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UWTV broadcast Tuesday’s Town Hall with President Phyllis Wise and an archive is available here > |
Presidential Blog
Town Hall meeting about the UW budget, March 8
Dear Members of the UW Community:
There has been a good deal of media coverage recently about the possible impacts of significant state budget cuts at the UW. These stories are in response to a request we received from some of our state legislative leaders who wanted to know what state budget reductions would look like at our University at three levels for 2011-13: the biennial cut proposed by the Governor, or $189.8 million; the Governor’s proposed cut plus 15 percent, or $218 million; and the Governor’s proposed cut plus 30 percent, or $246 million. To put these biennial numbers in context, the UW’s current annual appropriation for FY11 is $307 million; without factoring in tuition increases for next year, the highest cut level of $246 million ($123 million/year) would reduce our current appropriation by 40 percent. We provided a thorough, detailed response to the legislators’ request, which you can read here.
To say that the impacts identified in our response are sobering is an understatement, to say the least. Our University is built on a foundation of state investment. State funding keeps the UW affordable and accessible to Washington’s sons and daughters. It helps pay for the costs for faculty who teach and mentor our students. It provides financial aid and access for students who otherwise couldn’t afford college. And it leverages more than $9 billion in economic impact and generates 70,000 jobs to help secure our state’s economic future. Without state funding and strategic solutions, everything is at risk. The opportunities. The economic impact. The future of our state.
As I talk to people throughout our University community, it’s clear that no one can remember a time quite as challenging as this. I understand that everyone has felt—and continues to feel—the pain of our budget challenges. But I want to remind you that this is not our first brush with tough times. The UW was founded during the Civil War, and we’ve weathered two world wars, the Great Depression, and numerous ups and downs in the economy since then. We’ve persevered through all of these things and more, and we’ve emerged as one of the best public research universities in the world. Going forward, our top priority will continue to be maintaining our quality. While there is no question that the next few years will be difficult, we will continue to stay true to our mission to provide the best possible learning experience for our students, and we will continue to position ourselves to address society’s most pressing problems through cutting-edge research and discovery. Essential to doing this is that we maintain our ability to recruit and retain the very best faculty and staff.
Our University and our state are at a critical point. As our state leaders work throughout the remainder of winter and the beginning of spring on the state budget, the UW is fully committed to working with them and our other partners across the state to solve our toughest challenges and to help our state thrive well into the future.
As we work through our own budget challenges at the UW, I want to reassure all of you that the processes we will use will be transparent and that everyone will have an opportunity to stay informed and involved. To this end, I will be holding a town hall meeting for the UW community on Tuesday, March 8, 2011. I will begin the meeting with a brief presentation about our budget situation and then will open the floor to questions. The meeting will be webcast live on UWTV.org. The logistical details are below.
- When: Tuesday, March 8, 2011
- Where: Kane Hall, Room 130
- Time: 4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
I hope you will join me and participate in this important discussion. Public higher education in our state is clearly at a crossroads. The decisions being made now will put us on a path that will not only carry us through the next few years, but will impact our children—and our children’s children—for years to come. I invite you to have your say in those decisions.
Sincerely,
Phyllis M. Wise
Interim President
Olympian newspaper calls for giving higher ed tuition authority to offset budget cuts
The Olympian newspaper, in an editorial, calls for giving the state’s universities the flexibility to make up budget shortfalls with higher tuition. The editorial points out that current proposals, if enacted, could mean that state funding of the UW has been cut by half in just three years.
UW describes potential effects of large budget cuts
In response to a request from legislative leaders, Interim President Phyllis Wise outlined the effect of budget cuts that were at the level of the governor’s proposed cuts (about $189 million) plus 15 or 30 percent. Those effects could include:
- Up to 500 fewer Washington residents in the freshman class
- Loss of up to 1,800 jobs on campus
- Annual tuition increases of 23 to 30 percent
Potential consolidation of two schools, as well as the loss of other degree programs
Increased time-to-degree of as much as three academic quarters, increasing a student’s tuition needs by $8,700
The Olympian described the potential effects as “troubling.” The Seattle Times called the scenario of cuts at the UW and elsewhere in higher education as “grim.”
Read Wise’s letter to the legislators here.
What is a college education worth?
The UW Office of External Affairs this morning released a document that looks at what a college education is worth for the citizens, community, employers, state and students. It says, for example, that college graduates can expected to earn twice as much as non-grads and that by 2018, 63% of available jobs in the U.S. are forecast to require at least some college education. See the document >>
Meeting the challenges of 2011
Dear Members of the UW Community:
As the fall quarter draws to a close and a new year approaches, I want to thank all of you for your continuing commitment to the excellence of our University. We all know about the serious impacts the economic downturn has had on our state and our UW community, and the certainty of further budget reductions ahead makes our financial challenges even more daunting. Yet the work being done by people across our campuses is not only enabling us to weather these turbulent times — it’s helping us to strengthen our foundation for the future. In her recent message to the UW community, Interim Provost Mary Lidstrom provided an update on the progress of two initiatives designed to help us meet the needs of the present while preparing for the long term. I want to take this opportunity to let you know my thoughts as we move forward.
In my first two months serving as president, I have spent a great deal of time talking with many people both inside and outside the University about the urgent issues facing us all. These conversations have reinforced to me the extensive scope and depth of our interconnections with the communities around us. They touch us in so many ways, and we in turn touch them in countless others. There is no doubt that we are partners in a shared future.
