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Thoughts on the Legislative session

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Going into the legislative session, one of our primary goals was to protect the state funding increase the Legislature provided last session for the 2013–15 biennium. Our funding was largely protected, with some small but important additional investments in key areas, a $1 million permanent allocation to fund core laboratory expenses in our Institute for Protein Design, and one-time funding of $400,000 to examine the feasibility of bringing legal education back to Tacoma at the UW Tacoma campus. We were also able to protect current ongoing projects funded by the state’s Life Sciences Discovery Fund, though the program itself is slated to be eliminated after the current contracts have ended.

Preserving funding in our budget at its current level importantly enables us to keep resident undergraduate tuition at its current rate and for the second year in a row with no tuition increase while moving forward on reinvestments in compensation and academic services.

Other important legislation affecting education that we strongly supported included the passage of the Real Hope Act, which for the first time makes state financial aid available to low-income undocumented students who were brought to this country by their parents and have grown up here. This exceptional pool of talented students will now have—as the name of the legislation suggests—real hope to become even greater contributors to our community and world.

Also important to note was the Legislature’s passage of a higher education efficiencies bill. The bill provides our state colleges and universities with additional flexibility in several administrative areas, allowing us to operate more effectively and efficiently. It is estimated to save the University of Washington more than $700,000 annually.

Many thanks to all our dedicated students, faculty, staff and alumni across all three campuses who stayed active and engaged on behalf of the UW during this legislative session. I visited Olympia multiple times over the course of 60 days, and each time I witnessed the positive impact of your hard work and advocacy on behalf of the University.

Also, I want to give special acknowledgment to our UW ’14 class of legislative interns (shown below). It was a privilege to meet and get to know you. I appreciate your commitment to public service and wish you well as you complete your UW studies!

 

Photo of President Young with UW students who served as legislative interns
President Young (front row, center) with UW students from all three campuses who interned in Olympia during the 2014 legislative session

Cherry trees on the Quad in bloom

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Japanese Map Cherry Blossom Spread

The University of Washington Seattle campus has many spectacular views and settings, and my favorite of all is the Quad in early spring when the cherry trees are in bloom. Luckily for all Huskies, that happens to be right now! The first time I saw cherry blossoms, I was living in Japan, and I immediately appreciated their beauty and significance as a national symbol. And my affinity for Sakura (Japanese for cherry blossoms) has grown exponentially ever since.

Much to my delight, the April 2014 issue of a Japanese magazine, Home Pictorial, has stunning photos of our cherry blossoms in a feature story about Sakura in the western U.S. UW Arborist Sara Shores is mentioned.

If you’re interested in learning more about our cherry trees, cared for by UW gardener Chris Holmer, visit our Grounds Management website and our Cherry Trees on the Quad webpage.

Tremendous pride in our student-athletes

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University of Washington Undergraduate Medalist Reception
Megan Kufeld

Student-athletes are a tremendous source of pride for our institution. I think being a student and an athlete is truly incredible—I am impressed by their abilities to manage the intensive practice and game schedules in addition to their academic responsibilities and deadlines.

The UW student-athletes have a strong record of success in graduation—especially in men’s tennis and women’s golf and volleyball—rivaled by only a few other Pac-12 schools. As I head to a meeting with my counterparts in the Pac-12 Conference today, I will carry with me that pride as well as stories of our remarkable athletes like UW Women’s Soccer goalkeeper Megan Kufeld, to whom just last week I had the great pleasure of presenting a Presidential Medal for her outstanding academic achievements. Go Huskies!

 

Impressive efficiency gains at the UW

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It was a beautiful day on the UW Tacoma campus. At the UW Board of Regents meeting there today, I was excited to share some fantastic metrics about the University’s efficiency.

Efficiency is one of the topics foremost on my mind every day in terms of providing quality education for the lowest cost to as many students as possible. In an effort to control administrative costs, the UW’s Finance & Facilities department, in 2010, began learning and instituting Lean processes, a method of streamlining systems by involving every employee who has a role in the system, identifying the goals, and encouraging ideas for how to best meet them. Since implementing Lean, Finance & Facilities has realized substantial cost savings and cost avoidance through much more efficient administrative processes. I’m proud that we have created a culture where we are continually striving to improve our work and use our resources most effectively.

Helping UW students prepare for life after graduation

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Amid the national debate on the value of a college education, the UW is working hard to improve the Husky Student Experience in ways that help our students prepare to succeed after graduation, in careers and in life, even as the world is changing rapidly around us.

Our first report in a series about the UW’s efforts, Helping UW Students Prepare for Life after Graduation: It Takes All of Us, stresses the following points:

A UW education is a major … and more.

For UW graduates to be ready for a complex, demanding world, UW students need intellectually challenging majors, and they need broad skills to translate that knowledge into the workplace.

It takes a whole campus to support student success.

Ongoing conversations across all three campuses show a growing consensus on the importance of integrating curricular and co-curricular learning so students graduate with a major … and more. This will help students build the intellectual and collaborative skills that enable personal success and civic engagement.

We’re well under way, but there’s more to be done.

Many UW groups and individuals already excel at meeting these goals; this report shares some of their stories. However, we must do more. Helping our students prepare for the world—and prepare to change the world—is our shared work. Indeed, it is our responsibility.

