Category: Presidential messages

Dear Members of the University Community:

As we enter the final week of spring quarter, it is hard to believe my first year at the University is nearly over. I look forward to congratulating this year’s graduates at my first UW commencement ceremonies. The year has moved very fast, and much has happened. We have many things to celebrate, from two Rhodes Scholars to our newest MacArthur Fellow to our three new inductees to the National Academy of Sciences, and so much more. In this regard, it has been a typically exceptional year. But there have also been immense challenges, most notably our budgetary struggles and our rapidly increasing tuition levels. For me, it has also been a year of successive epiphanies, as I discovered remarkable students and awe-inspiring faculty. The people I have met have been overwhelming in their accomplishments and success, and the programs to which I have been introduced have been among the most vibrant and creative I have encountered anywhere.

A few weeks ago, Provost Cauce wrote to you about our efforts to stabilize our budget in this coming fiscal year 2012–13. With a slowly recovering economy, the Legislature seems prepared to stop the slide in state support for higher education and to support greater operational flexibility. Meanwhile, we have used the recession to re-evaluate our own administrative costs, encourage greater efficiency, and implement a budget system that is transparent and encourages accountability. All of these factors should help us slow significantly the rise in cost of tuition and begin to make strategic reinvestment in the quality of our educational mission.

We hope this is the beginning of another era of vibrancy and dynamism at the UW when we can put behind us the herculean effort to hold our university together and make it through the Great Recession and its immediate aftermath. It may be too soon to pronounce with certainty that the worst is over, but I believe it is. We now need to turn our focus to the future.

Our people are the University’s most precious resource. The University has one of the most outstanding faculties in the world, as evidenced by our prominence in international rankings of world universities, as well as by our remarkable record of success in competing for research funding. For those who are relatively new to the UW, it is worth pointing out again that every year since 1974, the University of Washington has been the top public university in America in competing for federal funds for research. Among all universities—public and private—we have been in the top five every year since 1969 and in recent years have been second only to Johns Hopkins. This is a remarkable record of success, and it helps shape the research-intensive environment in which our students learn. It is also from my perspective the single most telling fact about the quality of this faculty and our support staff. We must do all we can to ensure that this quality remains among the best anywhere in the world, and that will require retaining and attracting talent and ensuring our people are fairly compensated for the extraordinary work they do. I want to assure the entire community this is my absolute top priority going forward as we plan for the 2013–15 biennium.

We also need to resume making strategic investments in programs and developing new capabilities to engage the world’s biggest, most complex challenges. Many of these opportunities invite broad interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches—exactly what this university is exceptional at. We must redeploy resources and restore our capacity to respond to opportunities and keep this university moving forward in expanding knowledge and solving problems. And as we do so, we must always—always—strive for only the very highest quality. This is what makes us distinctive, and we must not let the difficulties of the recent past blur our focus on quality. Quality will be the first thing we invest in and the thing we will not sacrifice. This is the value that has guided and sustained the University of Washington for a century and a half, and it will continue to be the true north on our compass for the future.

Finally, we must maintain our deep commitment to access and opportunity for our students. We are rightly proud of having one of the most diverse student bodies in the nation. This diversity undergirds our excellence and ensures the high quality of what we do. The fact that thirty percent of our freshmen this year were the first in their families to go to college reflects our values to make higher education accessible to anyone capable of doing the work, regardless of economic circumstance or cultural heritage. More than a fourth of our freshmen from Washington are Pell Grant–eligible Husky Promise students who pay no tuition. This year, we were also able to provide additional grant aid to some 2,000 lower middle–income students. For all of our students, we need to get back to more modest and predictable increases in tuition. We must also creatively and aggressively develop ways to ensure that financial aid is available in some useful form to everyone who needs it. Keeping this university accessible to all is part of our DNA and lies at the heart of our being a great public university. We remain firmly committed to that mission.

It has been an eventful year, one I hope represents a transition point from the constraints of the past few years to a more expansive and innovative future, a future I very much look forward to sharing with you.

Have a great summer—whether you have a long break or not—and see you back here in the fall.

With best regards and much thanks for all you do to make this such an extraordinary university.

