With respect to collaborations, the report focuses primarily on faculty. The reason for this emphasis is outlined clearly in the main body of the report.
I will make no effort in this letter to summarize either the Executive Summary or the main body of the report. However, let me add the following personal observations, for which I must take full responsibility.
For significant numbers of students and faculty alike, there exist now and will exist in the future wonderful educational opportunities arising from innovative, vibrant three campus initiatives. If my reading of the members of the TCAC is correct, there also are faculty and staff on all three campuses with the will, desire and ability both to define and to pursue these innovative initiatives. Already, Tools for Transformation has served as a good mechanism to harness some of the strengths of these faculty and staff. As you know the crucial early phases of several cross campus initiatives have been supported and brought to fruition by that mechanism.
However, for faculty and staff at UW Bothell and UW Tacoma, the challenges of meeting enrollment targets and of sustaining rapid, continuous growth (of quality) is extraordinary. The weight of meeting these challenges and of other important work, largely centered at each campus, tends to be all consuming. Therefore, having the necessary time and energy to be vigorous partners in three campus initiatives represents a significant pinch-point for them. For the faculty and staff at UW Seattle, sustaining and maintaining the largely excellent trajectory of that institution also tends to be all consuming. For them, working on three campus initiatives commonly represents new and added labor rather than a substitution for other responsibilities from which they are relieved. This situation constitutes another pinch-point in developing three campus initiatives.
Opening these pinch-points and addressing the other major challenges on a path leading to an evermore effective Three Campus University of Washington undoubtedly will require significant effort. However, the benefits attendant to successfully meeting these challenges will be impressively large for students and faculty alike. I sincerely hope that this first report of the TCAC aids you in taking some of the next steps on that path. I believe that now is the time to address important issues related to central coordination and to funding policies governing the growth of the new campuses. The pivotal significance of administering and initiating centrally coordinated procedures which foster the effective development of the Three Campus University is evident. However, in my view, the new procedures and policies which are adopted also must continue to permit sufficient local autonomy at each individual campus, thereby allowing its leadership to efficiently and effectively manage the distinctive components of its mission. In fact, finding the appropriate balance between central coordination and local autonomy well may be the essence of managing a successful, federated three campus university.
Let me conclude my personal comments by saying that I am deeply grateful to the members of the TCAC. They are thoughtful, stimulating people of goodwill. Their generosity of spirit in dealing with meeting times, with some unanticipated changes in meetings, with travel issues, with many refinements of the report, etc. has been most appreciated. One measure of this generosity has to do with their agreeing to a 7:30 a.m. start for our meetings. That early start-time was and continues to be the only one we could find which (1) allows a great majority of the members to attend meeting after meeting and (2) results in our having sessions of adequate duration, i.e., one to one-and-a-half hour(s) in length.
I look forward to meeting with you on Friday, August 20, at which time, if you wish, we will have an opportunity to discuss the report in some detail. The first meeting of the TCAC for 1999-2000 is September 23. You are invited to join us then to further discuss the report and to comment on any agenda items you feel the committee should address next.
Sincerely,
Norman J. Rose
Tri-Campus Advisory Committee Chair
UWB Dean Emeritus
Enclosures
Copies to:
Members of the Tri-Campus Advisory Committee
Chancellor Warren Buck
Chancellor Vicky Carwein
Vice Chancellor Stan Slater
