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Impacts of the home football game on Thursday, Nov. 18

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Dear Members of the UW Community:

On Thursday, Nov. 18, starting at 5 p.m., the University will play its final home football game of the season against UCLA in Husky Stadium. A mid-week game is highly unusual and results from the University accepting an invitation last April from ESPN to televise the contest to a national audience. We accepted the invitation, but only after careful consideration of the impacts on the University and our community. It will be very challenging to have 70,000 spectators in the afternoon fill Husky Stadium, in addition to the 70,000 people who populate our University every day. It will also be an opportunity for a national audience to view our University and our team.

A great deal of planning has gone into developing a transportation plan to minimize the impact of the game on the academic and clinical programs going on that day. Our goal is to bring as many spectators as possible to the stadium using buses and alternative means of transportation and to have them arrive several hours prior to game time, thus minimizing interference with normal rush-hour traffic. Post-game traffic will occur after rush-hour congestion has subsided. The greatest impacts will be on campus parking, particularly in east campus, and our transportation office has been working hard to absorb the additional parking demand.

As part of the planning for this event, we would like to ask students, faculty and staff to consider alternative means of transportation on November 18 and to consider alternative work schedules when possible to help reduce the campus’ use of parking spaces and possibly reduce the number of people coming to campus. You will be receiving more information from transportation services and human resources with suggested alternatives and options for helping to manage traffic and parking on Nov. 18.

No amount of planning will totally eliminate the congestion we expect and the inconvenience it may cause for many of you. We apologize for this and ask for your cooperation and patience. We can all help to minimize the disruption and contribute to making the day a successful one for our University community.

Sincerely,

Phyllis M. Wise
Interim President

Scott Woodward
Director of Athletics

Welcome to the new academic year

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Dear Members of the UW Community:

Welcome to a new academic year at the University of Washington. The start of a new year inevitably brings with it a sense of excitement and expectation, as well as a number of changes. One significant change for our community is in the president’s office, where I am serving as president this year. I am deeply honored to have the opportunity to lead our University at this critical juncture.

Since the Board of Regents announced last July that they were appointing me to this position, I have taken every opportunity I can to talk with people both in and outside the University about what we must do to continue to be able to contribute to the well-being of our state. In the coming days, weeks, and months, I hope to have a chance to talk with many more of you.

The year ahead holds a number of challenges, not the least of which is our constrained state budget, including the 6.3% cut that the governor announced for all state agencies last month.

Information about what this latest cut means for specific units will be forthcoming in the next several weeks. The budget clearly is our most urgent issue, and Interim Provost Mary Lidstrom and I intend to do all we can to see that you have everything you need to continue the important work you do. We will be working tirelessly to convey the importance of protecting higher education funding in the next legislative session, focusing on the broad range of contributions the UW makes to Washington’s citizens and how we can be part of finding solutions to our state’s problems.

In all that we do, we need to be mindful that the decisions we make today about how we manage our resources will affect the kind of university we will be 20 years from now. We must move forward with key initiatives and opportunities that will help guide our University toward a sustainable future. One of these initiatives is Two Years to Two Decades, or 2y2d, which is designed to position the University 20 years from now to continue to attract the best faculty, students and staff and to solve the most critical challenges to society.

The UW presidential search is also moving forward with a series of stakeholder events scheduled for the fall. You can see the schedule of events and read about other details related to the search on the UW presidential search website.

I look forward to working with all of you to make the UW an even better place.

Sincerely,

Image of Phyllis Wise's signature
Phyllis Wise
Interim President

President’s annual address is Oct. 12

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Please join me for the Annual Address to the University Community:

• Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2010
• Kane Hall, Room 130
• 3:30 p.m.–4:30 p.m.
• Reservations are not required.

The event is open to the public. After the address, please join me at a reception in the Walker Ames Room.

This year’s address will be webcast live on UWTV.org and rebroadcast on UWTV. Prior to the event, I welcome you to post questions and comments on this blog.

I look forward to seeing you there,

Image of Phyllis Wise's signature
Phyllis Wise
Interim President

Farewell to Mark Emmert set for Sept. 27

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A special event to bid farewell to President Mark Emmert is set for Monday, Sept. 27, 1:30–3 p.m. at Sylvan Theater. The event will feature remarks by UW Board of Regents Chairman Herb Simon, President Emmert and Interim President Phyllis Wise, followed by a reception. No RSVP is necessary.