Sincerely,

Michael K. Young

“I’ve had the privilege of getting to know Charlie Earl only since I arrived in Washington in July. It is clear to me what an important role he has played in our state’s community college system, and it became immediately apparent what an exceptional collaborative partner the four-year institutions had in him. He has been a strong advocate for the community colleges and for smooth articulation between them and the four-year universities. He’s been great to work with. We wish him a very joyful retirement.”

On behalf of generations of students, faculty and staff at the University of Washington, I want to express our deep gratitude to Congressman Dicks for his lifetime of service to the citizens of Washington and especially for his unwavering support over the many years he served in Congress for higher education and his alma mater. His service to his constituents and his knowledgeable commitment to education have benefited countless numbers of people in the Northwest and beyond, especially his staunch support for protecting the environment and conducting research to understand it better. He also was one of the early supporters of establishing the University of Washington in Tacoma. He has been a great friend to this university and a special alumnus in whose accomplishments as a public servant we take great pride. It is hard to imagine Washington’s Congressional delegation without him. If ever the phrase ‘well-deserved’ applies to a retirement announcement, this is certainly one of them.

University of Washington President Michael K. Young issued a statement today about President Barack Obama’s budget, saying:

“The president’s commitment to expanding research funding in his 2013 budget to spur our nation’s innovation is a critical investment in our nation’s future and one we at the University of Washington fully support. The partnership between the federal government and our nation’s research universities in funding and conducting basic and applied research has fueled innovation for 60 years and propelled the U.S. to the forefront of the world’s economies. It is crucial, especially at this point in time, that this partnership remain vital and productive. We warmly applaud the president’s initiatives in this regard.

“We are also very pleased that the president is maintaining support for federal student financial aid through Pell grants and federal work-study programs. This aid is crucial to helping students afford a college education, particularly when states have been struggling to support higher education, forcing tuition to rise. It is important for states to reinvest in their colleges and universities, as well as for universities to continue to operate as efficiently as possible. College affordability remains one of the hallmarks of American higher education and one of the chief paths to opportunity and success. We are grateful for the president’s recognition of this reality and his support of students, especially in these difficult times.”

Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff:

The weather last week made a normally challenging quarter even harder. Losing three days from a total of 47 instructional days in the quarter has a real impact. Unlike K–12 schools, we do not have the luxury of adding make-up days at the end of the quarter. We know there is an effect upon all of our programs, especially our instructional ones, and we understand those lost days will be difficult to recover. We know that some faculty have been placing lecture PowerPoint presentations or classnotes on websites and/or engaging in online discussions with students (at least during times that power was available). More than a few mentoring sessions have happened over the phone or on Skype. We appreciate your dedication, especially under tough conditions, and are confident you will all continue to find creative ways to minimize the impact on student learning. We will be talking with students and instructors in the days ahead to assess which efforts worked best so that we can disseminate and facilitate best practices along these lines in the future.

Deciding to suspend operations is, of course, a decision not taken lightly. We weigh the effect upon the academic program against the risk to public safety of traveling in dangerous weather conditions, and as you might expect, we come down on the side of safety. Many of you live in close proximity and walk to and from your classes and places of work. Many commute from long distances. We gather as much information as we can about road conditions, public transportation capabilities, weather forecasts, as well as the condition of our campuses before arriving at a decision to suspend activities. As each day went by, we wanted not to have to suspend, but the weather just did not cooperate. Our local topography makes the challenge even harder. People who grew up in winter climes in the Midwest, for instance, gain a fuller appreciation of our hills and valleys, and how even relatively small amounts of snow and ice can turn a winter wonderland into a winter nightmare.

Many in jobs that are considered “essential” made their way into work to keep the University functional. These include all the staff in our medical centers, which do not have the ability to pause for the weather, to staff in our residence halls who regardless of the weather must provide meals for our 6,000 students living there, to those in our facilities divisions who kept the power on and who worked to near-exhaustion to get the campuses ready for our return. To all of them and many others who braved the weather, thank you for your service.

Let’s hope our adventure with nature this winter is over, and we’ve seen the last of disruptive storms. A little meteorological calm in our lives would be wonderful.