Reading this report will provide you with a deeper understanding about why this is a priority and what our goals are to prepare students to contribute to a healthy society and vibrant economy and to live a productive life.

 

Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor visits campus

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Sotomayor campus visit
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor poses for a picture with Provost Ana Mari Cauce, President Michael Young and Vice Provost Ed Taylor.

Since its inception 225 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court’s role remains vital to our founding fathers’ vision of a tri-partite and balanced (as in ‘checked’) government—of the people, by the people and for the people. The justices who have been appointed and confirmed by the other two branches of government over the past two centuries stand as testaments to the wisdom and steadfastness of the original conception of the court.

Yesterday, the University of Washington was delighted to host the Honorable Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. We were honored to have her here.

As a younger man fresh out of law school, I had the privilege to serve as a clerk for William Rehnquist when he was an Associate Justice, and I had a front-row view of the remarkable workings of the Court. Every single time the Court issues a ruling, the justices set, affirm, or challenge the trajectory of America, and in turn, their decisions impact the world. Being one of the nine places an enormous burden on the individual members of the Court.

Justice Sotomayor’s story is an inspiration to all of us. When named to the Court in 2009, she became only the third woman in its history and the first of Hispanic origin. Sotomayor’s personal story is the focus of her book, My Beloved World, which was released in 2013 and offers an openness uncommon for a sitting justice.

One of Justice Sotomayor’s remarkable abilities is to communicate about the law and the Court’s decisions in ways that make both accessible to a wide range of audiences, from the scholarly legal community to undergraduate students to preschoolers. Yes, preschoolers: She twice appeared on Sesame Street in 2012, including this appearance about the Supreme Court.

To enrich the UW with Justice Sotomayor’s visit, Undergraduate Academic Affairs facilitated the development of seminars and book groups around campus. The School of Law, the Evans School of Public Affairs, and the departments of Political Science and Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies offered courses, seminars and reading groups, each grounded in a reading from Justice Sotomayor’s memoir. In addition, several hundred undergraduates received a free copy of My Beloved World so that they could read the story of this remarkable woman.

A favorite perk of my job

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One of the great pleasures and privileges of being president of the University of Washington is getting to meet remarkable students. Yesterday I was honored to pay tribute to three truly outstanding undergraduate students: sophomore Jeffrey Lee, junior Megan Kufeld and senior Connor Lynch. They were selected as our 2013–2014 Presidential Medalists, based on their high scholastic standing and difficulty of coursework at the end of the 2013 school year.

These students’ contributions to the UW aren’t just limited to the scholastic. They lead diverse, well-rounded lives outside of class too! Jeffrey is a skilled amateur photographer, Megan is the starting goalkeeper for the UW women’s soccer team and Connor shares a passion for skateboarding with his brother (a 2013 UW chemistry graduate).

I invite you to learn more about these students and their ambitions for making the world a better place.

2013–2014 Presidential Medalists: sophomore Jeffrey Lee, junior Megan Kufeld and senior Connor Lynch.
2013–2014 Presidential Medalists: sophomore Jeffrey Lee, junior Megan Kufeld and senior Connor Lynch.

Civil rights pilgrimage

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The Civil Rights Movement in the mid-20th century is an important chapter in our country’s history. The stories of courageous acts and sacrifices made to advance equality for all citizens are a mix of inspiration and oppression, agony and elation, and personify the struggles and victories during that time.

Indeed, the stories I heard directly from the families who were involved in the Brown vs. Board of Education case when I served on the 50th Anniversary Commission over a decade ago are fresh in my memory, and I have looked at the world differently ever since.

A group of UW supporters, students, friends and faculty are experiencing some other civil rights stories firsthand. UW Department of Communication Chair and Professor David Domke is leading the group to visit various landmarks and meet with individuals involved on a pilgrimage through the Deep South. To read about their journey, visit their blog.

The group visited Smith Hall (pictured below), where Ms. Autherine Lucy — the first black student at the University of Alabama — attended her first class.

Front of Smith Hall at University of Alabama
Smith Hall, where Ms. Autherine Lucy attended her first class at the University of Alabama.

Amazing things happening in the U-District

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The University District Partnership is an organization that is poised to set this district apart.  Last week I had the good fortune to address this group as they celebrated all the work we have accomplished together over the past two years.

The University District Partnership includes the UW, U District businesses, residents, non-profits, and faith community and opinion leaders to cooperatively develop and manage this part of the city the UW Seattle campus calls home.

Watercolor painting of possible Brooklyn Ave NE development
This artist’s depiction shows possible development on Brooklyn Ave NE, looking south from NE 43rd St. It includes preservation of buildings’ character, new development and green street features. Photo: Stephanie Bower

The U District is a vibrant, innovative and diverse district rich in history and ideas. Cultivating this type of creativity is what the U District Partnership will do by bringing more businesses to the Ave, promoting innovation and attracting start-ups, making the area clean and safe and creating housing that is attractive to not only students but to our faculty and staff and others who want to live closer to where they work.

City Council President Tim Burgess, who is 100% behind the work of the Partnership, also attended the event and introduced many city department heads who have been critical to the efforts to date. I am so proud of this community, city and the university partnership.