In that vein, I am committed to working as closely as possible in the coming weeks and months with the governor, legislators and other leaders from the community, business and education to address our current economic challenges with solutions that will serve our state well into the future. Washington’s public universities are essential to those solutions and to the long-term health of our state, and maintaining their quality must be a priority. While we recognize that we have entered a new funding environment for higher education in terms of our relationship with the state, it in no way changes our role as a public university. We will continue providing Washington’s citizens with the very best learning opportunities, transforming their lives through experiences in the classroom and outside the classroom, through community and global experiences, through firsthand research and discovery, and through engagement in the broadest sense.
Within our UW community, it is clear that our ongoing funding challenges have tapped the time, energy and resourcefulness of every unit and every person on our three campuses. As I talk to people throughout the University, however, I can’t help but come away feeling heartened and optimistic. That’s because it is equally clear that the focus of our community remains exactly where it should be: on our students at all stages of their learning. They are the reason we are here. They are the reason everyone is working so hard to maintain the excellence of the learning experience. And they are the reason the state of Washington will be successful in the future. By continuing to keep our students at the center of all we do at the UW, I’m confident that our University and our state will be able to overcome our challenges and come out all the better for it.
In case you missed it, our year-end video features some of our students sharing in their own words what their 2010 UW experience meant to them and what their dreams are for the coming year. I hope you will take a few moments to watch this inspirational and enjoyable video — I promise you won’t regret it.
Best wishes as we say goodbye to 2010 and prepare for the challenges and excitement of 2011.
Sincerely,
Phyllis M. Wise
Interim President
Trick-or-treaters visit UW Tower
Update about Nov. 18 football game
Dear Members of the UW Community:
As preparations for the November 18 football game against UCLA continue, some have questioned whether the disruption attendant to playing a game mid-week makes a statement about the University’s values (i.e., sports versus academics and research). While I certainly understand such a question, I want to restate that the core academic mission of the University is paramount and that we have approached this game by doing all we can to minimize the disruption to our academic and research programs, while recognizing that it cannot be eliminated entirely. The decision to play a mid-week game was made last April on the basis of the visibility a nationally televised game would bring to our University. Holding the game on a weekday actually costs the athletic department money since it must mitigate the impacts on our community. But it was thought the investment was worth the exposure for our programs.
Our University has not hosted a mid-week football game at Husky Stadium since 1939, so this has been a learning experience for us. We are finding out a great deal about what it takes to hold such a game. Any decisions about future football games that might be held on a weekday will be made only after wide consultation and with the benefit of all that we learn from this experience.
In the meantime, I want to tell you about some of the steps being taken to deal with parking on campus. The athletic department is chartering buses for 20,000 people who otherwise would drive to the game, and we have also negotiated to pay Metro to allow anyone with a UW ID to travel fare-free on Metro buses on November 18th.
With regard to those of you who have parking permits, most will be able to park in their regular spots on campus on November 18th. Some will be affected by the increased parking demand associated with the game, in particular those with permits for east campus. To help alleviate those impacts, 100 spaces have been allocated in the Central Parking Garage for faculty who are scheduled to teach afternoon classes and do not have the flexibility in their schedules to ride buses or use alternate means of transportation. The deans’ offices will be working to identify faculty in need of these spaces. In addition, there is some flexibility in the parking system to handle needs on a case by case basis, which may entail being assigned to a different parking lot for the day. Commuter Services has created a website as a central source for information about commuter options on November 18th, including a list of FAQs.
I apologize for the inconvenience this causes for many of you and hope that we can all work with those across campus who have been striving very hard to minimize the disruption to our University community. I greatly appreciate your cooperation and patience.
Sincerely,
Phyllis M. Wise
Interim President
2010 President’s Annual Address video
Interim President Phyllis Wise delivered the 2010 President’s Annual Address to the university community on Tuesday. Watch an archived Webcast of the event >
President Wise would like to thank members of the UW community for comments on her blog and says she will post specific responses in the next few days.
Also see a new website about a Two Years to Two Decades (2y2d) Initiative that looks at the long-term health and stature of the UW.
Awards
The following is a sampling of awards from the 2009-2010 academic year. It’s more than President Wise had time to include in her address, but is still by no means an exhaustive list of the many accomplishments by members of our UW community.
Continue reading “2010 President’s Annual Address video”
President Obama on campus Oct. 21
Dear Members of the University Community:
As some may have heard by now, President Barack Obama will visit the University of Washington campus on Thursday, Oct. 21, at noon for a rally in support of U.S. Sen. Patty Murray. This is, of course, a political event and not a University-sponsored visit. The event will take place in Hec Edmundson Pavilion. Rental of the facility and other associated costs are being paid by the Senator’s campaign. Details about the event and how to register to attend are available at http://www.pattymurray.com/home.
Having the president of the United States on our campus, even briefly, is a distinct honor. His visit will bring with it a certain amount of disruption of normal activities. Traffic around the city and campus will be impacted, especially in the area of Montlake Boulevard and the Pavilion. Security will also be tight. As you plan your activities for that day, please take into account the impact of this event on our surrounding community. Detailed information regarding street or building closures, changes to transit routes or other changes will be provided as those decisions are made in the coming days.
All UW offices will remain open as regularly scheduled on the day of the event. Classes, exams and other instructional activities will be held as usual. Staff wishing to attend the event must do so on their own time. If doing so involves taking leave from work for a portion of the day, approved leave will need to be arranged with your supervisor.
Political events may be held on campus under rules governing the use of University facilities. Such events give our community a chance to experience the political process firsthand and to hear from candidates running for office. The policy may be found at http://apps.leg.wa.gov/WAC/default.aspx?cite=478-136-030.
Sincerely,
Phyllis M. Wise
Interim President