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Honoring our longstanding partnership with Boeing

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On Monday we had the privilege, along with our supporters and collaborators from The Boeing Company, to celebrate UW student recipients of Boeing scholarships, and to express our immense gratitude for The Boeing Company and its generous, longstanding support of our students, faculty and programs.

Interim President Ana Mari Cauce pictured with Boeing scholarship recipients
Interim President Ana Mari Cauce (second from left) with UW student recipients of Boeing scholarships

For nearly 100 years, our collaboration with Boeing has had a significant impact in shaping the University, Boeing and the Pacific Northwest. Boeing’s support has given our students the opportunity to challenge themselves, to apply their education to real-world problems and to pursue their dreams. Thanks to Boeing, these students have been able to develop their talents and engage in significant and positive ways with the wider community. Our Boeing-funded students are leaving the UW well-equipped to create a better world for all of us.

This past year our collaboration with Boeing achieved a new milestone. The Boeing Advanced Research Center — or BARC — officially launched in January, with an initial focus in areas of advanced assembly and manufacturing technologies. Housed in our Department of Mechanical Engineering, BARC is exciting because it represents a new way of collaborating to tackle the challenges facing industry and society. At BARC, UW faculty and Boeing engineers lead research projects together, and graduate students have the opportunity to work side-by-side with Boeing to address some of the most significant issues in airplane design, manufacturing and assembly.

The depth and breadth of Boeing’s impact on the UW is vast. The company’s investments in research, academic programs, scholarships and fellowships benefit many students on all three campuses. We are truly grateful for our collaboration with Boeing, for its leadership on our campus, in our community and in our state, and for its longstanding partnership, working together with us to educate, serve and provide opportunities for all of Washington’s citizens.

Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act

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Twenty-five years ago, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law, establishing a legal mandate to end discrimination against people with disabilities. The ADA has been instrumental in advancing civil and human rights across the nation. The University of Washington is committed to doing all we can to increase access and opportunity for people with disabilities — including nearly a million residents in Washington state.

Our community strives to create welcoming and respectful learning environments and to promote equity and fairness for all. We value and honor the diverse experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and abilities of all individuals.

On the occasion of the ADA’s 25th anniversary, we are hosting various events to reaffirm our commitment to and support for improving accessibility and promoting full inclusion, as well as to celebrate and show respect for the contributions people with disabilities make to our campus. We hope these events will also foster pride among students, staff, faculty, family members and visitors with disabilities.

I invite our entire community to attend these events planned for this spring, summer and the 2015–2016 academic year, including:

  • Tuesday, May 5, 2015
    A special screening of the film “On Beauty“ and discussion with filmmaker Joanna Rudnick
    4:30 p.m., HUB Lyceum
  • Friday, May 8, 2015
    Special presentation on deaf history by Dr. M.J. Bienvenu from Gallaudet University
    6:30–8:30 p.m., Kane Hall, room 120
  • Thursday, May 21, 2015
    Access Technology Center Open House: Drop by to learn about the ATC, meet the staff and help celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day! The ATC provides accessibility consultations and demonstrates a wide variety of hardware, software and furniture for users with disabilities.
    1–4 p.m., Mary Gates Hall, room 064

Additional events and information will be added to the ADA 25th Anniversary website each quarter.

Thank you for your ongoing efforts to make the University of Washington a place that is welcoming to all.

Compassion and action for Nepal

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The devastating earthquake in Nepal on Saturday and its unyielding aftershocks are tragic and catastrophic. Our hearts go out to the millions of people affected, including the UW’s Nepalese Student Association and our community members who have family and friends in the region. Over the years, countless UW faculty, students and alumni have studied Nepal’s cultural and geographic treasures, and this disaster reverberates across our globe-spanning Husky network. It is also a sobering reminder of the awesome power of nature and the potential damage a major earthquake can wreak on a region.