Sincerely,

Michael K. Young	Ana Mari Cauce
President	Provost & Executive Vice President

Dear Members of the University Community:

At the half-way point of my first year at the UW, there are still daily revelations of how great this University is and what that greatness is built upon. The more I look inside the campus, the more I see extraordinary, energized students and faculty applying their talents to expand and share human knowledge. The more I venture outside, the more I find alumni, donors, legislators, and private citizens who treasure the contributions the UW makes to their lives and to the good of the world.

As part of my discovery, I am increasingly impressed to see that the remarkable drive, inquisitiveness, and ambition of our faculty, staff, and students are tempered by a deep, pervasive respect for the rules and societal standards that define the right way to conduct our work. Such steadfast adherence to ethical principles is far from universal, nor can we take it for granted. Indeed, the news of the past year left us with far too many examples of the lasting harm done by malicious and careless individuals, whose acts were sometimes extended by the inaction of those who might have spoken up or intervened. For that matter, our protracted economic slump is rooted in a widespread, unchecked disregard for responsible financial practices. We have seen prominent public officials caught behaving unethically and recklessly. Persons entrusted with academic, administrative, and athletic responsibilities at institutions of higher education have been found to have actively betrayed that trust — or to have stood by passively allowing the destructive behavior to continue.

In contrast, it is clear to me that the University of Washington’s century and a half of success has been built on a strong foundation of integrity. When problems have been discovered, they have been dealt with promptly and appropriately, as one would hope. Overall, the UW has nurtured a culture of responsible conduct, which has sustained our perennial success in attracting scholars and administrators who share a visceral inclination to act honorably. This institutional legacy is certainly one of the reasons I am proud to be among you.

Having inherited such values, one of our duties is to periodically renew our commitment to maintain these high expectations of ourselves and of one another. To that end, I hope you will join me in resolving to make 2012 another year of hard work in the service of education, research, and public service, carried out with the highest standards of integrity. This is the one certain path to continued pride in our individual and collective accomplishments.

Best wishes for a New Year filled with discovery and prosperity.

Sincerely,

Michael K. Young

Dear Faculty, Staff, and Students:

It is with great pleasure that I write to you today to identify Dr. Ana Mari Cauce as my preferred candidate for University Provost. As a long-time member of the UW faculty and as Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, Ana Mari is, of course, well known to many in our University community. She is a distinguished scholar and a seasoned leader. Her emergence through this exclusively internal search strongly confirms my initial belief that a dedicated and talented provost could be found within the existing faculty of this great institution.

As the penultimate step in this selection process, I will be working with Ana Mari to set up one or more opportunities for members of the University community to hear her discuss her plans as our chief academic officer, to ask questions, and to share with me any feedback you would like me to consider. This public process will take place prior to any formal confirmation of this appointment.

Many of you are aware that as the primary means of public participation in this selection process I had intended to rely on the broad composition of the Provost Search Committee—comprising faculty, staff, and students—and its solicitation of ideas from all of you. And the committee took this duty very seriously, conducting a University-wide survey and holding fifteen public meetings across our three campuses to hear from faculty, staff, and students on the qualities they hoped to see in our new provost. The committee spent hundreds of hours listening to the views of members of our community.

The extent to which provost finalists are made public, if at all, has varied over the history of the UW and continues to be handled in a variety of ways by the UW’s world-class peers. For this strictly internal search, I felt that the advantages of the open identification of one or more finalists were outweighed by the prospect of losing good candidates. I have, however, recently received a number of messages from faculty—many of them quite thoughtful—suggesting that the faculty at large at least be given a chance to review and comment on my preferred choice for this important position. Recognizing that they are offered with the University’s best interests in mind, I have taken these suggestions to heart and decided to create the additional public step I have described above. I trust it will add value to this process and help put the new Provost in the best position to undertake her duties.

Finally, I am deeply grateful to the Search Committee for its hard work and diligence in assessing the many qualified candidates that came to its attention and for enabling us to move ahead so swiftly to fill this leadership position during this challenging time. I also appreciate those of you who took the time to offer me your considered views and thoughts on the best approach to completing this process.

Sincerely,

Michael K. Young