More budget cuts ahead

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Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff:

The news today about the worsening condition of the state’s budget is sobering. It reminds us that the worst is not over and that the immediate future — the current fiscal year and the 2011-13 biennium — will bring further reductions in our state funding. State tax revenue collections continue to decline. This means the state budget for this year will not balance, necessitating the Governor’s action to order further across-the-board reductions in state budgets, including ours. And the decreased revenue projection for the 2011-13 biennium means that the state will face an even larger budget deficit of approximately $4.0 billion, resulting in more reductions next biennium.
Continue reading “More budget cuts ahead”

President honored by CityClub

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UW President Mark Emmert was recognized today by CityClub for his contributions to building civic knowledge, connection, trust and action in the greater community. Emmert was praised for championing the University of Washington’s position as a world leader in environmental research, education and practices. Gov. Christine Gregoire declared June, 14, 2010, to be “Mark Emmert Day” in the state of Washington. Read the proclamation

TVW airs interview with President Emmert

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TVW’s Inside Olympia aired an hourlong interview with UW President Mark Emmert on June 10, 2010. Issues ranged from his reasons for taking the NCAA job to advice for his replacement. He also addressed budget cuts, the UW’s relationship with the Legislature, serving on corporate boards and much more.

President Emmert on TVW’s Inside Olympia

Our economic impact on Washington state

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The UW is a vitally important economic engine for the state of Washington and plays a crucial role in keeping our region competitive in the global economy. Yet many Washingtonians don’t realize the full extent of the impact our University has on their own financial well-being and quality of life. To help us analyze the depth and breadth of economic benefits the UW brings to our state and our citizens, we recently enlisted the services of the nationally recognized independent consulting firm Tripp-Umbach. The results of their study surprised even us. Consider these findings:

  • UW operations have an overall economic impact of $9 billion annually. Almost half of this impact comes from UW Medicine.
  • UW operations have an overall employment impact of 70,000 full-time jobs in Washington, driving about 2 percent of total state employment.
  • In the last 10 years, the UW has created more than 7,500 new jobs primarily paid from non-state sources—an increase of 26 percent.
  • The UW directly and indirectly generates almost $600 million per year in tax revenues for state and local governments. That’s about twice what the UW receives each year in state appropriations.
  • For every $1 of state funds invested in the UW, $22 is returned to the state.

Continue reading “Our economic impact on Washington state”

UW president to head NCAA

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UW President Mark Emmert has been selected to head the NCAA. The announcement was made today in Indianapolis. He is expected to assume his duties no later than Nov. 1.

“It is with very mixed emotions that I am writing to let you know that today I have accepted the presidency of the National Collegiate Athletic Association,” he said in an e-mail to UW students, faculty and staff. “I am proud of the work we have done together and absent this truly extraordinary opportunity would have been happy continuing as president for many years to come.”

Announcement from President Emmert

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Dear UW students, faculty, and staff:

It is with very mixed emotions that I am writing to let you know that today I have accepted the presidency of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.  When I came home to the University of Washington in 2004, I knew there was no other university that I would want to be president of, and that remains true today after the six wonderful years DeLaine and I have enjoyed serving our alma mater.  I am proud of the work we have done together and absent this truly extraordinary opportunity would have been happy continuing as president for many years to come.

The NCAA is one of the nation’s most influential collegiate organizations.  Leading it offers a chance to shape the educational and athletic experiences of over 400,000 young people and to work with more than 1,200 universities, colleges and conferences to make intercollegiate sports a competitive, healthy, integral part of the growth and maturation of student-athletes. It also presents a new set of challenges for me. I am very excited about taking on these challenges and the opportunity to work with so many university and college presidents.

To my friends, colleagues, and students of the University of Washington, I offer a special word of thanks and appreciation. It has been my honor to serve you.  I am very proud of what we have accomplished together these past six years.  Our university is a special place–by any measure one of the world’s leading research universities–because of all of you and the work you perform every day.  I cannot thank you enough for your dedication, energy and enthusiasm.  It is never a good time to leave one great job for another.  I relish the challenges at the NCAA but will always love my time here.  DeLaine and I always have been, and always will be, Huskies for life.

Sincerely,

Mark Emmert
President