News and Updates

Regional & Community Relations and the entire UW community welcome new University of Washington President Michael Young, who was dressed in one of his 12 new purple shirts on his first official day in office July 1. UW Daily interviewed President Young about issues important to students and what lies ahead.

July is an excellent time to visit the Theodor Jacobsen Observatory, near the north entrance to campus. Built in 1895, it still offers celestial views of the universe through several telescopes, including the 120-year old six-inch refractor telescope.  The observatory is open the first and third Wednesdays of each month through September (9-11 pm), when public lectures are also offered.  For more details about the talks, or to read about the observatory’s history, visit the Theodor Jacobson Observatory website.

The UW Department of Genome Sciences invites you to its 2011 public lecture series beginning July 6 and continuing each Wednesday evening in July. Four presentations by experts in their fields will cover a range of topics – new evolutionary discoveries to ancient infections – and require no background knowledge in genetics or other biological subjects. The lectures will be held in the Foege Building Auditorium beginning at 8 pm, with refreshments and further discussion to follow.

A new electronics shopping service launched June 20 is helping to eliminate buyer’s remorse about new consumer electronics,  an area that often moves too fast for the average person to keep up.  Decide.com was co-founded with four other UW alums by Oren Etzioni, UW professor of Computer Science & Engineering. It uses advanced technology to predict future product releases and pricing so consumers can buy before prices rise, or wait until prices drop.

A quarterly update of State General Fund Revenues has predicted a total drop of over $570 million for the upcoming 2011-13 biennium when combined with other economic and non-economic revenue changes.  While this news has no immediate impact for the University, continued declines in state revenue would likely necessitate another round of mid-year and supplemental session budget cuts for state agencies, including the UW.