Many individuals have asked how to help. The UW is aligning with a statewide disaster relief campaign through the UW Combined Fund Drive. Contributions to any of the nonprofit organizations listed here or the Nepalese Student Association fund will help to raise the billions of dollars it will take to provide essential support. Thank you for your concern — and compassion.

Medical Education in Washington: Do No Harm

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Congratulations to Washington State University on the official signing of legislation to seek accreditation for an independent medical school. As they begin the process of seeking accreditation, we at the University of Washington offer our appreciation for more than 40 years of medical education partnership with our colleagues in Pullman and Spokane.

With the passage of WSU’s policy bill, significant decisions remain.

Budget proposals have been released in Olympia, and the prospects for the UW School of Medicine in Spokane are decidedly mixed. The House of Representatives budget provides us with sufficient funding — $4.7 million per year — to pursue the course we set together with Spokane: to continue and expand our four-year medical school. If this budget approach is adopted, the UW will begin to address our doctor shortage immediately and continue to serve Spokane students and the physician workforce needs of the state for years to come.

The Senate budget, unfortunately, defunds our current efforts in Spokane — likely eliminating operations and taking expansion off the table. Only $1.25 million in annual funding is provided to the UW for our Spokane medical school, well below the House funding level of $4.7 million per year. Put simply, if the Senate budget is adopted, our medical school in Spokane is in serious jeopardy. We will be forced to reduce our Washington student class size or transfer some students back to the Seattle campus for first and second year training. We would consider this a tremendous setback for our students, for the community of Spokane and the state of Washington.

We will be working hard over the next several weeks with our community supporters in Spokane and around the state to inform the legislature and the Governor about what is at stake in this year’s biennial budget proposal. We need doctors now, and the UW School of Medicine is ready to provide them.

On April 15, I will come to Spokane to join the community in celebrating the UW’s newest Spokane medical students. It’s imperative that we keep their education and success our highest priority.

Our momentum to expand medical research, education and access in eastern Washington is palpable, and we will accelerate our vision for the UW School of Medicine in Spokane with your continued support.

I invite you to keep up with our progress at uw.edu/spokanemedschool.

Sincerely,

Ana Mari Cauce
Interim President
Professor of Psychology and American Ethnic Studies

National Institutions Coming Out Day

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The University of Washington is driven by our public promise — a promise to our state and the next generation to do all that we can to make the world a better place. At the core of that promise is our deep commitment to access, equal opportunity and social justice.

We are proud to be a University that wholeheartedly welcomes and supports undocumented students on the first “National Institutions Coming Out Day,” launched by United We Dream Network’s Dream Education Empowerment Program. All three UW campuses have a variety of services for undocumented students and participate in the statewide coalition to train educators about how to best support students on their path to and through college.

We applaud our state’s elected leaders for their support of these students. In 2014, the REAL Hope Act was signed into law making Washington one of only five states that allow undocumented students to qualify for both in-state tuition and state financial aid, enhancing a 2003 law allowing undocumented students to pay in-state tuition at state colleges and universities.

At the federal level, Senator Patty Murray is the lead advocate to expand access to higher education for low-income students, regardless of their immigration status. Last month, Senator Murray introduced the “Investing in States to Achieve Tuition Equality (IN-STATE) for Dreamers Act of 2015” to establish the American Dream Grant program, which would reward states that set equitable tuition and student aid policies, offer in-state tuition and state financial aid to Dreamer students regardless of immigration status and help reduce the cost of college for all students.

We have a responsibility to ensure that all qualified students who have the curiosity to learn and a desire to earn a college degree will have a seat in our classrooms, regardless of their backgrounds.

As we work toward addressing the world’s greatest challenges, let’s work together for the common good. For more information about supporting undocumented students, please visit www.unitedwedream.org.

Sincerely,

Ana Mari Cauce
Interim President

Jerry Baldasty
Interim Provost

David Eaton
Dean & Vice Provost,
Graduate School

Sheila Edwards Lange
Vice President &
Vice Provost
Minority Affairs & Diversity

Mark Pagano
Chancellor,
UW Tacoma

Denzil Suite
Vice President,
Student Life

Ed Taylor
Vice Provost & Dean,
Undergraduate Academic Affairs

Bjong Wolf Yeigh
Chancellor, UW Bothell

Addressing affordable housing issues in our region

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I am so pleased the University of Washington is partnering with the Seattle Times and Microsoft Corporation on the LiveWire series that addresses vital issues impacting our region and its residents.

