This week, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision allowing the travel ban imposed by Executive Order to go into partial effect. Under this partial implementation, individuals from the six countries listed in the Order who have a bona fide, documented relationship with the University (such as admitted students, faculty and staff members, and invited lecturers) are generally not subject to the ban imposed by the Order
Presidential Blog
Counting the true cost of cuts to research funding
Funding by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has supported countless discoveries that have saved or improved millions of lives, from Dr. Mary-Claire King’s discovery of the BRCA1 breast cancer gene to new, more accurate diagnostic tools for Alzheimer’s disease. As I’ve written before, the President’s budget proposal would dramatically cut NIH’s research funding, slowing progress in understanding and curing diseases that ultimately affect nearly every single American in some form.
This week, I reached out to the U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and the Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney to share our concerns about the very real ways in which those funding cuts could not merely impede but actually dismantle our nation’s biomedical research and discovery ecosystem, now the envy of the world.
Among the changes proposed in the budget are significant cuts to Facilities and Administration or F&A reimbursements (also known as indirect research costs). While direct costs like researcher pay and lab equipment are the expenses the public most associates with research, F&A costs are real and necessary expenses that are just as integral to research. Like the plumbing and wiring that make a building inhabitable, F&A covers essential infrastructure that a university’s labs and researchers all rely on, like secure computing systems, high-speed data processing and storage, radiation and chemical safety precautions, and personnel costs associated with meeting federal and state regulations related to the safety of human subjects, to name a few. Just as four walls and a roof are not enough to make a house livable, without the infrastructure covered by F&A, universities cannot conduct the kinds of cutting-edge research that results in cures and treatments that save lives.
Even under current law, F&A reimbursements do not cover the full cost of conducting research. The UW is able to make up the difference, effectively subsidizing federal research spending. But if these drastic cuts take effect, it would be impossible to provide the level of support that currently keeps our research efforts moving forward.
The UW and the many people who benefit from our biomedical research would suffer from this budget, and across the country, research universities, especially public institutions, would suffer as well. It would devastate the national biomedical research community and the economy built on research discoveries, leading to a decline in the number of biomedical start-ups based in the U.S. At a minimum, discovery would be slowed, but worse, the loss in momentum nationally to our research breakthroughs would cost many lives that could have been saved.
There is a clear and compelling case for the national interest we all share in federal investment in biomedical research and discovery. I invite and encourage all who care about this issue – and I believe that’s all of us – to raise your voices as well.
A message to alumni: Proud of our community of shared values
As we conclude another successful academic year, some 15,000 or so new graduates will go forth from the University of Washington and begin to carve their post-college paths. Among them are visionaries who dream of interplanetary travel and asteroid-mining, newly minted Ph.D.s with expertise in everything from classics to bioengineering, and Washington students who were the first in their families to enroll in college and will leave the UW with a diploma and untold opportunities. Each graduate’s story is unique and powerful.
At the UW, excellence is the norm
It’s that time of year when we commemorate hard work, excellence and a job well done. It’s an important moment — or series of moments, as we work through finals and ceremonies small and large — when we reflect on who we are as a community and the bright future that is possible when we work individually and together to achieve great things.
UW stands with the world to fight climate change and protect our future
With almost a hundred of our university peers and with the Governor Inslee and other governors, mayors and business leaders, we have become signatories of the CERES letter stating that in the absence of leadership from the federal government, we remain in solidarity with those around the world committed to a transition to clean energy and to holding global warming to well below 2°C.
New budget would harm nation’s health, economy and security
In March, I wrote about the negative impacts on our nation’s health, economy and security that would result from implementation of the President’s budget outline for the next fiscal year, FY18.
That initial budget outline has now been expanded to a full proposed budget for FY18, which was released today. The cuts to science, health care and other investments in our national prosperity are even more draconian – and more harmful – than those proposed in the original outline.
To honor those we’ve lost, support those who are with us
Memorial Day is not about celebrating war, but about celebrating the lives of men and women like Will, who put everything on the line so that others might live a better life, across the world and at home. It offers a moment for all of us to unite in honoring them, and, just as important, supporting the family, friends and fellow veterans who grieve their loss.
Reflecting on the first year of the Population Health Initiative
This month, we mark the one-year anniversary of our Population Health Initiative, an effort we launched with the goal of bringing our community together to improve health and well-being here and around the world. The impetus for that call remains as strong as ever, while our capacity to create change for the better is only growing. One year in, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on what we’ve accomplished so far and what lies ahead in this journey.
Kicking off a national search for the next UW Provost
Last week, I officially charged a group of faculty, staff and students to advise me by searching nationally to identify candidates for the UW’s top academic job. In their search for a Provost and Executive Vice President, I have asked them to seek candidates who value our traditions of shared governance, transparency and accountability. I also encouraged them to reach out across disciplines and to individuals who reflect the diversity of our community. Finalists for the position will come to campus to meet with members of our community and talk about their vision sometime in the fall or winter.
The Lincoln Project and the future of public higher education
Public research universities like the UW are essential engines for social mobility and prosperity, especially for first generation students. If, as a society, we fail to make the investments needed to keep them strong, we endanger progress, prosperity and innovation not just for the individuals who attend, but for their communities, states and our nation.