Presidential Blog

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.

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.

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.

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.

The key difference-maker for societies, economies, and universities in the 21^st-century, I am certain, is innovation.

Can we think in creative, productive, uncommon ways about how to solve problems and to bridge the divides—international, cultural, economic—that separate us?

At the University of Washington, we know that the ability to innovate is essential.

With this in mind, we embrace a spirit of experimentation in our UW research and teaching. We try new things, we sometimes fail on the road to success, we shoot for the moon. It is in these moments that we create new possibilities we would otherwise never imagine.

Much of our shooting for the moon relies on the investment the federal government has made over time in research at our nation’s universities.

To that end, President Obama’s fiscal year 2015 budget proposal is due next week, and Congress will then start the long process of authorizing and appropriating funds.

Today, a coalition of 14 important national business, higher education, and scientific organizations launched a campaign to urge Congress to “Close the Innovation Deficit” with strong federal investments in research and higher education.

The centerpiece of this campaign is a four-minute video that explains the direct link between basic research, economic growth, improved medical treatments, and national security; the risk that recent cuts to research pose to the United States’ role as the global innovation leader at a time when other nations are rapidly increasing their research investments; and the significant benefits that renewed investments in research would bring the country.

“Today’s action by the Washington Legislature was a vote of confidence in students and their importance to the future of our state,” University of Washington President Michael K. Young said of the Feb. 18 vote allowing high school graduates brought here illegally as children to be eligible for financial aid.

“It sends a strong message that an education should be available to absolutely everyone,” he said. “For years, our state has invested in these students’ success in our K-12 classrooms and in our communities. All students who work hard in school deserve an opportunity to go to college and have access to the financial resources to make it possible. Our Legislature has passed a bill that will have a transformative effect on our students, their families and their communities for many years to come.”

Dear Campus Colleagues,

Fifty years ago, in 1964, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his courageous and inspiring efforts in leading the civil rights movement.

The Nobel committee honored Dr. King for his commitment to nonviolence in the pursuit of equality, inclusivity, and opportunity in the United States. In particular, they noted his leadership, from the Montgomery bus boycotts in 1955 through the U.S. Congress’s landmark Civil Rights Act in 1964.

But Dr. King and the thousands who marched ahead of and along with him, and the millions who shared his vision, well knew that we still had many miles to go. Violence, discrimination, inequality, and injustice in thousands of ways remained commonplace. Today, thankfully, much has changed for the better, but in 2014 there remains still a great deal of work to do.

As a public university, we have a central role in ensuring equality, inclusivity, and opportunity. Our leadership is paramount. A pillar of the University of Washington’s pathway forward is and must always be providing access and opportunity for all who are qualified, regardless of background or circumstance. To this I am wholly and resolutely committed.  But this is not simply my commitment; this must be our collective commitment.

Dr. King’s words from his Nobel acceptance speech inspire us today:

[I]n the depths of my heart I am aware that this prize is much more than an honor to me personally. Every time I take a flight, I am always mindful of the many people who make a successful journey possible—the known pilots and the unknown ground crew. So you honor the dedicated pilots of our struggle who have sat at the controls as the freedom movement soared into orbit. You honor, once again, Chief Lutuli of South Africa, whose struggles with and for his people, are still met with the most brutal expression of man’s inhumanity to man. You honor the ground crew without whose labor and sacrifices the jet flights to freedom could never have left the earth. Most of these people will never make the headline and their names will not appear in Who’s Who. Yet when years have rolled past and when the blazing light of truth is focused on this marvelous age in which we live—men and women will know and children will be taught that we have a finer land, a better people, a more noble civilization—because these humble children of God were willing to suffer for righteousness’ sake.

As we honor Dr. King on the national holiday in his name on Monday, let us together commit anew to doing our part in creating a finer land, a better people, and a more noble civilization. This is our responsibility as members of one of the world’s great higher education communities.

Sincerely,

Michael K. Young