Earlier this week, we hosted more than 800 people on campus for a lively discussion about affordability and housing. We heard a variety of viewpoints of how to balance our rapidly growing population and the need for more livable and affordable neighborhoods.

Affordability and housing go hand-in-hand and they impact virtually all of our students, faculty, staff and community members. One way we’re addressing this is to work with both businesses and community members to create a new University District Partnership. It will take close campus and community relationships to make sure that issues including public safety, social services and housing are addressed as the U-District is revitalized.

That’s why we are partnering with Children’s Hospital to build a new employee housing project in the heart of the neighborhood. This mixed-income project will include 36 units that are affordable to those making between 65% and 85% of area median income. It will include larger units that we hope will attract families to the neighborhood.

As a public university, we have a responsibility and a commitment to address income inequality, skyrocketing housing costs and other social issues with adverse impacts. And as a community it is simply the right thing to do, taking care of each other and our neighbors.

Together, we can work to ensure that the U-District remains and grows as an affordable and livable region for all of us.

Ana Mari Cauce
Interim President
Professor of Psychology and American Ethnic Studies

Statement concerning the minimum wage and students

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Today, a group of students came to Gerberding to express their disappointment that students were not included in the UW’s decision to bring all employees to Seattle’s $11-per-hour minimum wage that went into effect today. While I understand their disappointment, I want to clarify why we didn’t include students unilaterally in today’s action. Student fees pay for many of the student jobs on this campus. Before we commit to a policy that may increase expenses for all students or potentially eliminate some jobs in order to provide higher salaries for others, we need to consult with our students. That is our commitment to shared governance and important to our relationship with the students we serve over the long term. These consultations are under way and in a matter of weeks, not months, we’ll determine our path forward. We have a steadfast commitment on all of our campuses to providing flexible, meaningful work opportunities for students, a commitment we have demonstrated by adding hundreds of jobs over the past five years. Expect a final communication on this soon.

Ana Mari Cauce
Interim President
Professor of Psychology and American Ethnic Studies

Statement on proposed Senate budget

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While I am very pleased to see that the Senate budget not only provides most of the state funding needed to pay for its tuition reduction bill, and makes additional investments for the next biennium, there are some troubling aspects to the proposal. Rejection of our collective bargaining agreements means that thousands of our employees will not receive the wage increases they deserve. There are other troubling aspects to the proposal as well, including provisions dealing with health care benefits.

I am also disappointed in the Senate’s approach to funding our medical school in Spokane.  The $2.5 million appropriation is insufficient to support our existing 40 students much less increasing enrollment by another 20 students as we hope to do this fall to address the physician shortage in our state.

Ana Mari Cauce
Interim President
Professor of Psychology and American Ethnic Studies

Statement on proposed House budget

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I am pleased to see that the Washington state House budget begins the critical work of reinvesting in higher education for the benefit of our students and our state. The new funding for faculty and staff compensation, computer science enrollment expansion and medical residencies is critically important. The proposed budget in its entirety, however, may not be sufficient to keep tuition affordable and to fulfill our public commitment to deliver the innovations, discoveries, products and talented young people that our region needs. We must be about both access and excellence, and we will continue to stress that a robust state investment is critical.

We are also extremely pleased that the House budget proposal recognizes the critical importance of keeping the UW’s No. 1–ranked primary-care program in Spokane and of increasing our enrollment from 40 to 60 students per year. The transfer of $4.7 million in dedicated funding for our medical school from Washington State University to the UW will ensure that we can maintain and grow our medical education program to meet the critical physician workforce needs of the state.

Ana Mari Cauce
Interim President
Professor of Psychology and American Ethnic Studies